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PROCEEDINGS 


OF  THE 


First  National  Conference  on 
Race  Betterment 

January  8,  9,  10,  11.  12,  1914 
BATTLE  CREEK,  MICHIGAN 


PUBUSHED  BY  THE  RACE  BETTERMENT  FOUNDATION 


EDITED  BY  THE  SECRETARY 


r"To  be  a  good  animal  is  the  first  requisite   to] 
success  in  life,  and  to  be  a  Nation  of  good  animals  I 


success  in  life,  and  to  be  a  Nation  of  good  animals  ( 

prosperity." 
Herbert  Spencer. 


\   is  the  first  condition  of  national  prosperity."  | 


CONTENTS 


Purpose  of  the  Conference xi 

OflBcers    xi 

Central  Committee 


xu 

A  Partial  List  of  Organizations  Represented xiii 

Local  Cooperating-  Organizations   xvi 

Addresses  of  Welcome— 

Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg 1 

Hon.  John  W.  Bailey   3 

PRESIDENT'S   ADDRESS 

The  Basic  Principles  of  Race  Betterment 

President  Stephen  Smith,  M.D 5-22 

STATISTICAL  STUDIES 

The  Significance  of  a  Declining  Death  Rate 

Frederick  L.  Hoffman 23-66 

The  Causes  of  the  Declining  Birth  Rate 

Prof.  J.  McKeen  Cattell 67-72 

The  Need   of  Thorough   Birth   Registration   for  Race  Bettennent 

Dr.  Cressy  L.  Wilbur  72-78 

Differential  Fecundity 

Prof.  Walter  F.  Willeox 79-89 

GENERAL  INDIVIDUAL  HYGIENE 

The  Importance  of  Frequent  and  Thorough  Medical  Examinations 
of  the  Well 

Dr.  Victor  C.  Vaughan 90-96 

Euthenics  and  Its  Founder 

Mrs.   Melvil  Dewey    96-104 

The  Relation  of  Physical  Education  to  Race  Bettennent   (Abstract 
of  address) 

Dr.  D.  A.  Sargent  104-106 

Apparent  Irierease  m  Degenerative  Diseases 

Elmer  E.  Rittenhouse 106-113 

Discussion 

Prof.  Maynard  M.  Metcalf  (Race  Degeneration) 113 

Some  Suggestions  for  a  More  Rational  Solution  of  the  Tuberculosis 
Problem  in  the  United  States 
Dr.  S.  Adolphus  Knopf ..,.:.    113-136 

V 


vi  KlKiST   NATTOXAIi   CONPERKNCE   ON    RiVCE   BETTKRMBNT 

Discussion 

Prof.  Robert  James  Sprague    (Wonieu's  Work  in  the  Opeii 

Air) 136 

The  Prevention  of  Arteriosclerosis 

Dr.  Louis  Faus:eres  Bishop   137-139 

Hookworm  Disease 

Dr.  Lillian  South  139-142 

Disease  and  Its  Prevention 

Dr.  Guilford  H.  Sumner 142-167 

Function  of  the  Dentist  in  Race  Bettennent 

C.  N.  Johnson,  D.D.S 157-160 

Unbiological  Habits 

Dean  William  W.  Hasting-s 161-166 

The  Increase  of  Insanity 

Dr.  James  T.  Searcy 167-169 

Discussion 

Prof.  Walter  P.  Willcox  169-170 

Deterioration  of  The  Civilized  Woman 

Dr.  Richai-d  Root  Smith 170-175 

Old  Age 

President  Smith   176-170 

Service 

Acting  Chairman  Rev.  Charles  C.  Creegan 179-lSO 

ALCOHOL  AND  TOBACCO 

The  Effect  of  Alcohol  on  Longevity 

Arthur  Hunter 181-192 

Alcohol— What  Shall  We  Do  About  It? 

Dr.  Henry  Smith  Williams 192-197 

Discussion 

Dr.  Amanda  D.  Holcomb  (The  Sacrifice  of  Boys  and  Girls)  197 
Daniel  A.  Poling  (The  Worst  Diy  Town  vs.  The  Best  Wet 

Town)   198-200 

JPres.  E.  G.  Lancaster  (Proportionate  State  Consumption  of 

*      Alcohol)    200 

Edward  Bunnell  Phelps  (Caution  in  Use  of  Statistics) 200-201 

Dr.  Charles  G.  Pease  (Expedients  in  Violation  of  Principle)  201-202 
Dr.  Heni-y  Smith  Williams   (The  Rising  Tide  of  Alcohol 

Consumption)    202-203 

Prof.  Robert  James  Sprague  (Licensing  Light  Drinlcs) ....  203-205 

'               Mrs.  J.  L.  Higgins  (The  "Booze  Special")  205-206 

George  B.  Peak  (The  Saloon  and  the  Tax-Payer) 207-208 

Mrs.  Maud  Glassner  (A  "High  Class"  Saloon) 208-209 

Melvil  Dewey  (A  League  of  Publishers) 210 


Dr.  Edith  B.  Lowry   (Soothing  Synips  and  Alcohol  Crav- 
ing)       211 

Dr.  James  T.  Searcy  (Prohibition  and  Dnig  Consumjjtion ) .     211-213 
Frederick  L.  Hoffman  (International  Committee  on  Liquor)  213 

Mrs.  Charles  Kimball  and  Elizabeth  Hewes  Tilton  (Alcohol 

Posters)    213-222 

Tobacco  A  Race  Poison 

Dr.  Daniel  Lichty 222-232 

Discussion 

Miss  Lucy  Page  Gaston  (The  Cigarette)    232-234 

Dr.  Amanda  D.  Holeomb  (The  Cigarette-Smoking  Hero  of 

Fiction)     23;'3 

S.  S.  McClure  (Magazine  Advertising  of  Tobacco)   235 

Melvil  Dewey  (A  League  of  Employers)   236-238 

Dr.  Charles  G.  Pease  (The  Non-Smokers'  Protective  League 

of  America)    238-240 

CHILD  LIFE 
The  Bad  Boy 

Hon.   Jacob  A.   Riis    241-250 

The. Delinquent  Child 

Judge  Ben  B.  Lindsey 250-202 

The  Dependent  Child 

Dr.  Gerti-ude  E.  Hall    262-265 

Education  for  Parenthood 

Dr.  Lydia  A .  DeVilbiss 265-272 

Better  Babies 

Robbins  Gilnian    272-278 

Discussion 

Edward  Bminell  Phelps  (Baby  Saving)   278-279 

Dr.  E.  G.  Lancaster  (Adolescence)   279-280 

Dr.  Miller  (The  American  Institute  of  Child  Life) 280-282 

SEX  QUESTIONS 

Public  Repression  of  the  Social  Evil 

Graham  Taylor 283-288 

Discussion 

Dr.  S.  Adolphus  Knopf  (Scattering  Prostitution)   288-289 

Graham  Taylor  (Vice  and  Mental  Defect)   289 

Dr.  James  T.  Searcy  (Race  Degenerates) 290 

Dr.  S,  Adolphus  Knopf  ("Waverly  House")    290 

Dr.  Charles  G.  Pease  (The  Florence  Crittenton  Mission) .  .  291 

Miss  Lucy  Page  Gaston  (Prostitution  and  the  Cigarette) .  .  291-292 

Dr.  Luther  H.  Gulick  (The  Girl  Who  Goes  Right) 292-294 


Vlll  FIRST  NATIONAL  CONFERENCE  ON   RACE  BETTERMENT 

Prof.  Samuel  Dickie  (The  Single  Standard) 294-295 

Dr.  Amanda  D.  Holcomb  (The  Boy's  Temptations)    295-29G 

Dr.  Luther  H.  Gulick  (Real  Moanini--  of  the  Doiil^le  Stand- 
ard)     296-297 

Mrs.  D.  W.  Haydock  (Educating-  the  Child)   297-29S 

Mrs.  F.  F.  Lawrence  (The  Americixn  Mother)    29S 

Prof.  Robert  James  Sprague  (Vocational  Education) 298-300 

H.  A.  Burgess  (Use  of  Newspapers)   300 

The  Social  Evil  (A  special  address  to  women) 

Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg 300-304 

Venereal  Disease  (A  special  address  to  men) 

F.  O.  Clements 304-311 

A  Man's  Problem   (A  special  address  to  women) 

Dr.  J.  N.  Hurty 311-318 

A  Woman's  Problem  (A  special  address  to  women) 

Dr.  Carolyn  Geisel 318-323 

The  Relation  of  Education  in  Sex  to  Race  Betterment 

Dr.  Winfield  Scott  Hall  324-334 

SCHOOL  AND  INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE 

Some  Changing  Conceptions  of  School  Hygiene 

Dr.  Ernest  Biyant  Hoag 335-342 

The  Race  Bettennent  Movement  in  Women's  Colleges 

Dr.  Carolyn  Geisel .'^ 342-349 

Discussion 

Mrs.  Melvil  Dewey  (College  Courses  in  Euthenics)    340 

Faetoiy  Degeneration 

Rev.  Newell  Dwight  Hillis  350-355 

Industrial  Welfare 
■    F.  0.  Clements 356-364 


CITY,   STATE  AND  NATIONAL  HYGIENE 

Function  of  Individual,  City,  State  and  Nation  in  Race  Bettennent 

Sir  Horace  Plunkett   .  .V. 365-366 

Miss  M.  E.  Bingeman 366-367 

Community  Hygiene,  with  Special  Reference  to  Meat  Inspection 

Rev.  Caroline  Bartlett  Crane 367-376 

The  National  Department  of  Health 

President  Stephen  Smith  (Introductory  Remarks)    376-379 

D?.  Henry  Baird  Favill   " 379-385 

What  the  United  States  Public  Health   Service  is  Doing  for  Race 
•  .Betterment 
,,Dr.  H.  W.  Austin .385-390 


CONTENTS  IX 

The   Cost  of  High   Living  as   a   Factor  in   Race   Degeneracj'   and 
Limitation  of  Families 

Dr.  J.  N.  Hurty 390-392 

Government 

S.  S.  McClure 393-400 

Discission 

Prof.  Richard  T.  Ely  (The  Goveniment  of  a  German  City)  401 

Byron  W.  Holt  (High  Cost  of  Living)   401-403 

SeRTegation 

^Hastings  H.  Hart , 403-410 

The  Negro  Race 

Booker  T.  Washington   410-420 

Discussion 

Hasting-s  H.  Hart  (Sanitary  Kitchens)    420-421 

The  Social  Progi'am 

Dr.  Luther  H.  Gulick 422-425 

Mrs.  Luther  H.  Gulick 425-428 

Dr.  Luther  H.  Gulick 428-430 

EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION 

Needed— A  New  Human  Race 

Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg 431-450 

The  Importance  to  the  State  of  Eugenic  Investigation 

Dr.  C.  B.  Davenport 450-45(i 

y  Relation  of  Eugenics  and  Euthenics  to  Race  Betterment 

Prof.  Maynard  M.  Metcalf 45(i-4C)4 

The  Psychological  Limit  of  Eugenics 

Prof.  Herbert  Adolphus  Miller  464-471 

Discussion 

Dr.   G.   B.   Davenport    (Relative   Effects   of  Heredity   and  ' 

Environment) 471-472 

The  Impoi*tance  of  Hygiene  for  Eugenics 

Prof.  Ii-ving  Fisher 472-470 

The  Methods  of  Race  Regeneration 

.  Dr.  C.  W.  Saleeby 476-477 

4     Calculations  on  the  Working  Out  of  a  Proposed  Program  of  Steri- 
lization 

H.  H.  Laughlin 478-494 

The  Relation  of  Philanthropy  and  Medicine  to  Race  Betterment 

Prof.  Leon  J.  Cole 494-50.S 

The  Health  Certificate— A  Safeguard  Against  Yicious  Selection  in 
Marriage 
The  Very  Reverend  Walter  Taylor  Sumner 509-513 

Discussion 

Mrs.  Maud  Glassner  (Health  Certificates  in  :\Iicliigan  )    ....     51 3-515 


X  FlUST  NATIONAL   CONKEKENCE   ON    KACE   BETTERMENT 

MaxTiage  Selection 

Prof.  Roswell  II.  Johnson 515-532 

Some  Eilicient  Causes  of  Crime 

Prof.  R.  B.  von  KleinSmid 532-542 

Kat^  Betterment  and  Our  Immigration  Laws 

Prof.  Robert  DeC.  Ward  , 542-546 

Race  Bettennent  and  America's  Oriental  Problem 

Prof.  Sidney  L.  Gulick 546-551 

Discussion 

Prof.   Herbert  Adulphus   Miller    (Immigranl    < 'ia.ssitication 

by  Mother-Tongue)   551-552 

Prof.  Maynard  M.  Metealf  (Immigration)   552-553 

Dr.  Lulher  H.  Gulick  (The  Socially  Assiuiilnied ) 553 

Constnietive  Su^u^gestions  for  Race  Betterment— Suunnarized 554-589 

Elesolutions 590-593 

Report  of  the  Secretaiy  594-599 

Exhibits  and  Moving  Pictures 

Through  a  Child's  Eyes 

Dr.  Anna  Louise  Strong 6CK)-603 

Physical  and  Mental  Perfection  Contests 

I.     School  Children 
Report  of  Contest 

Dean  Wm.  W.  Hastings 694-619 

Award  of  Prizes  * 

Mayor  Bailey   619-620 

II.     Babies 

Report  of  Contest 

Dr.  Walter  F.  Martin   620-624 

Award  of  Prizes 

Mayor  Bailey  624-625 


THE  PURPOSE  OF  THE  CONFERENCE 

To  assemble  evidence  as  to  the  extent  to  which  degenerative  tend- 
encies are  actively  at  work  in  America,  and  to  promote  agencies  for 
Race  Betterment. 

OFFICERS 

President 

Stephen  Smith^  A.  M.,  LL.D.,  M.D.,  Vice-Pi-esident  State  Board  of  Chari- 
ties, New  York,  N.  Y. 

Honorary  Presidents 

Judge  Ben  B.  Lindsey^  LL.D.,  Juvenile  Court,  Denver,  Colorado. 
Hon.  Woodbridge  N.  Ferris.  LL.D.,  Governor  of  Michigan,  Lansing,  Mich. 
Right  Hon.  Sir  Horace  Plunkett,  K.C.Y.O.,  F.R.S.,  Ex-Minister  of  Agri- 
culture for  Ireland,  Dublin,  Ireland. 

Vice-Presidents 

Irving  Fisher,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  Political  Economy,  Yale  University, 
New  Haven.  Conn. 

Rev.  Newell  Dwight  Hillis,  A.M..  D.D.,  L.H.D.,  Pastor  Plymouth  Church, 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

J.  N.  Hurty,  M.D.,  Commissioner  of  Health,  State  of  Indiana,  Indianapolis, 
Indiana. 

Hon.  Robert  L.  Owen,  A.M.,  LL.D.,  U.  S.  Senator  fi-om  Oklahoma,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C. 

Executive  Committee 

Irving  Fisher,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  Political  Economy,  Yale  Univei-sity, 
New  Haven,  Conn. 

Rev.  Newell  Dwight  Hillis,  A.M.,  D.D.,  L.H.D.,  Pastor  Plymouth  Church, 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

J.  H.  Kjxlogg,  LL.D.,  M.D.,  Supt.  Battle  Creek  Sanitarium,  Member  Michi- 
gan State  Board  of  Health,  Battle  Creek,  Mich. 

Right  Hon.  Sir  Horace  Plunkett,  K.C.V.O.,  F.R.S.,  Ex-Minist«r  of  AgTi- 
culture  for  Ireland,  Dublin,  Ireland. 

Jacob  A.  Riis,  Henry  Street  Settlement,  New  York 

Acting  Chairman 
Reverend  Charles  C.  Creegan,  D.D.,  President  Fargo  College,  Fargo,  N.  D. 

Secretary 
Miss  Emily  F.  Robbins,  New  York,  N.  Y, 


Xii  KIRST  XATIOXAT,  COXFKRKNCK   ON    RACE   BETTER:MKXT 

Central  Committee 

C.  B.   Day  FA- PORT.  A.j\I..  I'li.!)..  Director  of  the   ("iinio.iiic   Station   for  Ex- 

perimental Evolution,  Cold   Spriiii;'  Harbor,  N.  Y. 

Vu'TOR  ('.  Yauchan.  LL.D,.  M.D.,  Pi-es.  Elect  American  Medical  Association, 
President  Michigan  State  Board  of  Health,  Ann  Arbor,  Mich. 

J.  N.  McCoRMACK,  LL.T).,  M.D.,  Secretary  State  Board  of  Health,  Bowling 
Green,  Ky. 

Charles  TY.  Eliot,  A.M.,  LL.D..  Ph.D.,  President  Emeritus.  Hansard  Uni- 
versity. Cambridge,  Mass. 

GiFPORD  PiNCHOT,  A.M.,  LL.D.,  Consei-vationist,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Harvey  W.  Wiley,  LL.D.,  M.D.,  Director  Bui-eau  of  Foods,  Sanitation  and 
Health,  ''Good  Housekeeping"  Magazine,"  Washington,  D.  C. 

Hon.  Jacob  A.  Ens,  Heniy  Street  Settlement,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

S.  Adolphus  Knopf.  M.B.,  Professor  Phthisio-Therapy,  Post  Graduate  Medi- 
cal School  and  Hospital,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

W.  A.  Evans,  M.S.,  LL.D.,  M.D.,  D.P.H.,  Medical  Editor  Chicago  "Tribune," 
Professor  of  Hygiene,  Northwestern  University  Medical  School,  Chicago, 
Illinois. 

D.  A.  Sargent,  A.M.,  M.D.,  S..D,  Director  of  Hemenway  Gymnasium,  Har- 

vard University,  Cambridge,  Mass. 

Very  Reverend  Walter  Taylor  Sumner,  D.D.,  Dean  of  the  Episcopal 
Cathedral  of  Saints  Peter  and  Paul,  Chicago,  Illinois. 

Hon.  Charles  E.  Townsend,  L'nited  States  Senator  from  Michigan,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C. 

Hon.  Morris  Sheppard,  LL.B.,  LL.M..  United  States  Senator  from  Texas, 
Wa.shin^on,  D.  C. 

Oscar  H.  Rogers,  M.D..  Medical  Director  New  York  Life  Insurance  Com- 
pany. New  York,  N.  Y. 

Winfield  S.  Hall,  M.S.,  A.M.,  Ph.D..  M.D.,  Professor  of  Physiology,  North- 
western Univereity  Medical  School,  Chicago,  111. 

R.  L.  Dixon,  M.D.,  Secretary  Michigan  State  Board  of  Health,  Lansing,  Mich. 

Mrs.  Melvil  Dewey.  Honorary  Chairaian,  Institution  Economics.  American 
Home  Economics  Association,  Lake  Placid,  N.  Y'. 

Mrs.  Ella  Flagg  Young.  LL.D..  Ph.D.,  Superintendent  of  Schools.  Chicago. 
Illinois. 

Rev.  Caroline  Bartlett  Crane,  A.M.,  Kalamazoo,  Mich. 

R.  Tait  McKenzie,  A.M.,  M.D.,  Professor  Physical  Education,  University  of 
Pennsylvania,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

John  M.  Coulter,  A.M.,  Ph.D..  Professor  Botany,  University  of  Chicago, 
Chicago,  111. 

S.  S.  McClure,  A.m.,  L.H.D..  President.  The  McClure  Company,  New  Y'ork. 

Ernest  B.  Hoag,  A.M..  j\I.D.,  Leland  Stanford  University,  California. 

Frank  E.  Bruner,  Ph.D..  j\LD.,  Board  of  Education,  Chicago,  lU, 

Henry  Smith  Williams,  LL.D..  M.D.,  Writer,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

Graha^i  Taylor.  President  Chicaizo  School  of  Civics  and  Philanthropy, 
Chicago.  111. 

Hon.  John  W.  Bailey,  LL.B..  Mayoi,  Battle  Creek,  Mich. 

J.  H.  Kellogg,  LL.D.,  M.D.,  Supt.  Battle  Creek  Sanitarium.  Member  Michi- 
gan State  Board  of  Health,  Battle  Creek,  Mich. 

Reverend  Charles  C.  Creegan,  D.D..  President  Fargo  College,  Fargo,-  N.  ,1). 


IN-STITUTIONS  AND  ORGANIZATIONS   REPRESENTED 


A  PARTIAL  LIST  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  OF  INSTITUTIONS  AND 
ORGANIZATIONS  PARTICIPATING  IN  THE  CONFERENCE 

Physicians 

Austin,  Dr.  H.  W.,  Representative  U.  S.  Health  Service,  Detroit,  Mich. 

Bishop,  Dr.  Louis  F.,  Fordham  University. 

Bemstein,  Dr.  Charles,  Custodial  Asylum,  Rome,  N.  Y. 

Carbaugh,  Dr.  Harriett  M.,  Health  Officer  Orange  Township,  Portland,  Mich. 

Carstens,  Dr.  J.  H.,  Chief  Gyneologists,  Harper  Hospital,  Detroit,  Mich. 

Davenport,  Dr.  C.  B.,  Director  Carnegie  Station  for  Experimental  Evolution, 

Cold  Spring  Harbor,  Long  Island,  N.  Y. 
DeVilbiss,  Dr.  Lydia  Allen,  Woman's  Home  Companion,  New  York,  N.  Y. 
Dewey,  Melvil,  President  Lake  Placid  Club,  Lake  Placid,  N.  Y. 
Emeriek,  Dr.  E.  J..   Supt.   Institution   for  Feeble-Minded,   Columbus,   Ohio. 
Favill,  Dr.  Heniy  B..  Prof.  Clinical  Medicine,  Rusch  Medical  College.  Chicago, 

Illinois. 
Green,  Dr.  Frederick  R.,  Secretan'  American  Medical  Association,  Chicago, 

Illinois. 
Geisel.  Dr.  Carolyn,  Shorter  College,  Rome,  Ga. 
Guliek,  Dr.  Luther  H.,  Pres.  Camp  Fire  Girls,  New  York,  N.  Y. 
Gulick,  Dr.  Sidney  L.,  Author,  Missionary,  Kyoto,  Japan. 
Hall,  Dr.  Gertnide  E.,  State  Board  of  Charities,  Albany,  N.  Y. 
Hall,  Dr.  Winfield  S.,  Noi'thwestern  University  Medical  School,  Chicago,  111. 
Hurty,  Dr.  J.  N.,  Commissioner  of  Health,  Indianapolis,  Ind. 
Knopf,    Dr.    S.    Adolphus,    New    York    Post-Graduate    Medical    School    and 

Hospital,  NeAV  York,  N.  Y. 
Kennedy,  Dr.  J.  B.,  Detroit,  Mich. 
Lichty,  Dr.  Daniel,  City  Hospital,  Roekford,  111. 

Noi-thrup,  Dr.  "Wm.,  Anti-Tuberculosis  Society,  Grand  Rapids,  Mich. 
Paulson,  Dr.  and  Mrs.  David,  Hinsdale  Sanitarium,  Hinsdale,  111. 
Robinson,  Dr.  Wm.  J.,  Chief  Visiting  Surgeon,  Bronx  Hospital,  New  York, 

N.  Y.' 
Sargent,  Dr.  D.  A.,  Director,  Hemeuway  Gymnasium,   Harvard  University, 

Cambridge,  Mass. 
Searcy,  Dr.  J.  T.,  Superintendent,  Alabama  Insane  Hospital,  Tuscaloosa,  Ala. 
Shennan,  Dr.  G.  H.,  Mich.   St.  and  Wayne  Co.  Medical  Societies,  Detroit, 

Michigan. 
Smith,  Dr.  Stephen,  Vice-President  State  Board  of  Charities,  New  York^  N.  Y. 
Smith,   Dr.   Richard  Root,   Surgeon,   Buttei-woi-th  Hospital,   Grand   Rapids, 

Michigan. 
Strong,   Dr.   Anna   Louise,   National    Child   Welfare   Exhibition    Com.,   New 

York,  N.  Y. 
Sumner,  Dr.  Guilford  H.,  State  Board  of  Health,  Des  Moines,  la. 
South,  Dr.  Lillian  B.,  State  Bacteriologist  of  Kentucky,  Bowling  Green,  Ky. 
Vaughan,  Dr.  Victor  C,  President  American  Medical  Association  and  of  State 

Board  of  Health,  Ann  Ai'bor,  Mich. 
Warthin,  Dr.  Aldred  Scott,  University  of  Michigan,  Ann  Arbor,  Mich. 
Weeks,  Dr.  David  Fairchild,  Skillman,  N.  J. 


XIV  VIEIST   XATIOXAl,   ( OX  FlOKKXl 'K   OX    HACK    ItKTTKRl^rENT 

College  Representatives 

Cole.  Prof.  Leon  J.,  rnivcrsity  of  Wisconsin,  Madison,  Wis. 

Coulter,  Prof.  John  INI.,  I'niversity  of  Chieajio,  Chicago,  111. 

Creegan,  Rev.  C.  C,  President,  Fargo  University,  Fargo,  N.  D. 

Dickie.  Sam'l,  LL.D.,  Pi-esident,  Albion  College,  A11)ion,  Mich. 

Ely,  Prof.  Richard  T.,  University  of  Wisconsin.  Madison,  Wis. 

Giibei-t.  Prof.  Arthwell  W.,  ComeW  University.  Ithaca,  N.  Y. 

Grover.  Prof.  Frederick  ()..  Oberlin  College,  Oberlin,  Ohio. 

Johnson,  Prof.  Roswell  Hill.  University  of  Pittsburgh.  Pa. 

Johnson,  Alexander.  Director,  Training  School,  Vineland,  N.  J. 

Lancaster,  E.  G.,  President  Olivet  College,  Olivet,  Mich. 

Keoier.  Prof.  Fred  L..  Superintendent,  T)e]>t.  of  Public  Instruction.  Lansing, 

Michigan. 
MacDonald,  Miss  Gertrude  L.,  Supt.  Maine  Industrial  School  for  Girls,  Hollo- 
well,  Maine. 
Metcalf,  Prof.  Maynard  M..  Oberlin  College,  Oberlin,  Ohio. 
Miller.  Prof.  Herbert  A..  Olivet  College,  Olivet.  Mich. 
Reigliard,  Prof.  Jacob,  I"'niversity  of  Michigan,  Ann  Arbor,  Mich. 
Ritchie.  Prof.  John  W..  College  of  William  and  Mary,  Williamsbui-gh,  Va. 
Stagg,  Prof.  A.A.,  Ph.D.,  University  of  Chicago,  Chicago.  111. 
Washington,   Prof.   Booker  T..   Tuskegee   Normal   and   Industrial   Institute, 

Tuskegee.  Alabama. 
Willcox.  Prof.  Walter  F.,  Cornell  University.  Ithaca,  N.  Y. 

Social   Workers 

BussoU.  Reulali.  Anti-Tuberculosis  Society.  Grand  Ra]iids.  Mich. 

Bussell.  Nellie  Eileen.  Sec.  Anti-Tuberculosis  Society,  Grand  Rapids,  Mich. 

Dilley.  Cora  B.,  Chicago  Boys  Club  Farm,  Paw  Paw.  Mich. 

Gaston,  Lucy  Page,  Anti-Cigarette  League.  Chicago,  111. 

Oilman.  Robbins.  Head  Worker,  I'^niversitv   Settlement   Society.  New  York 
City. 

Hart,  Hastings  H.,  LL.D..  Kus.sell  Sage  Foundation.  New  York  City. 

Holt,  Byron  W.,  Committee  of  100  on  National  Health,  New  York  City. 

Kimball.  Mrs.,  Alcohol  Poster  Committee,  Boston,  Mass. 
Laughlin,  H.  H.,  Superintendent  Eugenics  Record  Office,  Cold  Spring  Har- 
bor, N.  Y. 

Lindsey,  Judge  Ben  B.,  Juvenile  Court,  Denver,  Colo. 

McDowell,  Miss.  University  Settlement,  Chicago,  111. 

MeCullock,  Gen.  J.  E.,  Southern  Sociological  Congress,  Nashville,  Tenn. 

Riis.  Jacob.  Henry  Street  Settlement,  New  York  City. 

Taylor.    Graham.    Presid(>nt    Chicago    School    of    Civics    and    Philanthropy, 
Chicago. 

Van  Hartzveldt,  Miss,  Anti-Tuberculosis  Society,  Grand  Rapids,  Mich. 

Von  KleinSmid,  Prof.  R.  B.,  Indiana  Reformatory,  Jeffersonville.  Ind. 

Walton,  Miss  Carol  F.,  Secretaiy  Michigan  State  Association,  Prevention  and 
Relief  of  Tuberculosis,  Ann  Arbor,  Mich, 

Witter,  John  H.,  Supt.  Boys  Club,  Chicago. 


INSTITUTIONS  AND  ORGANIZATIONS   REPRESKNTKD  XV 

Women's   Clubs 

Glassner.  Mrs.  Maud,  State  Federation  Women's  Clubs.  Nashville,  Mich. 
Haydoek,  Mi-s.  D.  W.,  Missouri  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs.  St.  Louis,  Mo. 
Roenigh,  Marion  Chase,  Michigan  State  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs,  Green- 
ville, Mich. 

Y.  M.  C.  A. 
Rowe,  C.  L.,  Traveling  Secretary  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  Jackson,  Michigan. 

Publicists 

Cattell.  Prof.  J.  McK..  Editor  Popular  Science  Monthly,  Ganison.  N.  Y. 

Dingley.  Edward  M..  Editor  ProgTessive  Herald.  Kalamazoo,  Mich. 

Evans,  Dr.  W.  A.,  Health  Editor  Chicago  Tribune,  Chicago,  111. 

Johnson,  Dr.  C.  M.,  Editor  Dental  Review,  Chicago,  111. 

MeClure.  S.  S.,  McClure's  Magazine,  New  York  City. 

Popenoe,  Paul  B.,  Editor.  Journal  of  Heredity-,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Spencer,  George  B.,  The  Outlook.  New  York. 

Henry  Smith  Williams,  Author,  New  York  City. 

Phelps,  Edward  Bunnell,  Editor,  American  Underwriter,  New  York  City. 

Payne,  Kenneth  W.,  Newspaper  Enterprise  Association,  Chicago,  111. 

Ministers 

Beardslee,  Rev.  John  W.,  Holland,  Mich. 

Bishop,  Rev.  Edwin  W.,  Pastor  Park  Churcli.  Grand  Rapids,  Mich. 

Crane,  Rev.  Carolyn  Bartlett.  Crane  Building,  Kalamazoo.  Mich. 

Glass.  Rev.  D.  H.,  Oavosso,  Mich. 

Hillis,  Rev.  Newell  Dwight.  Pastor  Plymouth  Church,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

Sumner,  The  Veiy  Reverend  Walter  Taylor,  Dean,  Episcopal  Cathedra!  of 

Saints  Peter  and  Paul,  Chicago,  111. 
Hinzman,  Rev.  W.  T.,  Tipton,  Mich. 
Siebert,  Rev.  John  A..  Adrian.  Mich. 

Insurance 

Hunter.  Arthur  W.,  New  York  Life  Insurance  Co.,  New  York  City. 
Hoffman,  Frederick  L.,  Statistician  Prudential  Life  Ins.  Co.,  Newark,  N.  Y. 

W.  C.  T.  U. 

Leiter,  Frances  Waite,  National  W.  C.  T.  U.,  Health  Dept.,  Mansfield,  0. 

Miscellaneous 

Bigelow,  M.  Edna.  Representative  American  Medical  Association,  Chicago,  111. 

Bingemann,  Miss  M.  E.,  Board  of  Education,  Rochester,  N.  Y. 

Pathe  Freres  Representative,  Wm.  J.  Helm,  Jr.,  1  CongTess  St.,  Jersey  City, 

New  Jei-sey. 
Ritchie,  John  W.,  Williamsburg,  Va. 

Sprague,  Prof.  Robert  J..  Massachusetts  Agricultural  College,  Amhei-st,  Mass. 
Thome,  Hazel,  Eugenics  Field  Worker,  Lapeer,  Mich. 

Wilbur,  Dr.  Cressy  L.,   Chief  Statistician,  Dept.   of   Commerce,  Bureau  of 
Cetisus,  Washington,  D.  C. 


XVI  FlliST   XATlOXAh   COX  FKKKNCK   ON    RACK    IJKTTKRAI  KNT 

Ixyaii,  Desalcf,  School  Supi'i'visur,  Battle  (Jreek,  Mich. 
Cobuni,  W.  G.,  Principal  Battle  Creek  Schools,  Battle  Creek,  Mich. 
Clements,  F.  O.,   Representative  National  Cash  Register  Co.,  Dayton,  Ohio. 
Gillette,  C.  P.,  Director  State  Agi-icultui-al  College,  Ft.  Collins,  Colo. 
Reid,  Dr.  Chas.  E.,  Surgeon,  Culver  Military  Academy,  Culver,  Ind. 

Local  Co-operating  Organizations 

Battle  Creek  Ministers'  Association. 

Calhoun  County  Medical  Society. 

Battle  Creek  Dental  Society. 

Battle  Creek  Chamber  of  Commerce. 

Battle  Creek  Board  of  Education. 

Nonnal  School  of  Physical  Education 

Battle  Creek  Sanitarium  and  Hospital  Training  School. 

Nurses'  Alumni  Association  of  the  Battle   Creek   Sanitarium  and   Ho.si)ital 

Traming-  School. 
Battle  Creek  Sanitarium   School  of  Home  Economics. 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association. 
Young  Women's  Christian  Association. 
Charitable  Union. 
Woman's  Club. 
Woman's  League 

The  Ladies'  Aid  Societies  of  Nine  Churches  of  Battle  Creek. 
Woman's  Society  of  the  Congregational  Church. 
Dorcas  Society. 

Women's  Christian  Temperance  Union. 
Sanitanum  Women's  Christian  Temperance  L'nion. 


ADDRESS  OF  WELCOME  TO  THE  CONFERENCE 

J.  H.  Kellogg,  LL.D.,  M.D.,  Superintendent  of  the  Battle  Creek  Sanitarium, 
Battle  Creek,  Michigan. 

I  feel  it  an  honor,  as  well  as  a  great  privilege,  to  extend  to  you  in 
behalf  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  this  Institution  a  most  cordial  wel- 
come to  this  Conference,  the  first  of  its  kind  to  be  held.  And  I  wish 
to  tell  you  that  if  you  esteem  it  a  privilege  to  gather  here  for  the  dis- 
cussion of  great  questions  which  concern  the  w^elfare  of  the  race,  you 
are  most  of  all  indebted  to  our  greatly  esteemed  friend,  the  eminent 
Doctor  Hillis,  of  Plymouth  Church,  for  it  was  he  w^ho  last  summer 
suggested  to  me  and  to  other  members  of  the  Central  Committee  the 
idea  of  this  Conference.  I  said  to  him  in  reply,  "But,  is  it  possible  to 
bring  to  this  small  town  the  busy  men  who  are  giving  serious  thought 
to  altruistic  questions  of  this  sort?" 

"Certainly  it  is,"  said  he,  "and  I'll  help  do  it." 

Professor  Irving  Fisher  happened  to  be  here  at  the  time,  and  when 
consulted,  he  said,  "By  all  means,  let  us  have  the  Conference,"  and 
he  also  promised  to  help.  Both  of  these  men,  who  are  individually 
doing  such  splendid  things  for  the  uplift  of  their  fellows,  have  helped 
so  efficiently  that  the  program  which  is  in  your  hands  has  been  ar- 
ranged and  the  Race  Betterment  Conference  is  launched. 

It  is  not  expected  that  this  Conference  will  be  great  in  numbers. 
Those  who  attend  come  by  special  invitation,  and  as  indicated  by  the 
names  of  speakers  shown  on  the  program,  are  representative  thinkers 
and  leaders  in  various  lines  of  work  which  have  for  their  aim  the  ad- 
vancement of  human  welfare. 

From  the  start  it  has  been  most  gratifying  to  note  the  unanimous 
interest  shown  in  the  great  purposes  of  this  Conference.  Practically 
every  person  who  has  been  asked  to  take  part  in  the  program  has 
readily  consented  to  do  so  unless  prevented  by  some  previous  engage- 
ment. The  questions  which  will  be  discussed  here  are  the  greatest 
problems  which  face  the  world  today.  They  are  not  merely  questions 
of  sect  or  section,  finance  or  politics :  they  are  race  questions,  biologic 
questions,  whose  roots  run  back  to  the  very  childhood  of  the  race 
and  whose  branches  cast  their  shadow  over  eyery  phase  of  human 
life. 

The  real  purpose  of  the  Conference  is  not  to  formulate  conclusions 
nor  to  propagate  doctrines,  but  simply  to  raise  in  a  more  definite  way 
certain  questions  of  world-wide  significance  which  have  in  recent  years 
been  more  or  less  casually  discussed,  and  to  set  in  operation  methods 

(2)  1 


2  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

of  iiuiuiry  which  it  is  lioped  may  lead  to  a  disrlosurc  of  facts  of  tre- 
mendous importance.  If  the  race  is  deg-enerating.  it  is  highly  impor- 
tant that  the  world  should  know  it  and  that  such  agencies  should  be 
set  in  operation  as  will  save  the  race  of  man  from  the  common  fate  of 
all  other  living  forms  as  told  and  foretold  by  the  geologic  records  of 
the  earth's  crust. 

The  Conference  is  to  be  congratulated  in  having  for  its  Central 
Committee  and  Executive  Officers  a  body  of  men  eminently  qualified  to 
^ve  expert  guidance  to  the  studies  and  discussions  which  may  be 
opened  up,  and  to  protect  us  and  the  public  from  the  evils  of  sensa- 
tionalism on  the  one  hand,  and  the  dangers  of  preconceived  opinions 
and  conventional  blindness  on  the  other. 

We  are  all  to  be  congratulated  that  we  have  with  us  as  the  Presi- 
dent of  this  first  Conference  on  Race  Betterment,  our  young  and 
greatly  beloved  and  honored  friend,  Dr.  Stephen  Smith,  whose  whole 
life  has  been  devoted  to  the  very  objects  of  this  Conference,  and  who 
at  the  age  of  ninety-two  years — thanks  to  Eugenics  and  Euthenics — is 
still  one  of  the  most  active  men  engaged  in  the  service  of  the  ^eat 
State  of  New  York. 

After  seventy  years  of  public  service,  fifty  years  as  State  Commis- 
sioner of  Charities,  Doctor  Smith  is  still  active  as  ever.  As  President 
of  the  Tree  Planting  Association  he  is  transforming  the  desert  wastes 
of  New  York  City  into  pleasant  groves  and  parks.  After  waiting 
two  average  life-times  for  Doctor  Smith  to  show  some  symptoms  of 
old  age,  the  people  of  New  York  have  finally  become  convinced  that 
he  is  endowed  with  eternal  youth,  and  possesses  the  vitality  of  his 
beloved  elms  and  oaks,  and  so  have  recently  commissioned  him  for 
another  six  years'  term  as  Vice-President  of  the  State  Board  of 
Charities,  a  Board  which  carries  a  heavier  load  of  responsibility  for 
human  life  and  happiness  than  any  other  like  body  of  men  on  earth. 
We  hope  he  will  unfold  to  us  and  to  the  world  the  secret  of  his  per- 
ennial youth  land  vitality.  His  example  and  his  presence  here  are  a 
proof  and  promise  of  the  possibility  of  race  betterment. 


ADDRESS  OF  WELCOME 

Hon.  John  W.  Bailey,  LL.B.,  Mayor  of  Battle  Creek,  Michigan. 

After  this  exceedingly  appropriate  address  and  welcome  by  Doctor 
Kellogg,  it  is  somewhat  embarrassing  and  quite  unnecessary  for  me  to 
make  any  remarks  of  the  nature  in  which  the  Doctor  has  indicated,  but 
I  assure  you  that  even  though  it  may  seem  unnecessary,  it  is  a  great 
pleasure  for  me — in  behalf  of  the  thirty  thousand  citizens  of  Battle 
Creek — ^to  welcome  to  our  city  these  honored  guests,  ladies  and 
gentlemen,  who  have  left  their  work  and  their  homes  and  their  fields 
of  usefulness  to  come  here  to  take  part  in  this  first  great  Conference 
on  Race  Betterment.  We  are  very  glad  indeed  to  welcome  this  Con- 
ference to  the  best  town  in  Michigan,  and,  when  I  say  that,  I  may 
welcome  you  to  the  best  town  in  the  best  state  in  the  best  country  on 
earth.  Nature  has  done  a  great  deal  for  our  city,  located  as  it  is  in 
the  fertile  valley  of  two  streams,  surrounded  by  beautiful  lakes  and 
having  a  beautiful  climate.  Everything  that  vegetation  and  foliage  can 
do  for  it  has  been  done.  The  citizens  have  done  much  to  improve  the 
natural  advantages  which  they  found  here.  We  have  many  great  fac- 
tories of  which  we  are  all  very  proud.  We  are  very  proud  of  our  school 
system,  very  proud  of  our  churches,  of  our  societies  and  of  our  people. 
It  is  our  claim  here  that  we  have  the  most  cosmopolitan  people  in  the 
whole  world.  We  are  not  very  poor,  not  very  rich,  but  we  are  all  able 
to  make  a  living  and  enjoy  ourselves.  We  have  one  thing  which  above 
all  others  we  are  the  most  proud  of,  and  that  is  this  great  Sanitarium. 
This  institution  and  its  managers  have  for  the  last  forty  or  fifty  years 
been  laboring  day  and  night,  in  order  that  they  may  do  good  to  their 
fellow-men ;  in  order  that  this  race,  our  brothers  and  sisters,  may  be 
improved.  And  we  who  live  here  know  well  how  successfully  they  have 
labored.  We  are  exceedingly  proud  that  this  institution  has  been  able 
to  bring  to  Battle  Creek  the  distinction  of  having  the  very  first  Race 
Betterment  Conference. 

If  I  understand  it  correctly,  it  is  the  object  of  this  Conference  to 
work  together,  exchange  ideas  in  order  that  there  may  be  some 
definite  understanding  as  to  what  is  best  for  the  great  mass  of 
the  people  of  this  world,  and  to  give  those  ideas  to  the  great  masses 
of  people  who  cannot  possibly  be  here  and  who  cannot  possibly 
know  very  much  about  these  things,  and  thus  to  inaugurate  re- 
forms. Many  people  in  the  past  have  been  at  work  exerting  their 
great  energies  to  the  betterment  of  the  trees  and  flowers,  and  to 


4  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

the  bettoriiient  of  animals,  but  there  has  not  l)eeii  that  j^reat  eoneerted 
effort  for  the  bettennent  of  the  huiiiau  race  that  we  iiiid  in  other 
fiekls.  It  is  to  these  honored  gentlemen  who  come  here  for  this  Con- 
ference that  we  must  look  for  a  start  in  this  most  practical  and  most 
important  of  all  subjects.  I  sincerely  hope  that  the  work  of  this 
Conference  may  be  such  as  to  lay  the  foundation  for  future  Confer- 
ences, so  that  this  work  may  go  onward  and  upward  for  all  genera- 
tions, in  order  that  the  boy  and  girl  of  the  distant  future  may  look 
back  upon  a  father  and  upon  a  mother  and  upon  a  pedigree  reaching 
back  into  many  generations,  every  line  of  which  represents  good,  strong- 
men and  good,  strong  women,  well-educated  men  and  well-educated 
women — men  and  women  who  have  used  their  bodies  and  their  minds 
for  the  best  interests  of  the  race  in  order  that  their  descendants  may 
properly  represent  the  image  of  their  Creator. 

We  wish  for  this  Conference  every  possible  success.  I  know  we 
shall  all  be  proud  of  its  results.  It  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  say  a 
word  in  introducing  the  President  of  this  Conference.  Doctor  Kellogg 
has  said  briefly  and  better  than  I  could  possibly  say  it  all  that  is  neces- 
sary. I  will  simply  say  this,  that  from  the  appearance  of  Doctor 
Smith,  he  represents  the  idea  that  he  is  bringing  to  us.  He  comes  of  a 
long-lived  family,  a  family  whose  ancestry  has  given  to  him  the  in- 
heritance which  has  enabled  him  to  do  the  great  work  which  he  has 
done,  and  to  come  here  at  the  age  of  ninety-two,  full  of  life,  full  of 
strength,  full  of  hope  and  full  of  a  desire  to  lift  up  and  glorify  the 
human  race. 

I  take  great  pleasure  in  introducing  to  this  Conference,  Dr.  Stephen 
•Smith,  its  President. 


PRESIDENT'S  ADDRESS 

THE  BASIC  PRINCIPLES  OF  RACE  BETTERMENT 

Stephen  Smith,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  President  of  the  Conference;   Vice-President 
New  York  State  Board  of  Charities,  NeAV  York  City. 

Mr.  Mayor,  Members  of  the  Conference,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen : — 
An  ancient  symbol  of  the  genius  of  Medicine  represented  a  female 
figure  sitting  with  downcast  eyes  and  a  finger  on  her  closed  lips, 
signifying  that  the  proper  position  of  the  physician  is  one  of  silence 
and  meditation.  That  symbol  illustrates  the  mental  attitude  which  I 
should  prefer  to  assume  in  this  Conference.  But,  as  with  many  of 
the  more  responsible  duties  in  my  experience,  it  was  not  for  me  to 
determine  the  position  I  was  to  occupy  in  the  Conference,  and  I  have 
humbly  accepted  the  decision  of  the  Central  Committee,  only  too 
thankful  that  I  was  deemed  worthy  of  an  invitation  to  become  a 
member. 

I  enter  upon  the  duties  assigned  me  with  a  full  appreciation  of  the 
honor  which  the  Presidency  of  this  Conference  confers  and  inspired  by 
the  desire  to  render  it  an  open  forum  for  the  initiation,  discussion  and 
determination  of  the  kind,  quality  and  employment  of  the  agencies 
for  the  promotion  of  race  betterment. 

OBJECTS    OF    CONFERENCE 

It  is  fitting,  on  establishing  a  new  organization,  to  define  its  objects 
and  explain  its  methods.  As  officially  annoimced,  the  objects  of  the 
Conference  are  two-fold,  as  follows: 

1.  To  assemble  evidence  as  to  the  extent  to  which  degenerative 
tendencies  are  actively  at  work  in  America,  and, 

2.  To  promote  agencies  for  race  betterment. 

Giving  to  the  word  "degenerative"  its  ordinary  meaning — a  loss  or 
impairment  of  the  qualities  peculiar  to  the  race — our  inquiry  and  re- 
search includes  every  matter  or  thing  which  in  any  wise,  nearly 
or  remotely,  affects  unfavorably  the  normal  physical  development  and 
functional  activitj^  of  any  member  of  the  race. 

The  second  object  of  the  Conference — To  promote  agencies  for 
race  betterment — opens  a  world-wide  field  for  observation,  research 
and  practice,  for  these  agencies  are  innumerable.  The  term  "Race" 
includes  the  ' '  Human  Family, "  "  Human  Beings  as  a  Class, "  "  Man- 
kind." "Betterment"  means  improvement  in  its  broadest  and  largest 
sense. 

s 


6  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

Reducing  these  objects  as  stated  to  a  practical  standard,  the  outlook 
upon  the  human  race  from  the  view-point  of  this  Conference  recog- 
nizes two  features  in  its  developments: 

1.  The  tendency  to  degenerate ; 

2.  The  capacity  to  regenerate. 

In  our  estimation  of  the  tendency  of  the  race  to  degenerate  we 
must  carefully  distinguish  between  an  inherent  tendency  or  predis- 
position to  degeneracy  under  any  and  all  conditions,  and  a  suscep- 
tibility to  degeneracy  under  certain  favoring  conditions.  All  experi- 
ence proves,  and  science  confirms  experience,  that  degeneracy  of  the 
race  is  not  due  to  any  structural  peculiarities  of  the  individual  other 
than  the  normal  susceptibility  to  impressions,  which  may  be  greater 
in  one  person  than  in  another,  owing  to  heredity.  On  this  account, 
environment,  or  the  conditions  under  which  an  individual  lives,  is  a 
most  important  determining  factor  in  our  estimation  of  race  de- 
generacy and  race  regeneracy. 

On  the  very  threshold  of  his  existence  man  is  confronted  with 
conditions  which  powerfully  tend  to  degeneracy.  All  animal  and 
vegetable  life  appears  alien  to  this  planet  and  has  to  struggle  for  ex- 
istence amid  hostile  forces  which  beset  it  on  every  hand.  What  vast 
quantities  of  germinal  matter  the  bountiful  hand  of  nature  supplies 
to  every  form  of  life  to  perpetuate  "its  kind"  and  yet  scarcely  one 
germ  in  a  million  lives.  In  summer  the  fields  and  forests  are  strewn 
with  waste  germs. 

Man  himself  is  only  one  of  the  thirty-thousand  possible  sons  and 
daughters  with  which  his  parents  were  endowed.  His  birth  is  a 
successful  incident;  his  first  breath  is  an  accident;  his  nourishment 
is  by  the  grace  of  another.  If  he  survive  the  perils  of  infancy  and 
reach  maturity,  innumerable  evils — physical  and  mental — sickness,  im- 
becility, insanity,  crime,  death — assail  him  at  every  stage  of  progress 
as  if  they  were  his  inheritance. 

Endowed  for  a  vigorous,  healthy  life  of  a  hundred  years,  man 
suffers  from  every  form  of  disease  and  lives  but  a  moiety  of  his  pre- 
destined longevity.  Of  the  children  bom,  what  large  percentage  never 
see  their  first  anniversary  birthday !  What  other  large  percentage 
dies  under  five  years  !  Few  comparatively  reach  the  age  of  ten  years ; 
at  twenty  the  generation  has  dwindled  to  an  insignificant  minority 
and  at  forty-five  it  disappears  altogether.  But  three  in  a  thousand 
reach  the  normal  period  of  human  life — one  hundred  years. 

But  while  the  evidences  of  a  tendency  of  the  race  to  degenerate 
are  apparent  to  common  observation  in  every  period  of  human  history, 
there  is  an  obverse  of  this  sad  picture  of  the  most  hopeful  and  in- 
spiring character.    The  same  impressionable  peculiarity  of  his  nervous 


PRESIDENT  S  ADDRESS  i 

centres  which  tends  to  make  him  yield  to  degenerative  influences  may 
be  relied  upon  by  skilled  treatment  to  promote  and  effect  his  regenera- 
tion. Estimating  man 's  inherent  mental  capacity  by  his  achievements 
in  the  past,  we  can  place  no  limit  upon  the  possibilities  of  his  better- 
ment. Consider  how  he  has  subdued  the  hostile  forces  of  the  earth 
and  made  them  subservient  to  his  comfort  and  his  well-being !  Though 
the  most  unprotected  of  animals,  he  excels  all  others  in  his  means  of 
defense;  he  lays  the  entire  world  under  contribution  for  his  food 
supply  and  reduces  his  foods  to  the  most  digestible  and  assimilable 
forms ;  if  he  loses  a  limb,  or  a  tooth,  or  an  eye,  another  immediately 
supplies  its  place,  quite  as  serviceable  and  often  more  ornamental; 
the  lightning  as  his  messenger  annihilates  time  and  space,  and  while 
it  transports  him  also  supplies  him  with  heat  and  light.  Thus  on  all 
sides  he  is  capable  of  warding  off  danger,  decay  and  death  and  demon- 
strates his  ability  to  exercise  dominion  "over  all  the  Earth." 

These  facts  suggest  the  question  of  the  ages,  ' '  What  is  the  ultimate 
purpose  of  human  life  on  this  Earth?"  And  it  is  very  desirable  that 
we  have  a  working  hypothesis  that  will  be  most  useful  in  selecting  and 
promoting  agencies  for  the  betterment  of  the  race.  There  can  be  no 
more  helpful  and  hopeful  answer  to  that  question  than  the  following 
last  utterance  of  the  great  scientist,  Alfred  Russell  Wallace: 

"This  earth  with  its  infinitude  of  life  and  beauty  and  mystery, 
and  the  universe  in  the  midst  of  which  we  are  placed,  with  its  over- 
whelming immensities  of  suns  and  nebulne,  of  light  and  motion,  are  as 
they  are,  firstly,  for  the  development  of  life  culminating  in  man; 
secondly,  as  a  vast  schoolhouse  for  the  education  of  the  human  race  in 
preparation  for  the  enduring  spiritual  life  to  which  it  is  destined." 

What  higher  conception  can  we  have  of  the  world  in  which  we 
live  than  that  it  is  ,a  "  vast  schoolhouse  for  the  education  of  the  human 
race,"  and  what  more  pointed  lesson  can  be  taught  as  to  the  conduct 
of  our  o-wn  lives  and  our  duties  to  the  race  than  that  this  life  is 
*'in  preparation  for  the  enduring  spiritual  life  to  which  it  is  des- 
tined?" 

PAST  AND  PRESENT  METHODS  OF  RACE  BETTERMENT 

To  appreciate  fully  the  great  service  which  this  Conference  will 
render  to  humanity,  if  it  establish  the  principles  of  race  betterment  on 
the  immutable  basis  of  science,  we  need  to  consider  for  a  moment  the 
past  and  present  unscientific  and  inefficient  methods  of  betterment 
of  the  degenerates  of  the  race.  Looking  backward  we  learn  that  man 
has  usually  been  regarded  as  an  unknown  entity,  a  mysterious  com- 
bination of  the  animal,  the  satanic  and  the  divine,  the  two  former 
attributes  being  usually  the  most  conspicuous.  Efforts  to  benefit  him 
were  limited  to  improving  his  personal  appearance,  supplying  evident 
wants,  and  punishment  of  criminal  acts.    The  result  was  that  neither 


8  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

the  iiulividual  nor  the  race  was  made  permanently  better  by  the 
remedies  employed.  The  diagnosis  was  based  on  false  premises  and 
the  remedial  measures  were  useless  or  harmful. 

No  one  personally  familiar  with  the  management  of  the  charitable, 
reformatory,  eleemosynary  and  other  institutions  for  the  degenerate 
classes  can  doubt  that  we  signally  fail  to  accomplish  the  objects  of 
their  creation — the  betterment  of  their  inmates.  "We  mass  these  un- 
fortunates together  under  one  name,  and  make  one  prescription  for  the 
lot  that  has  not  the  merit  of  several  ingredients.  Too  often  the  insane 
of  every  form  and  grade,  curable  and  incurable,  are  crowded  into 
asylums,  where  their  individuality  is  merged  in  the  seething  mass; 
the  criminals,  young  and  old,  thieves,  highwaymen,  adulterers, 
murderers,  crowd  the  prisons,  without  the  slightest  effort  or  even  pre- 
tense on  the  part  of  officials  to  individualize  them  and  employ  suitable 
measures  to  render  them  capable  of  self-care,  possibly  of  self-support, 
and  certainly  to  insure  humane  treatment. 

The  experience  of  a  generation  in  official  visitation  and  supervision 
of  the  charitable,  reformatory  and  eleemosynary  institutions  of  the 
State  of  New  York  has  deeply  impressed  me  with  the  conviction  that 
our  efforts  to  benefit  the  vast  population  in  public  and  private  care^ 
idiots,  feeble-minded,  insane,  criminals,  deaf,  blind,  epileptic,  vagrants 
— is  in  a  primitive  stage  of  development.  The  institutions  for  their 
care  and  treatment  are  becoming  less  and  less  curative  and  more  and 
more  custodial.  The  result  is  the  gathering  and  support  at  public  ex- 
pense of  an  immense  population  of  more  or  less  able-bodied  men  and 
women  who  on  account  of  their  various  ailments,  physical  and  mental, 
are  allowed  to  pass  their  lives  to  old  age  in  complete  idleness.  No 
sadder  sight  awaits  the  visitor  to  these  institutions  than  groups  of 
such  people,  well-fed  and  clothed,  sitting  in  idleness  in  and  around 
the  buildings  on  a  bright  summer  day  and  in  view  of  farm  lands 
largely  cultivated  by  paid  laborers. 

One  is  reminded  of  Carlyle's  picturesque  Tourist's  description  of 
the  Workhouse  of  St.  Ives  on  a  bright  autunm  day.  He  says,  ' '  I  saw 
sitting  on  wooden  benches,  in  front  of  their  Bastille  and  within  their 
ring  w^all  and  its  railings,  some  half  hundred  or  more  of  these 
men,  tall,  robust  figures,  mostly  young  or  of  middle  age,  of  honest 
countenance,  many  of  them  thoughtful  and  even  intelligent-looking 
men.  They  sat  there  near  by  one  another;  but  in  a  kind  of  torpor, 
especially  in  silence,  which  was  very  striking.  In  silence ;  for  alas, 
what  word  was  to  be  said?  An  Earth  all  lying  around  crying,  Come 
and  till  me ;  come  and  reap  me ; — ^yet  we  here  sit  enchanted !  In 
the  eyes  and  brows  of  these  men  hung  the  gloomiest  expression,  not  of 
anger,  but  of  grief  and  shame  and  manifold  inarticulate  distress  and 


president's  address  9 

weariness ;  they  returned  my  glance  and  with  a  glance  that  seemed  to 
say,  'Do  not  look  at  us.  We  sit  enchanted  here,  we  know  not  why. 
The  Sun  shines  and  the  Earth  calls;  and  by  the  governing  powers 
and  impotence  of  England,  we  are  forbidden  to  obey.  It  is  impossible, 
they  tell  us. '  There  was  something  that  reminded  me  of  Dante 's  hell 
in  the  look  of  all  this ;  and  I  rode  swiftly  away. ' ' 

Many  of  these  institutions  could  place  on  the  lintel  of  their  en- 
trance door  the  famous  motto,  ' '  Who  enters  here  leaves  hope  behind. ' ' 
An  eminent  physician,  disappointed  at  the  few  discharged  from  these 
charities,  compared  with  the  large  number  admitted,  characterized 
them  as  ''Great  Hospitals  of  Lethargy."  It  has  recently  been  re- 
marked by  an  eminent  statesman  and  acute  observer,  Sir  Horace 
Plunkett,  that,  "rightly  or  wrongly,  it  is  generally  felt  that  the 
service  which  science  renders  in  the  cultivation  and  preservation  of 
our  health  lags  far  behind  its  marvelous  achievements  in  the  region 
of  the  industries  and  arts."  This  statement  is  eminently  true  when 
applied  to  our  efforts  to  improve  the  mental  and  moral  condition  of 
the  degenerate  class.  Ignorance  of  man's  physical  constitution  has 
unfavorably  influenced  every  effort  for  his  betterment  and  still  is  the 
greatest  obstacle  to  .success  in  our  treatment  of  the  defective  and  de- 
pendent classes.  Though  we  live  in  the  noon-day  effulgence  of  the 
sciences  of  biology  and  physiology,  their  light  illumines  only  the 
upper  atmosphere,  and  does  not  penetrate  the  dense  gloom  which 
envelops  the  degenerate  of  our  race. 

unscientific  and  scientific  methods 

There  is  no  better  illustration  than  that  furnished  by  medical  art 
of  the  disastrous  influence  of  ignorance  of  man's  intimate  physi(5al 
nature  upon  efforts  to  relieve  his  disabilities,  and  the  power  of  scien- 
tific knowledge  of  these  essential  facts  to  apply  with  precision  the 
exact  remedy  required  to  give  relief. 

In  the  days  of  ignorance  "the  mysteries  of  physic"  was  a  term  in 
common  use  by  the  profession.  Diagnosis  was  merely  guesswork  and 
therapeutics  was  grossly  empirical.  Diseases  of  organs  were  treated 
in  the  mass  as  a  single  affection.  "Lung  disease,"  "heart  disease," 
* '  liver  disease ' '  were  common  terms,  each  now  laiown  to  cover  a  multi- 
tude of  ailments,  but  unknown  to  the  practiser  of  that  time  because 
he  was  ignorant  of  the  minute  structure  of  the  organs  and  of  the 
consequent  great  variety  of  affections  to  which  each  organ  was  liable. 
In  the  treatment  of  the  diseases  of  an  organ,  the  physician  made  but 
one  prescription,  and  for  any  new  symptom  which  might  appear  he 
added  another  drug,  until  the  single  prescription  sometimes  contained 
ten  or  a  dozen  different  remedies.     This  was  the  famous  "shot-gun" 


10  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

prescription,  which  was  "sure  to  kill  something."  Possibly  this  in- 
cident exphiins  the  familiar  story  of  the  old  physician  who  said  that 
when  he  began  practice  he  had  ten  remedies  for  one  disease,  but  in 
later  life  he  had  one  remedy  for  ten  diseases. 

The  great  revolution  in  medical  practice  came  when  Virchow,  the 
German  medical  scientist,  revealed  the  fact  that  the  ultimate  elements 
of  man 's  physical  organism  are  a  commonwealth  of  infinitesimal  bodies 
Imown  as  cells ;  that  everj^  organ  is  a  wonderful  mechanism  adapted  to 
its  special  function  by  the  multiplication  and  arrangement  of  its  cells 
numbering  thousands  of  millions  in  a  single  organ ;  that  each  cell-unit 
has  its  own  special  function,  its  own  diseases,  its  own  symptoms  and 
requires  its  own  special  remedies. 

It  is  quite  impossible  for  one  who  was  not  a  contemporary  with  this 
discovery  to  appreciate  its  remarkable  influence  on  medicine  as  an 
art.  The  scales  fell  from  the  eyes  of  the  practiser,  and  where  previ- 
ously he  had  known  imperfectly  but  two  or  three  diseases  of  an  organ, 
as  of  the  heart  and  lungs,  he  now  recognized  scores,  each  with  well- 
defined  symptoms,  and  each  requiring  a  special  remedy.  The  entire 
field  of  medical  practice  was  revolutionized ;  diagnosis  became  exact ; 
treatment  precise ;  the  saving  of  life  enormous.  Evidently,  the  basic 
principles  of  medical  practice  are:  (1)  Exact  knowledge  of  the  struc- 
ture and  functions  of  the  organ  affected ;  (2)  the  nature  of  the  diseases 
to  which  it  is  liable;  (3)  the  symptoms  peculiar  to  each  disease.  "With 
this  knowledge  the  medical  practiser  no  longer  masses  diseases  and 
gives  a  multiple  dose,  but  carefully  discriminates  between  the  symp- 
toms, determines  the  single  disease  and  its  progress,  and  then  ad- 
ministers the  appropriate  remedy  and  secures  the  desired  results. 

BIOLOGY  AND  PHYSIOLOGY  THE  FOUNDATION  OF  RACE  BETTERMENT 

But  there  is  a  hopeful  future  dawning  for  all  classes  of  delinquents, 
degenerates,  and  deficients,  however  handicapped  by  heredity,  environ- 
ment, accident  or  disease.  The  science  of  biology  and  of  physiology', 
which  reveals  to  medical  art  the  minute  structure  and  function  of 
the  ultimate  elements  of  the  vital  organs  and  thus  makes  it  exact 
in  practice  to  the  great  saving  of  human  life,  is  penetrating  further 
and  further  into  the  hitherto  mysterious  mass  of  apparently  homo- 
geneous matter,  the  brain,  and  astonishing  the  world  with  its  won- 
derful revelations.  Here  it  has  found  the  very  springs  of  human 
existence — the  centers  of  consciousness,  thought,  action — the  home  of 
the  soul,  the  Ego,  the  man. 

In  these  discoveries  we  find  the  basic  principles  of  race  better- 
ment.    The  adage  is  still  true,  that  it  is  "the  mind  that  makes  the 


president's  address  11 

man,"  and  all  our  efforts  to  improve  the  individual  and  through  him 
the  race  must  center  in  the  normal  development  and  physiological 
action  of  the  ultimate  elements  of  the  brain,  the  organ  of  the  mind. 
Every  effort  we  make  to  improve  man's  physical  condition  should  be 
subordinate  to  its  effect  on  the  brain.  A  recent  writer  says,  ''What- 
ever elevates  the  physiological  above  the  psychological,  the  body  above 
the  mind,  is  an  enemy  of  the  race  and  no  method  for  its  regeneration." 
Henceforth,  all  our  efforts  to  better  his  condition  should  be  based  on 
an  intimate  knowledge  of  the  brain,  admittedly  the  organ  through 
which  that  mj^sterious  entity,  the  mind,  finds  expression. 

In  order  to  obtain  a  more  thorough  understanding  of  the  subject 
matter  of  this  paper,  especially  by  lay  members,  it  will  be  necessary  to 
explain  in  a  familiar  way  some  features  of  the  structure  and  functions 
of  the  elements  of  the  brain. 

THE  CIOLI. — THE  NEURONE 

Reduced  to  its  simplest  form  and  expression, the  ultimate  element  or 
unit  of  the  brain  is  a  cell  which  with  its  nerve  is  now  called  a  "neu- 
rone." This  infinitesimal  body  is  recognized  by  scientists  as  the 
source  of  all  mental  phenomena — thought,  word,  act.  In  efforts  to 
express  their  estimation  of  brain-cells  in  the  relation  which  they  bear  to 
the  mentality  of  the  individual,  the  most  eminent  physiologists  of  our 
time  have  used  the  following  emphatic  terms :  One  states  that  "the  cell 
is  a  unified  organ ;  a  self-contained  living  being ; "  a  second  regards  it 
as  ' '  the  sole  active  principle  in  every  vital  function ; "  a  third  asserts 
that  it  is  "the  medium  of  sensation,  will  and  thought,  the  highest  of 
the  psychic  functions;"  a  fourth  says,  "As  are  his  neurones  (brain 
cells)  so  is  the  man." 

Recently,  Ernest  Haeckel.  the  German  scientist  and  philosopher, 
has  made  the  following  contribution  to  the  cell  theory,  "We  have  now 
ascertained  in  the  clearest,  most  indisputable  manner  that  all  which 
we  term  the  'soul'  is  in  a  scientific  sense  nothing  more  than  the  total 
effect  or  function  of  the  '  Soul  Cells  of  the  numerous  neurones  in  the 
brain '. ' ' 

Though  the  cell  is  so  "extraordinarily  complicated  that  its  essential 
constitution  eludes  our  observation,"  its  general  structure  and  more 
important  features  are  well  known.  The  following  facts  in  regard  to  it 
have  been  recorded  by  physiologists :  A  cell  is  "an  individuated  mass 
of  protoplasm,  generally  of  microscopic  size,  with  or  without  a  nucleus 
and  a  wall. "  Protoplasm  is  an  albuminoid  substance  capable  of  mani- 
festing vital  phenomena,  as  motion,  sensation,  assimilation,  reproduc- 
tion ;  the  least  particle  of  this  substance,  a  single  cell,  may  be  observed 
to  go  through  the  whole  cycle  of  vital  functions ;   it  builds  up  every 


12  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

vog'ctabU'  and  animal  fabric  ;  it  is  the  physical  basis  of  life  of  all  plants 
and  animals. 

The  protoplasm  of  the  brain  cells  is  so  extremely  sensitive  that  by 
proper  instruments  a  change  can  be  detected  in  its  substance  when  a 
cloud  passes  over  the  sun ;  also  a  thermometer  v^ill  detect  a  rise  of  its 
temperature  during  any  great  mental  effort ;  and,  again,  delicate  scales 
■will  weigh  the  amount  of  blood  which  rushes  to  the  excited  brain  cells 
for  their  nutrition  when  a  person  in  a  recumbent  position  has  sudden 
mental  excitement. 

The  cells,  estimated  to  be  upwards  of  two  thousand  millions  in  the 
human  brain,  are  implanted  before  birth  in  a  rudimentary  form  and 
undergo  an  evolution  from  the  cell  of  the  lowest  animal  life  to  the 
complex  cell  of  the  human  brain.  Though  at  birth  the  cell  has  been 
perfected,  so  far  as  regards  its  structural  adaptation  to  its  special 
future  function,  yet  it  will  remain  in  an  inert  state  and  undergo  no 
further  change  or  development  until  excited  to  activity.  Each  cell  has 
its  own  special  function  to  perform  and  hence  has  its  own  special 
stimulant;  the  cells  of  the  auditory  center  are  stimulated  by  sound, 
those  of  the  ophthalmic  center  by  light,  those  of  the  olfactory  center  by 
odors. 

Physiologists  believe  that  in  the  human  brain  there  are  large  num- 
bers of  nerve-cells  that  remain  undeveloped  because  never  excited  to 
functional  activity,  and  also  that  at  any  period  of  life,  cells  hitherto 
inert  may  receive  their  proper  stimulus  and  become  active.  They  assert 
that  if  to  the  born-blind  there  is  no  world  of  light,  and  to  the  born-deaf 
there  is  no  world  of  sound,  may  it  not  be  a  fact  that  worlds  exist 
around  us  other  than  those  revealed  by  the  five  special  senses ;  worlds 
which  we  do  not  recognize  because  the  special  nerve  centers  for  that 
purpose  have  not  as  yet  been  stimulated  to  activity?  St.  Paul  hints 
at  that  opinion  when  he  declares  that  spiritual  truths  cannot  be  dis- 
cerned except  the  spiritual  (cells)  sense  has  been  awakened  and 
Haeckel  now  asserts  that  the  soul  is  the  output  of  the  functional 
activity  of  "Soul  Cells."  Along  the  same  line  of  conjecture  may  we 
not  suggest  that  many  strange  mental  phenomena — dreams,  telepathy 
— hypnotism — find  their  proper  explanation. 

Cells,  like  other  tissues,  are  constantly  undergoing  change  in  the  act 
of  nutrition  and  owing  to  their  extreme  susceptibility  to  impressions, 
their  functions  are  easily  disturbed  by  the  food  we  eat,  the  fluids  we 
drink,  the  condition  of  our  digestion,  in  addition  to  the  infinite  number 
of  impressions  which  they  daily  receive  from  causes  internal  and  ex- 
ternal to  the  body.  For  this  reason  our  mental  moods  are  constantly 
changing ;  we  are  not  the  same  this  year  that  we  were  last  year,  this 
month  that  we  were  last  month,  this  evening  that  we  were  this  morn- 


president's  address  13 

ing.  It  follows  that  any  change  in  the  constitution  or  structure  of  the 
cell  must  be  attended  by  a  derangement  of  its  function  that  would 
find  expression  in  the  mental  acts  of  the  individual.  If  a  group  of 
cells  should  from  any  cause  cease  to  act,  the  mental  attributes  which 
they  manifest,  when  acting  normally,  must  cease.  Equally,  if  the 
same  cells  are  overstimulated,  their  fiuictional  activity  is  correspond- 
ingly increased.  Or,  again,  if  the  properties  of  the  cells  are  changed, 
as  by  alcoholic  intoxication,  or  by  any  other  toxic  agent  which  finds 
access  to  the  brain  and  for  which  any  cells  have  an  affinity,  the  normal 
function  as  expression  would  be  changed  to  the  extent  that  the  aff'ected 
bodies  contribute  to  the  mentality  and  personality  of  the  individual 
and  in  the  particular  feature  involved  therein. 

The  wise  Diotama  said  to  Socrates  most  truly  (Symposium  of 
Plato)  :  "In  the  same  individual  there  is  succession  and  not  absolute 
unity;  a  man  is  called  the  same,  but  yet  in  the  short  interval  which 
elapses  between  youth  and  age  ...  he  is  undergoing  a  perpetual 
process  of  loss  and  reparation.  .  .  .  And  this  is  true  not  only  of  the 
body  but  also  of  the  soul,  whose  habits,  tempers,  opinions,  desires, 
pleasures,  pains,  fears  never  remain  the  same  in  any  one  of  us,  but  are 
always  coming  and  going." 

Physiology  teaches  that  these  cells  endow  all  forms  of  animal  ex- 
istence with  that  degree  of  intelligence  necessary  to  their  personal  wel- 
fare in  the  sphere  in  which  they  live — man,  cosmopolitan  in  his  habits, 
standing  at  the  head  with  two  thousand  millions  as  his  requirement; 
and  the  animalcule,  fixed  in  its  place,  with  few  to  meet  its  simple  wants. 
It  follows  that  these  cells,  so  far  as  they  exist  and  are  brought  into 
functional  activity,  constitute  the  personality  of  the  individual,  the 
"ego,"  whether  of  man  or  animal. 

And  wherever  these  cells  are  found,  whether  in  the  brain  of  man 
or  l)east,  fish  or  fowl,  insect  or  creeping  thing,  they  only  await  the 
skill,  the  cunning,  the  patience  of  the  expert  educator  or  animal  trainer 
to  show  the  world  an  idiot  working  at  his  trade,  a  horse  responsive  to 
every  word  or  gesture  of  his  keeper,  a  dog  going  on  an  errand  by  com- 
mand of  his  master  whom  he  does  not  see  and  always  selecting  the  right 
article,  a  learned  pig  solving  arithmetical  problems,  seals  performing 
difficult  stunts,  ants  learned  in  military  tactics,  fleas  expert  in  social 
functions. 

The  perfect  brain  must  be  one  in  which  all  of  its  cells  have  their 
full  and  normal  functional  development.  But  the  degree  of  develop- 
ment depends  upon  so  many  conditions  personal  to  the  individual  that 
it  is  doubtful  if  a  perfect  human  brain  ever  did  or  ever  will  exist  on 
this^  planet.  In  every  community,  and  often  in  the  family,  we  recog- 
nize vast  differences  in  the  mental  development  of  individuals,  though 


14  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

they  seem  to  be  living  under  precisely  the  same  conditions.  But  under- 
lying, or  interwoven  in,  these  external  and  recognized  similar  condi- 
tions are  undiscovered  incidents  that  account  for  the  differences  so  ap- 
parent. 

Traced  to  its  true  source  it  will  be  found  that  the  want  of  opportu- 
nity to  apply  the  greater  number  and  variety  of  stimulants  to  the 
brain  through  the  special  senses — seeing,  hearing,  feeling,  tasting, 
smelling — accounts  for  much  of  what  we  call  degeneracy.  The  farm 
laborer  toiling  alone  has  none  of  the  intelligence  and  vivacity  in  con- 
versation, of  the  village  tailor,  cobbler  or  blacksmith,  though  equally 
endowed  mentally.  The  farmer  has  few  brain  stimulants,  while  the 
latter  are  abundantly  supplied  through  constant  contact  with  cus- 
tomers. A  schoolboy  rated  as  deficient  saw  an  older  scholar  sketch  a 
horse  on  the  schoolroom  door ;  he  was  so  profoundly  impressed  by  the 
picture  (that  is,  his  art  nerve-centers  were  so  stimulated)  that  he 
devoted  himself  constantly  to  sketching  and  became  the  most  dis- 
tinguished portrait  painter  of  his  time.  Sir  Isaac  Newton  states  that 
he  "stood  very  low  in  his  class"  but  the  sight  of  a  falling  apple 
aroused  dormant  brain  cells  which  revealed  to  the  world  the  law  of 
gravitation  and  made  him  forever  famous.  History  is  replete  with 
incidents  of  the  sudden  awakening  of  hitherto  unstimulated  brain 
cells  of  persons  accounted  defectives.  Can  we,  therefore,  wisely  and 
justly  determine  the  mental  capacity  of  any  living  being,  man  or 
animal,  until  we  have  given  the  opportunity  for  development.  But 
however  handicapped  by  heredity  or  disease,  or  environment,  science 
teaches  wdth  unerring  certainty  that,  unless  their  organic  properties 
are  destroj^ed  by  accident  or  disease,  cells  promptly  respond  to  such 
curative  measures  as  are  adapted  to  relieve  them  of  their  disabilities. 

I  may  ?;eem  to  have  dwelt  on  these  scientific  facts  wdth  too  much 
minuteness  and,  perhaps,  repetition,  but  as  they  are  the  basic  princi- 
ples upon  vs^hich  all  future  progress  in  the  improvement  of  the  so-called 
defective  classes  must  rest,  and  as  they  are  obscure  to  a  layman,  I  have 
been  impressed  vdth  the  importance  of  discussing  them  more  fully 
at  this  first  session  of  the  Conference  on  Race  Betterment. 

The  most  interesting  and  practical  feature  of  these  cells  evidently 
is  the  absolute  control  that  w^e  may  exercise  over  their  functions. 
They  enlarge  and  become  active  when  we  stimulate  them,  and  atrophy 
and  become  passive  when  we  withhold  stimulants.  As  each  cell,  or 
group  of  cells,  has  its  own  special  function  to  perform,  we  can  select 
the  group  that  will  accomplish  the  object  we  have  in  view,  and  stimu- 
late it  to  the  degree  necessary  to  reach  the  desired  result.  Or  we  may 
reduce  an  active  group  of  cells  to  their  rudimentary  state  of  quiescence 
by  withholding  its  proper  stimulant. 


president's  address  15 


METHODS  OP  IMPROVING  THE  RACE 


Reduced  to  its  simplest  expression  the  question  that  confronts  us  is, 
How  can  we  secure  to  each  individual  of  the  race  a  normal  develop- 
ment of  brain  cells?  Applying  these  basic  principles  to  the  better- 
ment of  the  race,  two  methods  of  procedure  naturally  occur  to  the 
scientific  student.  First  is  prevention,  or  the  adoption  of  such  meas- 
ures as  will  prevent  the  birth  of  degenerates ;  and,  second,  an  effort  to 
improve  the  condition  of  existing  degenerates. 

Two  methods  of  preventing  the  propagation  of  degenerates  are 
practiced;  viz.,  (1)  Sterilization,  and  (2)  segregation  of  the  sexes. 
These  methods  are  efficient  means  of  preventing  the  increase  of  those 
who  submit  to  the  test.  But  however  effective  sterilization  and  segre- 
gation may  be  in  arresting  the  increase  of  degenerates,  they  are 
methods  which  must  necessarily  have  limited  application.  The  great 
problem  before  this  Conference  and  all  workers  in  the  field  of  philan- 
thropy is  the  betterment  of  the  defectives  as  we  find  them  in  every 
grade  of  society. 

If  we  adopt  the  basic  principles  of  race  betterment  as  herein  set 
forth,  that  problem  may  be  stated  as  follows:  How  can  me  make  the 
brain  of  the  defective  most  useful  to  its  possessor?  Considering  the 
remarkable  sensitiveness  of  the  nerve  cells  of  the  brain  to  impressions 
both  within  and  without  the  body,  it  is  evident  that  the  measures  which 
ma}^  be  employed  to  arouse  the  cells  to  activity  and  restore  their  nor- 
mal functional  capacity  are  innumerable,  and  their  effectiveness  will 
depend  upon  the  intelligence,  patience  and  perseverance  of  the  re- 
sponsible caretaker. 

THE  EDUCATION  OP  IDIOTS 

The  first  efforts  in  this  country  to  teach  the  idiot  strikingly  illus- 
trate the  preceding  statement  of  the  basic  principles  of  race  better- 
ment. More  than  a  half  century  ago  Dr.  Harvey  B.  Wilbur  reduced 
the  theories  of  science  to  practice  and  demonstrated  their  truth.  I 
was  witness  of  his  experimental  work  on  idiots  and  feeble-minded,  and 
it  is  interesting  to  note  that  it  is  founded  on  the  modern  teaching 
of  physiology  in  regard  to  the  structure  and  function  of  the  brain 
cells.  His  explanation  of  his  method  was  to  the  effect  that  the  idiot 
had  a  dormant  nervous  system,  and  the  first  step  in  his  education  must 
be  to  arouse  the  brain  to  activity;  that  the  best  method  of  making  a 
first  impression  was  through  the  sense  of  feeling ;  that  the  shock  com- 
municated by  a  metallic  substance  through  the  sensitive  surface  of  the 
hand  was  the  most  effective.  His  argument  was  logical.  In  practice 
he  placed  the  idiot-child  on  the  floor  and  laid  a  dumb-bell  by  his  side, 
fixing  the  child's  hand  on  the  shaft.     Standing  in  front  of  his  pupil. 


16  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    HETTERMENT 

the  doctor  delilxn-ately  struck  the  boy's  dumb-bell  with  a  dumb-bell  in 
his  own  hand.  The  first  trial  was  on  a  boy  whose  idiocy  was  so  pro- 
found that  he  scarcely  noticed  anything.  The  clash  of  the  metals 
startled  the  boy  so  that  he  involuntarily  removed  his  hand  from  the 
dumb-bell.  This  w^as  the  first  trial,  as  he  had  just  been  received.  The 
doctor  pronounced  him  a  promising  pupil,  as  his  nervous  system  was 
sensitive  to  impressions. 

Three  other  pupils  under  training  were  tested,  each  showing  im- 
provement in  proportion  to  the  length  of  time  of  teaching ;  the  first  of 
these  raised  his  eyes  and  was  excited  as  the  Doctor's  dumb-bell  de- 
scended ;  the  second  removed  his  hand  before  the  dumb-bell  was  struck, 
and  laughed ;  the  third  imitated  the  Doctor  in  the  use  of  the  dumb- 
bell. 

Doctor  Wilbur  explained  that  this  method  of  arousing  a  dormant 
brain  (unconsciously  referring  to  the  cells)  had  this  advantage,  that 
he  stimulated  at  once  three  of  the  five  special  senses — feeling,  seeing, 
hearing.  If  we  could  trace  the  far-reaching  connections  of  the  cells  of 
the  special  centers  with  other  centers  higher  in  the  brain  and  leading 
up  to  the  great  centers  of  ideation,  we  should  have  seen  himdreds  of 
thousands  of  inert  and  hitherto  dormant  cells  awakened  to  activity  and 
the  performance  of  their  proper  function. 

REFORM   OF  CRIMINALS 

The  treatment  of  the  criminal  class  on  the  physiological  or  hu- 
mane system  strikingly  illustrates  its  value  compared  with  the  punitive 
methods  still  practiced.  It  is  interesting  to  notice  the  conclusion  of  the 
last  meeting  of  the  International  Prison  Congress  which  was  to  the 
effect  that  no  criminal  is  hopelessly  bad  and  incapable  of  reform. 

Socrates  replied  to  an  Athenian  who  inquired  as  to  the  best  method 
of  correcting  the  vicious  and  criminal  tendencies  of  his  son,  ' '  Remove 
from  him  all  conditions  which  incite  to  vice  and  substitute  the  allure- 
ments of  virtue. ' '  In  physiological  language  he  said,  ' '  Cease  to  stimu- 
late the  vicious  brain  cells  which  are  now  excited  and  govern  his 
thought  and  they  will  waste  and  cease  to  influence  him ;  stimulate  the 
virtuous  cells  and  they  will  enlarge  until  they  control  his  acts." 

"When  you  pass  through  the  gate  to  this  place,  you  left  your  past 
life  behind  you;  I  do  not  wish  to  have  you  ever  refer  to  it;  my 
only  concern  is  as  to  what  your  future  life  will  be,  and  to  determine 
that  question  you  are  here."  Such  was  the  reply  which  the  superin- 
tendent of  a  prison  for  convict  women  made  to  the  threats  of  homicide 
of  a  young  woman  who  was  declared  by  a  Boston  judge  to  be  the  most 
desperate  criminal  ever  known  in  the  courts  of  that  city.  She  boasted 
of  having  been  in  every  prison  in  Ireland  and  in  many  of  this  country. 


president's  address  17 

The  treatment  was  physiological;  all  incitements  to  vice  and  crime 
were  removed  and  every  possible  stimulant  to  virtue  substituted ;  the 
cells  of  the  former  wasted  while  the  cells  of  the  latter  grew  and  became 
dominant.  Today  the  priest  of  her  parish  in  Ireland  writes  that  she 
is  the  most  helpful  person  he  has  in  his  work  among  the  \dcious  classes. 

' '  Try  me, ' '  said  a  prisoner  to  the  sheriff  who  asked  him  if  he  would 
work  for  wages.  These  two  words  reformed  the  management  of  a 
Vermont  prison  and  made  it  a  school  for  the  making  of  useful  citizens. 
The  prisoners  go  out  to  work  in  the  city  of  Montpelier  and  command 
by  their  conduct  universal  respect.  They  are  seen  on  the  streets  on 
holidays  without  attendants;  they  receive  wages  for  their  work  and 
thereby  support,  not  only  their  families,  but  the  prison  itself.  They 
leave  the  prison  prepared  to  lead  the  lives  of  good  citizens  and  few  fail 
to  meet  that  test  of  true  reform. 

"I  am  going  to  make  men  and  not  brutes  of  these  fellows,"  said 
Governor  West,  of  Oregon,  when  he  began  his  famous  prison  reforms. 
His  "first  trick"  with  a  convict,  it  is  reported,  stirred  the  state  from 
the  lowest  to  the  highest.  He  requested  the  warden  of  the  prison  to 
give  one  of  the  most  desperate  prisoners  a  dime  and  direct  him  to  call 
at  the  executive  office.  The  warden  replied  that  to  give  Jim  Baggs  a 
dime  and  his  liberty  meant  that  Jim  would  soon  be  scarce  in  Oregon. 
He,  however,  complied  and  the  prisoner  soon  appeared  at  the  state 
house ;  he  was  in  prison  dress  but  was  very  proud,  informing  every 
officer  who  he  was  and  that  he  came  on  the  Governor's  invitation.  A 
position  was  found  for  Jim  Baggs  on  a  farm  where  he  did  good  service 
and  the  Governor  made  him  his  first  "honor  man."  This  reform 
in  prison  discipline  resulted  in  the  release  of  prisoners  on  parole  "in 
droves, ' '  who  found  situations  outside  and  earned  their  living  and  be- 
came respectable  citizens.  It  is  stated  that,  when  one  of  his  "honor 
men"  broke  parole,  the  Governor  went  out  himself  and  captured  him. 
Since  that  time  the  other  convicts  have  made  that  prisoner's  life 
miserable.  The  Governor  sent  a  crew  of  forty  convicts,  without  prison 
dress  and  unattended,  to  a  distant  town  to  work  on  a  road.  He  says, 
"Oregon  won't  need  a  penitentiary  at  an  early  date." 

"Arizona  State  Prison,  a  School  for  Developing  Manhood,"  is  the 
startling  headline  of  a  daily  paper.  Governor  Hunt's  policy  in  the 
management  of  prisons  is  physiological.  He  says,  "Shall  we  go  on 
making  penitentiaries  schools  of  crime,  or  make  an  effort  to  build  up 
the  man's  character,  restore  his  self-respect,  strengthen  his  weakness, 
and  cultivate  in  him  a  proper  appreciation  of  his  relation  to  others,  and 
to  society  in  general?  You  can  never  do  these  things  hy  continually 
reminding  him  that  he  is  a  criminal,  dy  suhmMting  him  to  small  hu- 
miliations or  to  cruelties." 


18  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

The  result  of  the  management  based  on  these  principles  is  given  by 
a  prisoner:  "The  Governor  thinks  we  are  worth  saving  and  he  is 
willing  to  let  us  come  back.  Pie  has  taken  away  all  our  useless  humili- 
ations that  kept  before  us  our  condition.  The  Governor  trusts  to  our 
honor  to  obey  the  prison  laws  and  there  is  not  an  English-speaking 
prisoner,  at  least,  who  would  do  anything  to  bring  discredit  on  the 
Governor's  policy.  You  have  no  idea  already  of  the  difference  in  the 
men  among  themselves.  We  used  to  have  fights  every  day.  Oh !  it 
M'as  hell.  Now,  although  we  are  restless,  and  every  man  longs  for 
liberty,  we  are  at  peace. ' ' 

Other  states  are  adopting  the  humane  policy  and  converting  their 
prisons  into  schools  of  reform  and  with  marvelous  results ;  prisoners  of 
all  grades  respond  to  the  influences  which  remove  from  their  thoughts 
the  incentives  to  vice  and  crime  and  yield  to  the  allurements  of  virtue. 
The  punitive  or  savage  policy  in  treating  convicts  is  generally  domi- 
nant and  the  result  is  that  prisons  are  schools  of  vice  and  a  dead 
weight  of  taxation. 

CURATIVE    TREATMENT    OP    THE    INSANE 

The  curative  treatment  of  the  insane  received  a  stunning  blow  by 
the  publication  of  some  ancient  statistics  showing  that  large  numbers 
discharged  as  cured  relapsed.  This  report  by  an  eminent  alienist  had  a 
blighting  effect  upon  the  faith  of  medical  men  in  the  real  curability  of 
the  insane,  and  revived  the  old  but  popular  belief,  "Once  insane  al- 
ways insane."  The  result  was  that  their  treatment  became  more  em- 
pirical than  scientific,  the  state  hospitals  custodial  rather  than  curative, 
and  the  rate  of  cures  a  meager  25  to  30  per  cent.  An  expert  alienist, 
familiar  with  the  management  of  institutions  for  the  insane,  has  re- 
cently stated  that  75  per  cent  of  the  insane  are  curable,  and  90  per 
cent  are  capable  of  self-support,  if  adequate  measures  are  taken  for 
their  cure,  and  for  their  training.  "Adequate  measures"  embrace  an 
exhaustive  study  of  each  case  by  a  competent  physician  and  persistent 
treatment. 

Finally,  I  can  only  allude  to  the  vast  but  practically  unexplored 
field  of  medical  therapeutics,  which  we  have  reason  to  believe  abounds 
with  agents  for  which  brain-cells  have  a  selective  affinity.  As  we  have 
stated,  each  cell  has  its  own  special  stimulant  and  its  own  power  of 
selecting  from  the  blood  the  kind  of  nutriment  and  stimulant  adapted 
to  its  function.  When  we  know  the  affinity  which  any  cell  or  group  of 
cells  has  for  a  particular  medicine  we  can  medicate  that  particular 
cell  or  group  with  perfect  accuracy.  Thus,  the  oculist  wishes  to  ex- 
pand the  pupil  of  the  eye  in  order  to  explore  its  deeper  recesses  and 
with  perfect  certainty  he  uses  atropine,  w^hich  temporarily  paralyzes 
the  nerves  that  supply  the  iris. 


president's  address  19 

Many  similar  instances  of  the  specific  action  of  medicinal  remedies 
upon  special  brain  cell-centers  could  be  mentioned,  but  the  investiga- 
tions in  that  department  of  research  have  not  advanced  sufiQciently  to 
establish  a  code  of  practice.  We  can  only  conjecture  that  medical 
therapeutics  vrill  give  us  many  agencies  whose  direct  action  on  nerve 
centers  will  change  their  functions  at  our  will. 

THE  RELIGIOUS   CONSCIOUSNESS 

Examples  of  the  awakening  of  the  religious  consciousness — the 
"Soul  Cells"  of  Haeckel — illustrate  our  subject.  Perhaps  the  in- 
cident of  St.  Paul's  conversion  as  related  by  himself  is  most  illumi- 
nating. "Suddenly  there  shone  from  Heaven  a  great  light  ...  I 
fell  unto  the  ground,  and  heard  a  voice. ' '  A  great  light  and  a  voice 
— sight  and  sound — aroused  to  intense  activity  the  dormant  "Soul 
Cells"  (of  Haeckel),  which  from  that  moment  dominated  every 
thought,  word,  and  act  of  his  life. 

The  power  of  the  Christian  consciousness,  when  awakened  to 
activity,  to  change  the  most  savage  tribes  into  highly  civilized  com- 
munities is  related  as  an  incident  in  the  experience  of  Darwin,  the 
projector  of  the  theory  of  "Evolution."  In  his  first  scientific  voyage 
he  found  a  tribe  of  savages  in  South  America  which  seemed  so  hope- 
lessly animal  that  he  was  inclined  to  believe  he  had  found  the  missing 
link.  Soon  after  his  visit  a  pious  Scotch  captain  of  a  trading  vessel 
visited  the  tribe  and  was  so  impressed  with  their  savagery  that  he 
felt  impelled  to  attempt  their  conversion  to  Christianity.  He  returned 
home,  secured  a  company  of  devoted  Christians,  stocked  his  vessel  with 
the  necessities  of  the  colony  and  returned  to  the  tribe.  Several  years 
later  Darwin  visited  the  tribe  on  one  of  his  scientific  explorations,  in- 
tending to  study  the  people  more  thoroughly.  He  was  surprised  on 
reaching  the  place  to  find  a  flourishing  community  with  its  schools, 
churches,  and  various  industries  under  the  government  of  the  natives. 
On  returning  home  he  visited  the  rooms  of  the  British  Foreign  Mis- 
sionary Society  in  London  and  related  the  incident,  stating  that  he 
desired  to  become  a  subscriber  to  the  propagation  of  a  religion  which 
could  effect  such  changes  in  savages. 

It  would  be  interesting  and  instructive  to  review  the  efforts 
hitherto  made  to  improve  the  mental  capacity  of  the  degenerate,  but 
time  will  allow  the  notice  of  only  the  most  recent  and  promising 
methods  now  under  trial. 

THE   ELECTRIFIED   SCHOOLROOM 

The  first  is  known  as  the  ' '  Electrified  Schoolroom  to  Brighten  Dull 
Pupils,"  of  Nikola  Tesla.    It  is  well  known  that  eminent  experimental 


20  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

psyc'bologfists  believe  that  tlie  liigh-fre(iueiicy  current  intensifies  cere- 
bration ;  that  it  is  a  mental  stimulant  like  alcohol,  but  instead  of  being 
harmful  to  the  brain  cells  as  is  alcohol,  the  electricity  is  harmless  and 
confers  lasting"  benefits. 

Mr.  Tesla's  attention  was  attracted  to  this  subject  by  noticing  the 
efi:*ect  of  electricity  on  one  of  his  assistants  who,  while  making  certain 
high-frequency  tests,  was  very  stupid  in  carrying  out  instructions 
concerning  laboratory  adjustments  equipped  with  a  coil  generating 
high  voltage  currents.  After  a  time  ]\Ir.  Tesla  noticed  that  his  assis- 
tant became  brighter  and  did  his  work  better,  but  supposed  the  change 
was  due  to  his  becoming  more  familiar  with  his  duties.  On  observing 
the  actions  of  the  man  more  closely,  he  concluded  that  his  assistant's 
increased  aptness  and  alertness  was  due  to  a  much  deeper  cause  than 
mere  experience ;  that  the  elements  of  "mental  life" — the  brain  cells — 
had  been  stimulated  to  greater  functional  activity.  This  new,  novel  and 
practical  method  of  awakening  to  activity  dormant  brain  cells,  has 
been  subjected  to  trial  on  a  large  scale  in  Stockholm,  Sweden.  Two 
sets  of  fifty  children  each,  averaging  the  same  age  and  physical  condi- 
tion, were  placed  in  separate  classrooms  exactly  alike  except  for  the 
concealed  wires  in  one  of  the  rooms.  The  regular  school  work  was 
pursued  and  the  test  lasted  for  six  months. 

The  results  recorded  were  as  follows :  The  children  in  the  magne- 
tized room  increased  in  stature  two  and  a  half  inches,  those  in  the 
unmagnetized  room  increased  one  and  one-fourth  inches;;  the  former 
also  showed  an  increase  in  weight  and  physical  development  greater 
than  the  latter.  More  remarkable  was  the  difference  between  the 
mental  development  of  the  two  classes,  viz. :  Those  exposed  to  the 
electric  rays  averaged  92  per  cent  in  their  school  work,  compared 
with  an  average  of  72  per  cent  of  the  children  in  the  other  rooms; 
fifteen  pupils  in  the  electrified  room  were  marked  100,  and  nine  in  the 
other  class.  It  is  stated  in  the  report  that  the  electrified  children  ap- 
peared generally  more  active,  and  less  subject  to  fatigue  than  those 
not  electrified  and  that  the  teachers  experienced  a  quickening  of  the 
faculties  and  an  increase  of  endurance. 

The  method  of  applying  the  electricity  is  thus  stated :  Carefully 
insulated  wires  will  be  inserted  in  the  walls  of  the  experimenting  class- 
room and  the  tests  will  be  carried  on  without  the  knowledge  of  either 
the  teachers  or  the  pupils ;  the  air  of  the  room  will  be  completely 
saturated  with  incalculable  millions  of  infinitesimal  electric  waves  vi- 
brating at  a  frequency  so  great  as  to  be  unimaginable  and  capable  of 
measurement  only  by  a  most  delicate  volt  meter. 


president's  addeess  21 


THE   CLEARING  HOUSE 


The  second  plan  proposes  to  establish  a  "Clearing  House  for 
Mental  Defectives"  and  is  being  matured  in  the  Department  of  Public 
Charities  of  New  York  City.  It  will  co-ordinate  all  organizations 
which  have  supervision  of  children  in  a  common  effort  to  separate  the 
defectives  and  place  them  under  proper  care  and  treatment. 

To  this  Bureau  are  to  be  sent  all  defective  children  that  come  under 
the  supervision  of  the  Department  of  Charities,  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion, the  Department  of  Health,  the  Society  for  the  Prevention  of 
Cruelty  to  Children,  the  Department  of  Immigration,  children 's  courts, 
state  institutions,  dispensaries,  social  workers,  etc. 

The  bureau  will  be  under  the  immediate  control  and  management  of 
a  staff  of  experts  in  mental  and  nervous  diseases.  It  will  also  be 
equipped  with  every  recognized  device  or  appliance  for  determining 
the  mental  grade  of  each  child  admitted,  and  the  particular  nature 
of  feeble-mindedness.  Each  will  be  subjected  to  the  Binet  test,  finger 
prints  will  be  taken,  and  field  workers  will  make  an  investigation  into 
the  heredity  of  each  case.  The  examination  also  will  determine 
whether  the  applicant  is  likely  to  be  dangerous  to  the  community  by 
reason  of  any  criminal  tendencies. 

The  Clearing  House  will  name  the  proper  course  of  action  in  each 
case,  and  send  a  report  on  each  child  to  the  department  or  society 
which  may  refer  the  case.  It  will  also  co-ordinate  all  activities  into 
one  bureau  organized  to  keep  scientific  records  of  the  mentally  de- 
fective individuals  in  this  community. 

BUREAU    OF   SOCI.VL    SCIENCE 

Organized  on  the  same  principles  there  is  maturing  in  the  Bedford 
Reformatory,  New  York,  a  state  system  of  expert  examination  of  con- 
victs and  an  assignment  of  each  to  a  special  institution  adapted  to 
correct  the  physical,  mental  or  moral  defects  found  to  exist.  The 
plan  is  to  have  a  branch  of  service  of  the  reformatory,  but  entirely 
separated  from  it,  where  preliminary  investigations  will  be  made. 
To  this  so-called  "Bureau  of  Social  Science"  the  convict  is  first  ad- 
mitted and  remains  there  until  her  exact  physical  and  mental  condi- 
tion is  determined.  This  examination  may  require  much  time,  but 
when  it  is  completed  the  committing  magistrate  and  the  managers 
have  learned  to  place  her  with  precision  under  such  discipline  and 
influences  as  will  most  powerfully  tend  to  effect  her  reform. 

In  this  scheme  we  recognize  the  practical  development  of  the 
Basic  Principles  of  Race  Betterment,  viz.  (1)  The  thorough  study  of 
each  individual  degenerate  who  is  a  candidate  for  public  care,  and 
(2)  his  or  her  immediate  placement  under  conditions  best  adapted  to 


22  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

correct,  permanently,  the  physical  defect  which  is  found  to  be  the 
predisposing  or  exciting  cause  of  degeneracy.  Adopted  and  intelli- 
gently enforced  as  a  state  policy,  we  cannot  doubt  that  the  Bureau  of 
Social  Science  would  convert  our  custodial  into  curative  institutions, 
our  prisons  and  reformatories  into  ''Schools  for  Developing  Man- 
hood," as  in  Arizona,  and  our  almshouses  into  industrial,  self-sup- 
porting colonies.  Indeed,  might  not  these  burdensome  public  charities 
become  valuable  assets  rather  than  dependencies  of  the  state? 

Members  of  the  Conference,  we  organize  today  and  place  in  full 
operation  in  the  field  of  philanthropy  a  new  force.  The  field  is  the 
world  of  degenerate  humanity  and  the  force  is  the  regenerating  power 
of  applied  science.  Our  efforts  hitherto  to  better  the  race  have  been 
largely  actuated  by  sentiment  and  hence  have  failed  of  that  directness 
and  efficiency  essential  to  the  highest  degree  of  permanent  success. 
It  should  be  the  constant  aim  of  the  promoters  of  this  Conference  to 
establish  its  work  on  an  enduring  basis  and  to  promulgate  no  opinions, 
nor  conclusions,  nor  recommendations  that  are  not  sustained  by  the  im- 
mutable truths  of  science. 

The  Conference  is  to  be  congratulated  upon  the  favorable  conditions 
of  its  first  session  in  the  Battle  Creek  Sanitarium.  We  cannot  express 
in  terms  too  complimentary  our  appreciation  of  the  efforts  of  the 
Medical  Director  and  the  officers  to  render  this  initial  meeting  of  the 
Conference  in  the  highest  degree  successful.  Every  possible  provision 
has  been  made  for  our  comfort  and  entertainment  and  for  the  orderly 
conduct  of  the  sessions  of  the  Conference. 

But  perhaps  the  most  important  feature  of  our  meeting  is  that  we 
are  guests  of  an  Institution  whose  beneficent  mission  is  to  promote  race 
betterment  by  teaching  and  practicing  ' '  The  Art  of  Healthful  Living. " 
The  entire  Institution  is  instinct  with  the  "Battle  Creek  Idea,"  which 
is  also  the  basic  principle  of  the  Conference  on  Race  Betterment, 

Mens  Sana  in  Corpore  Sano. 


STATISTICAL  STUDIES 

THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  A  DECLINING  DEATH  KATE 

Frederick  L.   Hoffman,  LL.D.,   Statistician   of  the  Prudential  Insurance 
Company  of  America,  Newark,  N.  J. 

INTRODUCTION 

The  social  and  economic  problems  which  arise  out  of  a  considerable 
decline  in  the  general  death  rate,  extending  over  a  prolonged  period  of 
time,  are  much  more  serious  and  far-reaching  than  is  generally  assumed 
to  be  the  case.  In  practically  all  civilized  countries  there  is  annually 
a  considerable  excess  of  births  over  deaths,  the  numerical  excess  being 
conditioned  more  generally  by  a  low  mortality  than  by  a  high  fecun- 
dity. For  illustration,  a  given  country  might  have  a  birth  rate  of 
40  and  a  death  rate  of  30,  with  a  resulting  annual  natural  increase  of 
10  per  1,000,  whereas  another  country  might  have  a  birth  rate  of  only 
30  but  a  death  rate  of  15,  with  a  resulting  natural  increase  of  15  per 
1,000.  From  an  economic  and  social  point  of  view  a  low  birth  rate 
and  a  low  death  rate  would  unquestionably  be  more  advantageous  than 
the  opposite  condition,  which  involves  much  needless  waste  of  human 
energy  and  pecuniary  expenditure. 

For  reasons  which  require  no  discussion,  every  civilized  country 
desires  a  normal  increase  in  population,  though  a  high  degree  of  social 
and  economic  well-being  is  not  at  all  inconsistent  with  even  a  station- 
ary population  condition,  such  as  for  some  years  past  has  prevailed 
in  France.  It  has  properly  been  observed  that  the  term  population 
embraces  the  most  extensive  .subject  of  political  economy,  and  most  of 
the  observations  and  conclusions  which  follow,  comprehend  the  prob- 
lem of  population  increase  throughout  the  world  rather  than  the 
underlying  elements  of  fecundity  and  mortality. 

On  account  of  the  world-wide  migratory  movements  of  modem 
populations,  involving  the  transport  of  vast  numbers  from  one  region 
to  another,  it  has  been  necessary  to  include  in  the  present  discussion 
some  very  general  and  rather  approximate  statistics  of  population  in- 
crease, resulting  from  an  annual  excess  of  births  over  deaths, 
with,  however,  numerous  and  necessary  illustrations  for  the  several 
continents  and  countries  in  detail.  The  population  problem  is  no 
longer  merely  a  local  one,  but  practically  conditions  the  material, 
moral,  and  political  well-being  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  entire  world, 
though,  of  course,  to  a  variable  degree. 

S3 


24  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

THE  POPULATION  PROBLEM  OP  MODERN  TIMES 

From  the  time  when  Malthus  first  visualized  in  popular  language 
the  menace  of  a  rapidly  increasing  population  on  the  assumption  of  a 
less  rapidly  increasing  food  supply,  much  speculation  has  been  in- 
dulged in  as  regards  the  ultimate  results  of  population  growth  on  the 
strictly  limited  laud  area  of  the  globe.  Much  of  what  goes  by  the 
name  of  IMalthusianism  stands  for  something  never  said  by  Malthus 
in  his  classical  "Principles  of  Population,"'  just  as  much  that  stands 
for  evolution  or  Darwinism  was  never  given  utterance  or  sanction  by 
Darwin  in  his  "Origin  of  Species,"  and  the  "Descent  of  Man." 

Pre-Malthusian  doctrines  of  population  are  of  historical  rather  than 
practical  interest,  largely  because  of  the  imperfect  statistical  basis 
upon  which  most  of  the  earlier  estimates  of  population  growth  were 
based  by  writers  in  many  respects  sound  in  their  philosophical  and 
economic  theories. 

We  have  no  modern  contributions  to  the  population  problem  which 
correspond  to  the  elaborate  and  well-reasoned  inquiries  of  William 
Godwin  on  "The  Power  of  Increase  in  the  Numbers  of  Mankind," 
published  in  1820;  of  Michael  Thomas  Sadler  on  "The  Law  of  Popu- 
lation," published  in  1830;  and  Archibald  Alison's  treatise  on  "The 
Principles  of  Population,  and  Their  Connection  with  Human  Happi- 
ness," published  in  1840. 

Sir  William  Petty,  in  his  famous  essays  on  "Mankind  and  Political 
Arithmetic"  (1682-87),  assumed  that  a  given  population  would  double 
itself  by  a  natural  increase  during  a  period  of  twelve  hundred  years. 
This  estimate  was  well  sustained  by  the  experience  of  a  period  when 
plague,  pestilence,  famine,  and  wars  frequently  resulted  in  a  stationary- 
condition  of  population,  or  even  in  a  substantial  actual  diminution. 
Petty,  in  one  of  his  twelve  considerations  of  the  conditions  which  affect 
the  increase  in  the  numbers  of  mankind,  properly  included  methods  of 
preventing  "the  mischief  of  plagues  and  contagions,"  which,  although 
only  a  theoretical  assumption  at  that  early  period,  foreshadowed  the 
enormous  sanitary  progress  of  modern  times  and  the  realized  ideals  in 
the  administrative  control  of  the  public  health.  There  is  nothing  more 
instructive  in  this  respect  than  the  sanitary  evolution  of  the  city  of 
London,  so  admirably  set  forth  in  a  work  by  Henry  Jephson,  and  the 
still  larger  and  more  useful  work  by  Creighton  on  "The  History  of 
Epidemics  in  Britain,"  which  is  a  monumental  contribution  to  the 
progress  in  medical  science,  and  all  that  is  summed  up  in  the  term 
civilization,  which  is  fundamentally  conditioned  by  the  highest  at- 
tainable average  duration  of  human  life. 

The  world  of  today  is  not  free  from  pestilence  and  plague,  or 


STATISTICAL    STUDIES  25 

famine  and  war.  but,  comparing  the  ]3resent  with  the  past,  it  is  an 
absolutely  safe  assumption  that  the  waste  of  human  life  was  never 
relatively  as  small  in  the  world's  history  as  is  the  case  at  the  present 
time.  There  are  still  vast  areas  of  the  world,  such,  for  illustration, 
as  India,  where  fevers,  cholera,  and  plague  cause  an  enormous  annual 
mortality,  best  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  during  so  recent  and  short 
a  period  as  1896-1912,  there  should  have  been  over  eight  million  deaths 
from  plague  in  India,  to  say  nothing  of  other  sections  of  Asia  similarly 
afflicted  to  a  greater  or  less  extent. 

The  relative  significance  of  preventable  diseases  in  their  relation 
to  the  general  death  rate  is  best  illustrated  in  the  ease  of  the  Presidency 
of  Bengal,  where,  during  the  year  1911,  out  of  a  total  mortality  of 
32.69  per  1,000,  20.60  represented  deaths  from  fevers;*  2.37,  deaths 
from  cholera;  and  1.44,  deaths  from  plague.  These  three  groups  of 
causes  combined,  therefore,  accounted  for  a  death  rate  of  24.41  per 
1,000,  or  74.7  per  cent  of  the  mortality  from  all  causes.  Considered  by 
local  areas  in  which  cholera  was  particularly  virulent,  it  appears  that 
there  were  towns  in  which  the  death  rate  attained  to  the  almost  in- 
conceivable proportion  of  97.35  per  1,000  (Gaya),  of  which  11.87  was 
caused  by  cholera,  35.61  by  fevers,  and  19.99  by  plague.  Such  condi- 
tions are  extremely  rare  in  modem  civilized  communities,  although  as 
illustrated  in  the  cholera  epidemic  of  the  city  of  IIamburg,t 
the  menace  of  serious  local  outbreaks  is  by  no  means  a  remote  possi- 
bility. 

The  sanitary  security  of  modern  countries  depends  largely  upon 
the  highest  attainable  degree  of  efficiency  in  the  control  of  so-called  in- 
ternational diseases,  and  in  this  respect  no  country  in  the  world  has  a 
better  public  health  service  than  the  United  States. 


*  In  explanation  of  the  term  "fevers"  as  used  in  the  vital  statistics  of 
India,  the  following  explanation  is  quoted  from  the  First  Report  on  Malaria 
in  Bengal,  by  Major  A.  B.  Fry,  M.D. ;    Calcutta,  1912 : 

"Everything  not  cholera,  smallpox  or  something  equally  obvious  is  put 
down  as  fever.  In  etfect  we  have  to  accept  the  fact  that  fever  deaths  as  re- 
ported comprise  all  deaths  not  due  to  these  obvious  diseases.  Marasmic  and 
premature  infants,  infants  dying  of  tetanus  neonatorum,  impi:oper  feeding 
and  bowel  diseases,  nearly  all  deaths  from  respiratory  diseases,  including  both 
phthisis  and  pneumonia,  measles,  enteric  fever,  etc.,  etc.,  are  included  under 
the  fever  heading.  Even  cholera  and  plague  are  often  returned  as  fever,  espe- 
cially at  the  commencement  of  an  epidemic." 

t  During  the  cholera  year  of  1892,  the  general  death  rate  of  Hamburg  was 
39.5  per  one  thousand  population.  There  were  13,948  eases  of  cholera,  of 
which  5,805,  or  41.6  per  cent,  were  fatal.  The  cholera  death  rate  for  the  year 
was  12.7  per  one  thousand,  equivalent  to  32.2  per  cent  of  the  death  rate  from 
all  causes. 


26  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

POPULATION    DENSITY 

The  effect  of  excessive  death  rates  on  population  increase  is  so 
obvious  as  not  to  require  extended  consideration.  India,  in  1911,  had 
a  birth  rate  of  38.6  per  1,000,  and  a  death  rate  of  32.0.  But  for  the 
prevalence  of  epidemic  and  largely  preventable  diseases  the  natural 
increase  in  population  would  have  been  much  greater  than  was  actu- 
ally the  case.  Some  observations  regarding  the  world's  population,  its 
continental  distribution  and  relative  density,  are,  therefore,  pertinent 
to  the  general  discussion  of  the  significance  of  a  declining  death  rate, 
particularly  with  reference  to  population  growth. 

The  number  of  inhabitants  of  the  globe  is  conservatively  estimated 
at  1,750,000,000,  and  assuming  that  the  land  area  of  the  earth  is  about 
52,000,000  square  miles,  the  resulting  density  is  approximately  34 
persons  per  square  mile.  For  the  European  continent  the  density  is 
121  persons;  for  Asia,  57;  for  Africa,  12;  for  North  America,  15; 
for  South  America,  7 ;  and  for  Australia,  including  New  Zealand, 
2.3.    The  facts,  in  detail,  are  given  in  the  table  following : 

APPROXIMATE    DENSITY    OP    THE    WORLD'S    POPULATION,    ESTIMATED    BY 
CONTINENTS  FOR.  THE   YEAR   1911 

Continent                                                Area  in  Sq.  Miles  Population            Pop.  per  Sq.  Mile 

Europe      3,833,567  463,997,000  121.0 

Asia     16,997,639  962,233,000  56.6 

Africa     11,760,689  135,987,000  11.6 

North  America 8,631,657  127,993,000  14.8 

South    America    7,184,021  51,193,000  7.1 

Australasia     3,317,762  7.572,000  2.3 


Total  land  area*    51.725,335  1,748,975,000  33.8 

*  Does  not  include  the  practically  uninhabited  polar  regions. 

It  seems  unnecessary  on  this  occasion  to  discuss  in  detail  the  rela- 
tive density  of  population  of  different  countries  or  political  sub- 
divisions, but  it  may  be  said  that  for  the  more  important  countries 
the  range  in  density  is  approximately  from  an  extreme  of  659  persons 
per  square  mile  in  Belgium,  475  in  the  Netherlands,  374  in  the  United 
Kingdom,  and  343  in  Japan,  to  a  minimum  of  31  for  the  United  States, 
13  for  the  Union  of  South  Africa,  6  for  Brazil,  2  for  Canada,  and  1.6 
for  the  Commonwealth  of  Australia. 

Contrarily  to  the  common  assumption  as  regards  the  ' '  teeming  mil- 
lions" of  the  Far  East,  it  may  be  pointed  out  in  this  connection  that 
the  density  of  population  for  China  is  approximately  100  persons  per 
square  mile,, and  for  British  India,  178.  The  term  ''density  of  popu- 
lation" is,  of  course,  only  relative  in  that  the  same  has  no  reference 
to  the  actual  distribution  of  population  over  a  given  area.*  A  country 

*  For  an  interesting  discussion  of  what  is  assumed  to  be  a  new  law  of 
population  concentration,  see  an  ai-tiele  in  Peterraanns  Geogr.  Mitteilungen, 
Februaiy,  1913,  entitled  "Das  Gesetz  der  Bevolkerungs  Konzentration,"  by 
Dr.  Felix  Auerbach. 


STATISTICAL    STUDIES  27 

may  have  a  relatively  high  density,  due  to  a  vast  aggregation  of  popu- 
lation in  a  few  cities,  and  another  may  have  a  relatively  low  but  more 
widely  dispersed  density  of  far  greater  economic  importance.  The 
latter  condition,  for  illustration,  prevails  in  India,  which  in  part  ex- 
plains the  extreme  difficulties  of  effective  methods  of  local  sanitary 
control. 

It  would  also  be  an  error  to  forecast,  on  the  basis  of  the  foregoing 
estimates  of  density,  the  probable  future  limits  of  population  growth. 
Belgium,  with  the  highest  relative  density,  is  one  of  the  most  pros- 
perous countries  of  Europe,  but  is  dependent  almost  entirely  for  its 
food  supply  upon  other  countries,  in  which  as  yet  the  density  of  popu- 
lation is  very  considerably  below  the  average  for  at  least  the  European 
continent.  There  can  be  no  question  of  doubt  but  that  vast  opportun- 
ities still  exist  for  a  very  substantial  increase  in  the  number  of  the 
earth's  inhabitants,  but  considering  the  attained  degree  of  density  in 
certain  countries,  and  the  unconditional  dependence  of  population  ag- 
gregates for  their  food  supply  upon  more  sparsely  settled  areas,  as- 
sumptions regarding  the  future  possibilities  of  population  increase  are 
likely  to  be  exaggerated  since  the  pressure  upon  the  limited  available 
means  of  subsistence  must  become  more  generally  operative  than  is 
the  case  at  the  present  time. 

GROWTH    OF    THE   WORLD 's    POPULATION 

The  growth  of  the  world's  population  is  naturally  determined  by 
the  excess  of  births  over  deaths  and  the  resulting  gradual  accumula- 
tion of  the  new-born  over  the  diminishing  remnants  of  previous  genera- 
tions. A  persistently  and  rapidly  declining  death  rate,  therefore,  un- 
less offset  by  an  equal  decline  in  the  birth  rate,  must,  in  course  of  time, 
result  in  a  proportionately  more  rapid  increase  in  population  than  has 
been  observed  to  have  taken  place  during  historic  periods  of  time.  The 
ultimate  effect  of  such  an  accumulation  of  births  over  deaths  must  be 
in  geometrical  rather  than  in  arithmetical  proportions,  in  the  same 
manner  as  in  pecuniary  calculations  the  results  of  compound  interest 
are  considerably  in  excess  of  the  yield  of  money  invested  at  simple  in- 
terest only. 

Accepting,  for  the  present  purpose,  the  estimate  of  the  world's 
population  for  1900,  of  1,607,000,000,  as  given  by  Sundberg,  and  my 
own  estimate  for  1911  of  1,749,000,000,  there  has  been  an  annual  in- 
crease during  the  intervening  period  of  12,883,000,  or  at  the  rate  of 
7.7  per  1,000.  For  purposes  of  comparison,  it  may  be  stated  that 
during  the  same  period  of  time  the  population  of  the  continental 
United  States  has  increased  from  75,994,575  in  1900  to  93,927,342  in 
1911,  the  annual  increment  of  population  being  1,680,252,  equivalent 


28  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

to  19.45  per  1.000.  Tlu'  density  of  population  in  tlie  eontinental 
United  States  ])ef  scjuare  mile  has  increased  since  1860  from  lO.H  to 
16.9  in  1880  and  from  25.6  in  1900  to  32.1  in  1932. 

Comparing  or  contrasting  the  present  population  conditions  of 
this  country  with  other  relatively  well-developed  sections  of  the  globe, 
we  are  far  from  having  reached  a  point  which  can  be  considered  par- 
ticularly alarming,  but  it  would  certainly  be  a  serious  error  to  reason 
from  general  principles  in  a  matter  of  this  kind,  since  the  problem  of 
over-population,  especially  with  reference  to  economic  conditions,  is 
always,  in  its  final  analysis,  largely  a  local  one.  Thus,  for  illustration, 
the  present  density  of  Ehode  Island  is  508.5  persons  per  square  mile ; 
of  Massachusetts,  418.8  ;  of  New  Jersey,  337.7  ;  of  Connecticut,  231.3  ; 
and  of  New  York,  191.2.  For  all  of  New  England  the  density  is  105.7, 
and  for  the  Middle  Atlantic  States,  193.2. 

All  of  the  available  statistical  information  seems  to  justify  the  con- 
clusion that  the  world's  population  in  general,  and  of  the  more  civi- 
lized countries  in  particular,  is  increasing  at  the  present  time  at  a  more 
rapid  rate  than  in  earlier  years — a  condition  largely  the  result  of  a 
persistent  and  considerable  decline  in  the  death  rate,  which  is  more 
than  an  offset  to  the  observed  decline  in  the  birth  rate.  There  are,  of 
course,  important  exceptions  to  this  conclusion,  which  has  reference  to 
vast  continental  aggregates  rather  than  to  some  of  even  the  largest 
political  subdivisions  of  the  same.  In  some  of  these  the  conditions  of 
population  growth  are  so  seriously  disturbed  by  migration,  immigra- 
tion and  emigration,  and  variations  of  fecundity  and  mortality  due  to 
racial  distribution,  that  precise  conclusions  are  hardly  warranted  in 
the  present  imperfect  state  of  population  and  vital  statistics. 

FORECASTS    OF    POPULATION    GROWTH 

Estimates  of  the  future  population  of  the  United  States  have  been 
many  and  in  a  number  of  instances  they  have  been  verified  with  re- 
markable accuracy  when  limited  to  a  reasonable  period  of  time. 
Darby,  for  illustration,  in  his  "View  of  the  United  States,"  published 
in  1828,  made  a  forecast  of  the  white  population,  which  for  1850  was 
placed  by  him  at  20,412,000,  and  which  was  ascertained  by  the  census 
to  be  19,553,000.  Many  similar  estimates  have  been  sustained  by  subse- 
quent experience,  but  as  a  rule  the  rate  of  fecundity  has  been  taken 
too  high,  especially  for  the  colored  population,  by  writers  basing  their 
views  upon  the  observed  rate  of  increase  of  the  negro  population 
during  a  condition  of  slavery.  Even  DeBow  conceded  a  diminishing 
proportion  of  negro  population  with  an  increase  in  aggregate  growth 
in  population  fully  sustained  by  subsequent  experience.  DeBow,  in 
1862,  estimated  the  negro  population  of  the  United  States  for  1880  at 


STATISTICAL    STUDIES  29 

6,591,000,  whereas  by  the  census  for  that  year  the  same  was  ascertained 
to  be  6,580,000.  All  estimates  of  this  kind  are  certain  to  fail 
if  projected  too  far  forward,  but  they  are  unquestionably  approxi- 
mately trustworthy  for  relatively  short  periods  of  time,  and  for  many 
purposes  are  of  considerable  practical  value.  On  the  assumption, 
therefore,  that  the  decennial  rate  of  increase  in  the  population  growth 
of  the  United  States  will  gradually  diminish,  partly  because  of  a 
probable  decline  in  immigration  and  a  possible  further  reduction  in 
the  birth  rate,  the  following  forecast  is  included  in  this  discussion  as 
a  concrete  illustration  of  the  probable  population  conditions  likely  to 
exist  in  the  continental  United  States  within  a  measurable  period  of 
time. 

POPULATION  ESTIMATE  FOR  THE   CONTINENTAL  UNITED   STATES,    1910-1960 

Year — Census  Population  Density  per  Sq.  Mile 

1910      91,972,000  30.93 

1920    109,999,000  36.98 

1930      130,019,000  43.72 

1940     151,862,000  51.06 

1950    175,248,000  58.92 

1960    199,783,000  67.17 

According  to  this  table  the  approximate  density  of  the  United 
States  by  1960,  assuming  a  normal  rate  of  increase  during  the  inter- 
vening period,  would  only.be  67  persons  per  square  mile,  or  about 
one-fifth  of  the  present  density  of  the  German  Empire.  Glranting  that 
the  immediate  outlook  for  the  future  is  not  as  serious  with  us  as  with 
some  other  nations,  it  is  self-evident  that  the  social,  economic,  and  po- 
litical problems  resulting  from  an  augmentation  in  the  number  of  in- 
habitants and  the  gradual  accumulation  of  vast  aggregates  of  people, 
aside  from  the  mere  problem  of  density  itself,  must  be  among  the  most 
serious  conceivable  and,  therefore,  as  such,  they  are  properly  entitled 
to  an  extended  critical  and  impartial  consideration  at  the  present  time. 

TENDENCY    TO    CITY    GROWTH 

The  trend  of  the  population  all  over  the  civilized  world  is  today 
towards  the  cities,  which  now  contain  a  vastly  larger  number  of  in- 
habitants than  during  any  other  period  of  time  in  recorded  history. 
The  problem  of  urbanization,  from  a  historic,  geographic  and  an  econo- 
mic point  of  view,  has  been  ably  treated  by  Prof.  PieiTe  Clerget,  who 
includes  in  his  discourse  estimates  of  population  for  ancient  cities, 
which,  however,  are  more  or  less  conjectural.  The  same  conclusion 
applies  to  the  dissertation  on  the  "Numbers  of  Mankind  in  Ancient 
and  Modern  Times,"  by  Robert  Wallace,  published  in  Edinburgh  in 
1809 ;  and  the  speculations  of  Sir  William  Petty,  Gregory  King,  and 
others  whose  writings  on  population  estimates  were  previous  to  the 
nineteenth  century,  which  marks  the  dawn  of  modern  census  inquiries. 


30  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

or  the  accurate  enumeration  of  the  numbers  of  mankind,  for  at  least 
the  civilized  portion  of  the  globe.  Sufficient  information,  however,  of  a 
general  nature  is  available  to  warrant  the  assumption  that  in  earlier 
periods  the  proportion  of  urban  population  was  much  less  than  at  the 
present  time,  and  this  certainly  is  true  of  the  United  States,  for  which 
we  have  accurate  data  since  1790.  During  the  twelve  intercensal  periods 
the  proportion  of  urban  population  has  constantly  increased.  The  pro- 
portion of  urban  population  (which  term  includes  all  incorporated 
places  of  2,500  inhabitants  or  more)  has  increased  from  29.5  per  cent 
in  1880  to'4i6.S  per  cent  in  1910.  During  the  last  decade  the  urban 
population  has  increased  34.8  per  cent,  or  in  actual  numbers  11,014,- 
000,  as  against  an  increase  of  only  11.2  per  cent  for  rural  territory,  or 
4,964,000. 

RATE   OF   NATURAL  INCREASE  IN   POPULATION 

The  sanitary  progress  of  civilized  countries,  to  which  primarily 
must  be  attributed  the  observed  decline  in  the  death  rate,  to  be  sub- 
sequently discussed  in  more  detail,  has  naturally  been  more  effective  in 
the  large  cities  than  in  the  smaller  communities  or  the  strictly  rural 
territory.  Granting  that  the  birth  rate  of  cities  is  below  that  of  rural 
sections,  it  is  quite  possible  that  there  is  a  larger  excess  of  births  over 
deaths  in  modern  cities  in  consequence  of  the  remarkable  results  of 
sanitary  administration  and  control.  The  annual  excess  of  births  over 
deaths  varies,  however,  quite  widely  for  the  different  countries,  geo- 
graphical subdivisions  and  cities  of  the  world,  and  in  some  exceptional 
cases  even  in  civilized  countries  the  deaths  may  exceed  the  births,  as  is 
well  known  to  be  true  of  modern  France.  On  the  basis  of  the  best 
estimate  possible,  the  present  rate  of  natural  increase  for  the  world 
as  a  whole  is  approximately  7.6  per  1,000  of  population,  equiva- 
lent to  an  actual  increase  per  annum  of  13,260,000.  This  estimate  is 
based  largely  on  the  registration  returns  of  civilized  countries  having 
an  aggregate  population  of  834,000,000,  and  an  excess  of  births  over 
deaths  of  9.3  per  annum.  The  birth  rate  for  these  countries  is  34.3 
per  1,000,  and  the  death  rate  25.0.  The  estimate,  therefore,  is  quite 
conservative,  and  in  all  probability  the  actual  increase  is  greater  than 
that  assumed.  For  the  non-registration  countries  I  have  assumed  an 
annual  excess  of  births  over  deaths  of  only  5.8  per  1.000,  which  is 
considerably  below  the  normal  excess  of  births  over  deaths  in  the  reg- 
istration countries  of  Asia,  which  include  nearly  all  of  India,  the 
Island  of  Ceylon,  the  French  possessions  in  Cochin-China  and  the 
Empire  of  Japan.  For  these  four  countries  combined  the  natural  in- 
crease per  annum, or  excess  of  births  oyer  deaths, is  7.3  per  ],000,or  the 
annual  difference  between  a  birth  rate  of  38.4  and  a  death  rate  of  31.1. 


STATISTICAL,    STUDIES  31 

It  seems  a  safe  assumption  that  in  the  remainder  of  the  world,  for  which 
information  is  not  available,  the  probable  rate  of  natural  increase  is 
about  5.8  per  1,000.  With  an  annual  increase  of  7.6  per  1,000,  assum- 
ing no  further  improvement  in  the  general  death  rate,  which,  however, 
is  most  likely  to  occur,  the  world's  population  may  be  expected  to 
double  itself  in  about  ninety  years.  Since  the  death  rates  throughout 
the  civilized,  as  well  as  the  uncivilized,  world  are  known  to  be  gener- 
ally declining,  the  rate  of  doubling  the  population  is  quite  possibly  to 
be  achieved  in  even  a  shorter  period  of  time.  A  summary  statement  of 
the  estimated  natural  increase  of  the  world's  population  is  given  in 
the  table  below: 

ESTIMATED     ANNUAL    NATURAL    INCREASE     OF    THE     WORLD'S    POPULATION 

AS  BASED  ON  THE  MOST  TRUSTWORTHY  REGISTRATION  RETURNS 

FOR    RECENT    YEARS,     CHIEFLY    FOR    1911 

„     ^.        ^  Estimated  Estimated  No.  of  i^_2-J  £      <» 

Continents  "S'3'R.s  'S'3  § 

Population  Births  Deaths         •-^'''l,  ■§  a  " 

la's  S  O  «  t'  c 

H  ;z;  ftO^  H  <1  M 

Europe    463,997,000  15,545,640      10,657,220  10.5  4,888,420 

Asia      962,233,000  37,306,800      31,753,670  5.8  5,553,130 

Africa     135,987,000  5,279,140        4,348,324  6.8  930,816 

North   America    127,993,000  3,495,400        2,286,800  9.4  1,208,600 

South   America    51,193,000  1,950,940        1,368,150  11.4  582,790 

Australasia     7,572,000 214,718  118,071  12.8 96,647 

Total*     1,748,975,000  63,792,638      50,532,235  7^6  13,200,403 

*The  world's  birth  rate  is  estimated  at  36.5,  and  the  death  rate  at  28.9,  per  one  thou- 
sand  of   population. 

DECLINING  DEATH  RATES  OF   CIVILIZED   COUNTRIES 

It  is  only  for  comparativelj^  recent  periods  that  trustworthy  vital 
statistics  are  available  for  a  considerable  portion  of  the  world  with 
local  climatic,  racial  or  other  conditions  sufficiently  varied  to  disclose 
the  approximate  range  in  the  rate  of  mortality  and  the  evidence  of 
its  reduction  or  increase,  as  the  case  may  be.  For  the  registration 
area  of  the  world  the  mortality  rate  at  the  present  time  is  approxi- 
mately 25  per  1,000  per  annum,  which  is  considerably  in  excess  of  the 
death  rate  for  the  more  important  civilized  countries  such  as,  for  il- 
lustration, the  German  Empire,  where  the  rate  is  17.3 ;  England  and 
Wales,  14.6;  France,  19.6;  United  States,  14.7,  and  the  Common- 
wealth of  Australia,  only  10.7.  These  comparatively  low  death  rates 
contrast  with  the  still  prevailing  excessive  death  rates  of  certain  other 
countries,  as,  for  illustration,  23.7  per  1,000  for  Spain,  25.0  for  Hun- 
gary, 30.5  for  Eussia,  31.1  for  Mexico,  33.2  for  India,  and  40.9  for 
twenty  cities  of  Egypt.  During  the  last  thirty  years,  however,  the 
general  death  rate  in  most  of  the  principal  countries  of  the  world  has 
declined,  but  since  the  evidence  in  detail  does  not  permit  of  a  con- 


32  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

venieut  suniniary  discussion,  the  following  comparisons  are  limited  to 
the  two  five-year  periods  ending,  respectively,  with  1885  and  1910. 
The  observed  decrease  in  the  rate  is,  in  each  case,  the  reduction  per 
one  thousand  of  population,  carefully  calculated  on  the  basis  of  avail- 
able census  returns.* 

During  the  thirty  years  under  observation  the  general  death  rate 
declined  in  the  Australian  Commomvealth  from  15.7  to  10.7;  in 
Austria,  from  30.1  to  22.3  ;  in  Denmark,  from  .18.4  to  13.7  ;  in  England 
and  Wales,  from  19.4  to  14.7;  in  Finland,  from  22.2  to  17.4;  in 
France,  from  22.2  to  19.2 ;  in  the  German  Empire,  from  25.3  to  17.9 ; 
in  Hungary,  from  33.1  to  25.0 ;  in  Ireland,  from  18.0  to  17.3  ;  in  Italy, 
from  27.3  to  21.0;  in  the  Netherlands,  from  21.4  to  14.3;  in  New 
Zealand,  from  10.9  to  9.7;  in  Norway,  from  17.2  to  13.8;  in  Scotland, 
from  19.6  to  16.1 ;  in  Spain,  from  32.6  to  24.3 ;  in  Sweden,  from  17.5 
to  14.3 ;  and,  finally,  in  Switzerland,  from  21.3  to  16.0.  For  a  few 
of  these  countries  the  decline  in  the  rate  has  not  been  of  much  actual 
importance,  but  in  practically  all  of  the  countries  the  tendency  of  the 
death  rate  during  the  last  thirty  years  has  been  persistently  downward, 
and  the  present  indications  are  that  there  has  been  a  still  further  de- 
cline in  the  rate  during  the  last  three  years.  Combining  the  mortality 
of  the  principal  civilized  countries,  there  has  been  a  general  reduction 
in  the  crude  death  rate  from  25.09  per  one  thousand  during  the  five 
years  ending  with  1885  to  19.26  per  one  thousand  during  the  five 
years  ending  with  1910,  an  actual  decrease  of  5.92  per  one  thousand, 
equivalent  to  23.2  per  cent.  The  relative  decrease  in  the  rate  has  been 
most  pronounced  in  the  Netherlands,  where  the  present  rate  is  only  63 
per  cent  of  the  rate  prevailing  thirty  years  ago.  The  corresponding 
figure  for  the  registration  area  of  the  United  States  is  76  per  cent ; 
and  for  a  few  other  countries,  respectively.  England  and  Wales,  71 
per  cent;  Denmark,  71  per  cent;  Belgium,  72  per  cent;  the  Aus- 
tralian Commonwealth,  71  per  cent;  Finland,  66  per  cent;  German 
Empire,  72  per  cent ;  Italy,  71  per  cent ;  and  Switzerland,  67  per 
eent.t 

It  requires  to  be  said  in  this  connection  that  the  foregoing  rates 
are  not  corrected  or  standardized  for  variations  or  changes  in  the  age 

*  The  international  vital  statistics  are  derived  most  conveniently  from  the 
annual  reports  of  the  Registrar-General  of  England  and  Wales. 

t  The  remarkable  nnifonnity  in  the  rate  of  mortality  decrease  for  repre- 
sentative countries  dixring  the  last  thirty  years  suggests  that  the  diminution 
is  the  result  of  more  or  less  uniformly  oper^ating'  causes  making  for  the  delib- 
erate reduction  of  the  death  rate  in  consequence  of  practically  identical 
methods  in  sanitary  administration  and  persistent  progress  in  the  practice  of 
medicine,  surgery,  and  personal  hygiene. 


STATISTICAL    STUDIES  33 

and  sex  constitutions  of  the  respective  populations  considered.  Such 
corrections  would  have  involved  much  labor,  with  but  a  slight  prob- 
ability that  the  resulting  conclusions  would  have  been  materially  modi- 
fied. The  results  are  verified  and  otherwise  sustained  by  numerous 
specialized  mortality  studies  on  the  basis  of  scientifically  constructed 
life  tables  for  the  more  important  countries  and  geographical  sub- 
divisions of  the  world,  particularly  the  German  Empire  and  its  con- 
stituent states,  England  and  Wales,  the  Australian  Commonwealth, 
New  Zealand,  etc.  The  observed  decline  in  the  general  death  rate  and 
the  corresponding  increase  in  human  longevity  may,  therefore,  safely 
be  accepted  as  a  world  phenomenon,  and  granting  this,  it  is  difficult 
to  conceive  of  a  more  important  conclusion  affecting  the  future  well- 
being  of  all  mankind. 

DECLINE  IN  THE  DEATH  RATE  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES 

In  the  foregoing  discussion  no  reference  has  been  made  to  the 
statistics  in  detail  for  the  United  States,  since  for  the  earlier  period  no 
data  are  available  which  would  be  strictly  comparable  with  those  of  re- 
cent years.  Most  of  the  following  observations  are,  therefore,  limited  to 
the  decade  ending  with  1910,  for  which  the  registration  returns  are, 
broadly  speaking,  representative  for  the  country  at  large.  Comparing 
the  five-year  period  ending  with  1905,  with  the  corresponding  period 
ending  with  1910,  there  has  been  a  decline  in  the  general  death  rate 
from  16.2  to  15.1  per  1,000.  In  the  table  following  are  brought 
together  the  official  statistics  for  the  United  States  from  1880  down  to 
1913,  when  the  rate  was  only  14.1  per  1,000  of  population.  Taldng 
the  approximate  rate  for  1880  as  100,  the  corresponding  rate  for  1913 
was  only  71.  In  part,  of  course,  it  is  quite  probable  that  the  decline 
in  the  mortality  has  been  slightly  affected  by  the  large  immigration 
during  the  last  thirty  years,  but  in  a  general  way  the  evidence  is  con- 
clusive that  the  reduction  in  mortality  is  the  result  of  a  nation-wide 
improvement  in  sanitary  conditions  and  increasing  effectiveness  of 
federal,  state  and  municipal  sanitary  control. 


GENERAL    DEATH    RATE    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES    REGISTRATION    AREA, 
1880-1913 

Year                                                                                       Population  Deaths  Rate  per  1,000 

1880     8,5.38,000  169,060  19.8 

1890  19,659,440  386,212  19.6 

1900  30,765,618  539,939  17.6 

1905  34,094,605  545,533  16.0 

1910  53,843,896  805,412  15.0 

1911  59,275,977  839,284  14.2 

1912  60,427,133  838,251  13.9 

63,299,164  890,823  14.1 

(3) 


34  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    liETTERMENT 

REDUCTION  IN  DEATH  RATE,  BY   AGE  AND  SEX 

Information  is  fortuuately  available  for  the  United  States  regis- 
tration area  of  1900  to  establish  with  approximate  accuracy  the 
changes  in  the  death  rate,  by  divisional  periods  of  life  during  the  in- 
tervening decade,  ending  with  1911.  The  table  following  has  been 
derived  from  Bulletin  No.  112  of  the  Division  of  Vital  Statistics  of 
the  Bureau  of  the  Census.  The  table  exhibits  the  death  rates  per  1,000 
of  population  at  specified  age  periods,  and  the  percentage  which  the 
death  rate  in  1911  represents  of  the  rate  prevailing  in  1900,  with  the 
required  distinction  of  sex : 

COMPARATIVE   DEATH   RATE    OP   THE    UNITED    STATES   REGISTRATION 
STATES  BY  DIVISIONAL   PERIODS   OF   LIFE,    1900-1911 

Death    Rate*    per    1000    Population  Per  Cent  Death 

A?e  Group  for    States**    included    in    Registra-  Rate     in      1911 

tion  Area   in    1900.  Represents        of 

1911  1900  That   in    1900: 


All  ages : 


§       [S       pqm      %       £h      «!»      1^ 


Crude   rate    14.9  15.8  14.0  17.2  17.9  16.5  87  88  85 

Corrected   rate    *** 14.6  15.3  13.9  17.0  17.6  16.5  86  87  84 

Under  5  years    36.6  39.8  33.3  49.9  54.1  45.7  73  74  73 

Under    1    year    125.5  138.6  112.1  161.9  178.4  145.0  78  78  77 

1    to    4    years     12.8  13.3  12.2  19.8  20.4  19.1  65  65  64 

5    to    9    years     3.2  3.4  3.1  4.7  4.7  4.6  68  72  67 

10   to    14   years    2.2  2.4  2.1  3.0  2.9  3.1  73  83  68 

15    to    19    years     3.5  3.7  3.3  4.8  4.9  4.8  73  76  69 

20    to    24    years     5.0  5.3  4.7  6.8  7.0  6.7  74  76  70 

25    to    34    years     6.3  6.7  6.0  8.2  8.3  8.2  77  81  73 

35    to    44    years     9.4  10.4  8.3  10.3  10.8  9.8  91  96  85 

45    to    54    years     14.5  16.1  12.9  15.0  15.8  14.2  97  102  91 

55    to    64    years     28.4  30.9  26.0  27.3  28.8  25.8  104  107  101 

65  to  74  years 58.3  61.6  55.1  56.5  59.5  53.7  103  104  103 

75    years    and   over    143.0  147.4  139.2  142.4  145.9  139.3  100  101  100 

*  Exclusive  of  still-births.  **  Group  includes  Connecticut,  the  District  of  Columbia. 
Indiana,  Maine,  Massachusetts,  Michigan,  New  Hampshire,  New  Jersey,  New  York,  Rhode 
Island,    and   Vermont.      ***  Based    on    the    standard    million    of    England    and    Wales,    1901. 

The  foregoing  table  emphasizes  the  fact,  not  generally  known  or 
thoroughly  understood,  that  the  observed  decline  •  in  the  American 
death  rate  has  been  chiefly  at  ages  under  35,  and  that  at  ages  35-44, 
for  illustration,  the  relative  rate  for  1911  was  91  per  cent  of  the  rate 
for  1900 ;  at  ages  45.54,  it  was  97  per  cent ;  at  ages  55-64  it  was  104 
per  cent ;  at  ages  65-74,  103  per  cent ;  and  at  ages  75  and  over  it  was 
100  per  cent.  In  other  words,  at  ages  55  and  over  the  death  rate  has 
actually  increased,  which  is  the  more  significant  when  the  rela- 
tively considerable  decrease  at  the  earlier  ages  is  taken  into  account. 

DECLINE  IN  THE  DEATH  RATE  BY  .STATES 

The  next  table  shows  the  decline  in  the  death  rate  r-orrected  for 
age  in  the  several  registration  .states  of  the  United  States  as  existing  in 
the  year  1900 : 


STATISTICAL    STUDIES  35 

COMPARATIVE    DEATH    RATES    BY    STATES,     1900-1911 

Per  Cent  Death 
Corrected*    Death    Rate    per    1,000  Rate     in      1911 

Population  Represents        of 

Area  :^911  1900  That  in   1900: 

og  ^  log's  I  og'S  I 

States  included  in  registration  area  of 

1900    14.6  15.3  13.9  17.0  17.6  16.5  86  87  84 

Connecticut     14.8  15.7  14.0  17.4  18.1  16.7  85  87  84 

District  of  Columbia 18.9  20.8  17.2  24.4  26.1  22.6  77  80  76 

Indiana    12.3  12.4  12.2  14.4  14.2  14.6  85  87  84 

Maine    13.0  13.3  12.6  14.9  14.7  15.0  87  90  84 

Massachusetts    15.0  16.0  14.1  18.1  19.0  17.3  83  84  82 

Michigan    12.4  12.9  12.0  13.9  14.0  13.8  89  92  87 

New  Hampshire    14.2  14.7  13.8  16.3  16.4  16.3  87  90  85 

New    Jersey    15.1  16.1  14.3  18.2  19.3  17.0  83  83  84 

New  York 15.7  16.7  14.8  18.3  19.1  17.4  86  87  85 

Rhode   Island    15.7  16.8  14.8  20.9  21.6  20.2  75  78  73 

Vermont     12.6  12.7  12.5  13.8  13.7  13.9  91  93  90 

*  Corrected  on  basis  of  standard  million  of  England  and  Wales,   1901. 

The  table  is  self-explanatory  and  requires  no  discussion,  but  it 
may  be  pointed  out  that  there  has  been  a  decrease  in  the  death 
rate  corrected  for  age  in  all  of  the  registration  states,  but  to  a  variable 
degree,  the  decline  for  both  sexes  combined  having  been  greatest  in 
the  state  of  Rhode  Island  and  least  in  the  state  of  Vermont.* 


DECLINE  IN  THE  DEATH  RATE  OF  CITIES 

The  evidence  of  a  declining  death  rate  is  still  more  conclusive  and 
suggestive  for  the  large  cities  of  the  United  States  and  of  other  civil- 
ized countries  o£the  world.  Combining  all  of  the  American  cities  for 
which  trustworthy  data  were  available  in  1870,  the  rate  for  that  year 
was  25.5  per  1,000.  which  by  1872  had  increased  to  28.6;  by  1890  the 
rate  had  declined  to  21.8 ;  by  1900  to  18.8;  by  1910  to  16.5;  and  by 
1911  to  15.6.  The  evidence  already  available  seems  to  prove  that  the 
rate  for  1912  was  the  lowest  on  record.     The  rate  for  recent  years  is 

*  The  following  table  exhibits  the  changes  in  the  age  distribution  of  the 
population  of  the  United  States  on  a  percentage  basis,  showing  respectively 
for  the  several  census  years  the  proportionate  population  at  ages  under  5, 
5  to  64,  and  65  and  over  since  18S0.  The  obsen'ed  changes  cannot  be  con- 
sidered sufficient  to  seriously  impair  the  conclusion  that  the  crude  death  rate 
of  the  registration  area  indicates  with  approximate  accuracy  the  mortality 
tendency  of  the  United  States  during  the  last  thirty  years. 

PERCENTAGE    DISTRIBUTION    BY    AGE    PERIODS    OF    THE    POPULATION 
OF   THE    UNITED    STATES— 18S0-1910 

1S80  1890  1900  1910 

Ages                                 %  %  %  % 

0-4     13.8  12.2  12.1  11.6 

5-64     82.8  83.9  83.8  84.1 

65-over 3.4  3.9  4.1  4.3 

All    ages    100.0  100.0  100.0  100.0 


36  FIKST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

based  upon  Ihe  eombiiicd  returns  for  fifty  cities,  with  an  aggre^^ite 
population  of  nearly  twenty  millions.* 

During  the  last  thirty  years  the  death  rate  of  large  cities  of  this 
and  other  countries  has  declined  as  follows,  the  comparison  being 
limited  to  the  quinquennial  periods  ending  respectively  with  1885  and 
1910:  The  death  rate  of  London  decreased  from  20.9  to  14.0  per 
1,000;  of  Dublin,  from  27.5  to  21.6;  of  Paris,  from  24.4  to  17.5;  of 
Amsterdam,  from  25.1  to  13.]  ;  of  St.  Petersburg,  from  32.8  to 
25.5 ;  of  Berlin,  from  26.5  to  15.5 ;  of  Vienna,  from  28.2  to  17.0 ;  of 
Budapest,  from  31.5  to  19.5;  of  Milan,  from  30.3  to  19.3;  of  Mel- 
bourne, Victoria,  from  20.1  to  13.1 ;  of  Sydney,  New  South  Wales, 
from  20.8  to  10.5 ;  of  New  York,  from  27.5  to  17.0 ;  of  Chicago,  from 
21.5  to  14.5 ;  and  of  Philadelphia,  from  22.3  to  17.7.  This  comparison 
is  exceedingly  instructive,  emphasizing,  as  it  does,  on  the  basis  of 
trustworthy  data,  the  conclusion  that  the  decline  in  the  death  rate  is 
world-wdde,  and  that  in  practically  all  the  large  centers  of  population 
the  rate  has  declined,  the  decrease  varying  from  approximately  one- 
fifth  to  one-third  or  more  during  the  thirty-year  period,  with 
definite  indications  of  a  further  reduction  in  the  rate  since  1910  in 
nearly  all  the  localities,  states  and  countries  considered  in  the  present 
discussion. 

IMPROVEMENTS  IN  THE  LONGEVITY  OF  PRIMITIVE  RACES 

The  foregoing  conclusions  are  based  entirely  upon  the  returns  for 
civilized  countries  with  well  established  sanitary  departments  and 
effective  statutory  requirements  providing  methods  and  means  of 
sanitary  control.  Evidence,  however,  is  also  available  for  the  so- 
called  non-civilized  countries  of  the  world  to  warrant  the  conclusion 
that  the  longevity  of  primitive  races  is  increasing  and  that  the  con- 
ditions favorable  to  the  acclimatization  of  white  races  in  the  tropics 
are  constantly  and  rapidly  improving.  This  conclusion  applies  par- 
ticularly to  the  vast  areas  inhabited  by  the  primitive  or  non-European 


*  The  death  rate  of  the  registration  area  for  the  year  1912  was  13.9  per  one 
thousand.  During  1913  the  rate  increased  slightly,  to  14.1.  The  rates  for  the 
five  largest  cities  down  to  1913  were  as  follows: 

DEATH  RATES   OF  LARGE   AMERICAN  CITIES,    1901-1913. 

(Rate  per  1,000) 

Years                                New  York               Chicago               Philadelphia           St.  Louis  Boston 

1901-05 19.0                         14.5                         18.1                         17.9  18.8 

1906-10 16.9                         14.9                         17.7                          15.6  17.9 

1911 15.2                         14.5                         16.6                          15.4  17.1 

1912 14.5                         14.8                         15.3                         14.9  16.4 

1913 14.3                         15.1                         15.7                         14.9  16.4 

From  Prolimiiiarv  Announcement  of  Division  of  Vital  Statistics,  U.  S.  Census  Office,  May 
19,    1914. 


STATISTICAL    STUDIES  ,  37 

races  of  Asia,  chiefly  of  China,  Formosa,  the  English  and  Dutch  East 
Indies,  Ceylon,  the  Straits  Settlements,  and  Siam.  The  conclusion 
also  applies  to  most  of  the  European  possessions  in  Africa  and  to 
vast  territories  in  South  and  Central  America  and  Australia.  For 
India  the  evidence  is  quite  conclusive  that  a  material  improve- 
ment is  taking  place  in  the  health  of  the  people,  which  is  best  illus- 
trated by  the  statistics  of  European  troops  since  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  The  death  rate  has  declined  from  84.6  per  1,000 
during  the  period  1801-30  to  19.3  during  the  decade  ending  with 
1879,  a  further  reduction  having  taken  place  during  the  subsequent 
period,  the  rate  for  1901-05  having  been  12.2 ;  for  1906-09,  8.7 ;  and 
finally,  for  1911  the  rate  w^as  only  4.9.  A  corresponding  decline  in  the 
death  rate  of  native  troops  has  taken  place,  but  limiting  the  discussion 
to  recent  years,  it  declined  from  10.0  during  1901-05  to  6.5  during 
1906-09,  and  to  4.5  during  1911.  These  are  exceptionally  encourag- 
ing statistics,  which  have  their  most  interesting  parallel  in  the  remark- 
able sanitary  achievements  in  the  American  administration  of  the 
Panama  Canal  Zone  under  the  efficient  direction  of  Col.  W.  C. 
Gorgas.  During  the  French  administration,  1881-90,  the  average 
death  rate  of  the  Isthmian  Canal  employees  was  61.3  per  1,000.  Dur- 
ing the  American  administration,  1904-]2,  the  average  rate  was  only 
16.3 ;  and  during  the  last  year  of  the  period,  only  9.2 — an  achieve- 
ment probably  without  a  parallel  in  sanitation  history.  The  annual 
death  rate  of  the  city  of  Panama  in  1887  had  reached  the  almost  in- 
credible proportions  of  121.7  per  1,000.  but  the  rate  has  gradually 
been  reduced  until  in  1912  it  was  only  29.3.  As  another  interesting 
illustration  of  the  observed  decline  in  the  death  rate  of  tropical  coun- 
tries, a  reference  may  be  made  to  the  mortality  of  non-native  British 
officials  in  West  Africa  since  1905,  the  rate  having  been  reduced  from 
an  average  of  28.1  per  1,000  during  that  year  to  ]7.3  by  1909,  and  to 
only  12.4  by  1912.*  At  the  same  time,  there  has  been  an  increase  in 
the  average  length  of  service  from  three  years  and  six  months  in  1905 
to  six  years  and  three  months  in  1912 ;    and  a  substantial  reduction 


•  *  See  also  the  Reports  for  1912  on  Blackwater  Fever  in  the  Tropical  Afri- 
can Dependencies,  published  as  Parliamentary  Paper  Cd.  7211,  London,  1914. 
Also  "Medizinal-Berichte  uber  die  Deutschen  Schutzgebiete,"  published  Berlin, 
1913,  including  reports  on  all  the  Gennan  Colonies,  with  extended  observa- 
tions on  tropical  diseases  and  the  mortality  of  Europeans.  Interesting  in  this 
connection  is  the  Statistical  Analysis  of  the  Mortality  of  Scandinavian  Mis- 
sionaries in  the  Congo  Free  State,  1878-1904.  That  the  improved  tropical 
mortality  is  also  reflected  in  the  experience  of  life  insurance  companies  trans- 
acting business  in  tropical  countries  is  brought  out  by  a  paper  on  the  subject 
in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Actuarial  Society  of  America  for  1908,  by  Arthur 
Hunter,  with  an  extended  discussion  by  other  members  of  the  society. 


38  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

was  also  obtained  in  the  rate  of  invaliding,  from  62.3  per  1,000  in 
1905  to  only  28.2  in  1912.  The  death  rate  of  Algeria,  which  was  once 
considered  extremely  unhealthful,  has  been  reduced  to  19.6  per  1,000 
in  1911.  and  a  large  portion  of  the  country  has  become  a  health  resort 
for  Europeans.  The  death  rate  of  Madagascar  in  1911  was  26.5 
per  1,000,  and  of  Cochin-China,  26.2.  In  the  West  Indies  the  death 
rates  are  diminishing,  the  rate  for  Cuba  being  only  14.7  per  1.000; 
for  the  Dutch  West  Indies,  16.9  ;  for  Guatemala,  18.5 ;  for  Honduras, 
18.7;  for  Salvador,  22.8;  and  British  Guiana,  which  in  former  years 
had  a  very  high  death  rate,  has  now  a  rate  of  only  31.7,  whereas  for 
Venezuela  the  rate  for  1911  was  20.3.  All  of  these  rates  may  safely  be 
accepted  as  evidence  of  a  gradual  diminution  in  the  mortality  of  so- 
called  non-civilized,  or  only  partly  civilized,  countries,  largely  in- 
habited by  primitive  or  other  than  white  races  living  chiefly  in  the 
temperate  zone.* 

SANITARY  PROGRESS  OF  TROPICAIj  COUNTRIES 

A  truly  vast  amount  of  instructive  information  is  available  for  so- 
called  uncivilized  countries  illustrating  the  sanitary  progress  which 
is  being  made,  largely,  of  course,  in  consequence  of  the  white  man's 
conquest  of  tropical  regions,  and  which  is  -bound,  in  course  of  time, 
to  afford  almost  inconceivable  opportunities  for  settlement  and  the 
rational  development  of  natural  resources.  Attention  may  properly 
be  directed  on  this  occasion  to  the  annual  reports  on  the  moral  and 
material  progress  and  condition,  of  India,  of  which  the  58th  was  pub- 
lished during  the  present  year ;  the  report  of  the  International  Plague 
Congress,  held  at  Mukden  in  April,  1911,  which  constitutes  one  of 
the  most  notable  contributions  to  epidemiology;  the  annual  medical 
reports  on  the  German  Colonial  Possessions ;  the  reports  of  the  Ad- 
visory Committee  of  the  Tropical  Diseases  Research  Fund;  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  International  Conference  on  the  Sleeping  Siclcness,  the 
English  reports  on  Blackwater  Fever  in  Tropical  African  Depen- 
dencies ;  the  scientific  reports  of  the  Wellcome  Tropical  Research  Lab- 
oratories in  Khartoum,  Egypt;  the  scientific  publications  and  special 
local  investigations  in  tropical  countries  of  the  tropical  medical  schools 
in  Liverpool,  Hamburg,  Townsville  (Queensland),  London  and  New 
Orleans.  Mention  also  requires  to  be  made  of  the  excellent  report  of 
Prof.  W.  J.  Simpson,  on  sanitary  matters  in  various  West  African 


*  The  mortality  statistics  for  Central  and  South  America  require  of  course 
to  be  accepted  with  extreme  caution.  The  favorable  conclusions  regarding 
the  decline  in  the  South  and  Central  American  death  rates  are  based  upon 
an  extended  study  of  the  facts,  with  particular  reference  to  Yellow  Fever  and 
Malaria.  A  full  discussion  of  the  mortality  of  the  Western  Hemisphere  is 
resei-\'ed  for  future  consideration. 


STATISTICAL    STUDIES  39 

Colonies,  and  on  the  outbreak  of  plague  on  the  Gold  Coast.  For  all 
of  the  British  and  German  West  African  colonies  thoroughly  scien- 
tific reports  are  now  being  published  which,  without  exception, 
reflect  the  evidence  of  more  or  less  rapid  strides  in  necessary  sani- 
tary reforms.  The  late  Sir  Hubert  Boyce  has  admirably  re- 
ported upon  the  health  progress  in  administration  in  the  West 
Indies ;  and  the  Japanese  Government  has  brought  about  a  veri- 
table hygienic  revolution  in  the  administration  of  Formosa,  par- 
ticularly in  the  reduction  of  the  incidence  of  malaria.  All  of  these 
efforts,  which  are  but  a  mere  fragment  of  what  is  actually  being  done 
in  the  sanitary  administration  of  Colonial  possessions  throughout  the 
world,  including  the  Philippines,^  Hawaii,  and  Porto  Rico,  indicate 
a  g'radual  reduction  in  the  mortality  from  preventable  diseases  among 
both  native  and  white  races  in  the  tropics.  The  inevitable  consequence 
must  be  a  larger  rate  of  natural  increase  and  a  proportionately  more 
rapid  augmentation  of  the  population  of  those  sections  of  the  globe 
which  constitute  to  a  not  inconsiderable  extent  the  future  sources  of 
the  world's  food  supply.t 

THE  PRINCIPAL   CAUSES  OP  DEATH 

The  human  death  rate  is  the  resultant  of  a  large  number  of  known 
or  imknown.  obvious  or  obscure,  causes  and  conditions  destructive  to 
human  life.    Many  of  these  causes  are  now  known  to  be  preventable 

*  A  practical  illustration  of  the  methods  of  sanitary  administration  in  the 
Philippines  is  the  "Sanitary  Inspector's  Handbook,"  published  by  the  Bureau 
of  Health  of  the  Department  of  the  Interior  of  the  Government  of  the  Philip- 
pine Islands.  Also  the  Special  Report  of  Dean  C.  Worcester  on  the  History 
of  Asiatic  Cholera  in  the  Philippine  Islands,  published  in  1909.  The  progress 
which  is  being  made  in  the  control  of  beriberi  is  best  illustrated  in  the  Studies 
of  the  Institute  for  Medical  Research  of  the  Federated  Malay  States,  pub- 
lished in  1911,  and  the  monogTaph  on  the  Etioloay  of  beriberi  by  Frazer  and 
Stanton,  derived  from  the  same  source  and  reprinted  in  the  Philippine  Jour- 
nal of  Science  for  1910.  For  a  more  extended  study  of  this  important  subject, 
with  particular  reference  to  the  diagnosis  and  prevalence  of  the  disease,  the 
elaborate  Treatise  on  beriberi  by  Edward  Vedder,  M.D.,  published  by 
William  Wood  &  Co.,  1913,  should  be  consulted.  In  1912  there  were  12  deaths 
from  beriberi  in  the  reg'istration  area  of  the  United  States,  but  there  are  con- 
vincing reasons  for  believing  that  the  disease  is  much  more  prevalent  than  is 
generally  known. 

t  Indications  of  health  progress  in  arctic  regions  are  to  be  foimd  in  the 
Medical  Handbook  for  the  Alaska  School  Sei-vice,  issued  by  the  United  States 
Bureau  of  Education  in  1913,  and  the  Special  Reports  of  the  United  States 
Public  Health  Service  on  Tuberculosis  among  Eskimos.  A  material  improve- 
ment in  the  health  conditions  of  the  population  of  Labrador  and  the  northern 
outposts  of  Newfomidland  has  resulted  from  the  admirable  work  of  the 
Grenfell  Medical  Missions  at  Battle  Harbor  and  other  far  northern  points. 


40  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   ON    RACE   BETTERMENT 

and  subject  to  administrative  control.  The  immediate  or  remotely 
contributory  causes  of  death  are  comparatively  few  and  simple  among 
primitive  races,  and  relatively  numerous  and  complex  among  civilized 
mankind.  The  hygiene  of  transmissible  diseases  is  a  modern  branch  of 
medicine,  based  upon  the  epoch-making  discoveries  of  Koch,  Pasteur, 
Ross,  Reed,  and  others  whose  work  has  been  of  incalculable  benefit  to 
all  mankind.  Cholera,  malaria,  plague,  smallpox,  typhoid  fever,  and 
yellow  fever  are  no  longer  a  serious  menace  to  civilized  countries, 
since  their  nature  and  mode  of  transmission  are  thoroughly  under- 
stood, and  preventive  measures  are  applied  with  increasing  effective- 
ness, and  in  some  cases  with  absolute  certainty,  as  is  well  illustrated  in 
the  history  of  recent  sporadic  outbreaks,  or  the  occurrence  of  isolated 
cases  of  plague  and  leprosy  on  the  East  and  "West  coasts  of  the  United 
States.  The  best  Imown  of  these  diseases,  typhoid  fever,  has  gradu- 
ally been  reduced  from  an  average  rate  of  35.9  per  one  hundred  thou- 
sand during  1900  to  16.5  during  1912.  In  the  United  States  during 
1911  the  ten  principal  causes  of  death,  accounting  for  66.6  per  cent 
of  the  mortality  from  all  causes,  were,  in  the  order  of  their  importance, 
organic  diseases  of  the  heart  (10.0  per  cent),  tuberculosis  of  the 
lungs  (9.7  per  cent),  acute  nephritis  and  Bright 's  disease  (6.9  per 
cent),  accidents  and  homicides  (6.4  per  cent),  pneumonia  (6.3  per 
cent),  respiratory  diseases  other  than  pneumonia  and  tuberculosis  of 
the  lungs  (5.6  per  cent),  congenital  debility  and  malformations  (5.6 
per  cent),  diarrhea  and  enteritis,  under  two  years  (5.5  per  cent), 
cerebral  hemorrhage  and  softening  of  the  brain  (5.4  per  cent),  and, 
finally,  cancer  and  other  malignant  diseases  (5.2  per  cent).  In  marked 
contrast,  the  mortality  of  India  during  the  same  year  was  chiefly 
the  result  of  six  principal  causes,  being,  in  the  order  of  their  im- 
portance, fevers,  accounting  for  55.0  per  cent,  plague  for  9.6  per  cent, 
cholera  for  4.6  per  cent,  dysentery  and  diarrhea  for  3.5  per  cent, 
respiratory  diseases  for  3.1  per  cent,  and  smallpox  for  0.8  per  cent. 
'The  six  groups  of  causes  combined  accounted  for  76.6  per  cent  of  the 
mortality  of  India  from  all  causes. 

INDIA    MEDICAL    STATISTICS 

The  general  death  rate  of  the  registration  area  of  the  United 
States  in  1911  was  14.2  per  1,000,  while  the  corresponding  rate  for  the 
registration  area  of  India  was  32.0.  The  combined  fever  death  rate, 
including  typhoid,  typhus,  and  malaria,  was  only  2.4  per  10,000  of 
population  for  the  United  States,  against  176.3  for  India.  If,  there- 
fore, in  the  course  of  time  the  fever  problem  in  India  can  be  solved 
along  much  the  same  lines  as  has  been  the  case  in  some  other  tropical 
countries,  the  general  death  rate  of  the  Far  East  would  be  reduced 


STATISTICAL    STUDIES  41 

to  perhaps  one-half  of  its  present  proportions.  Astonishing  medical 
and  sanitary  progress  has  been  made  in  India,  as  is  evident  from  the 
numerous  official  and  other  accounts,  but  mention  can  here  only  be 
made  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Second  All-India  Sanitary  Conference, 
held  at  Madras  in  1912,  and  the  report  on  investigations  into  the 
causes  of  malaria  in  Bombay,  to  give  emphasis  to  the  conclusion  that 
a  material  reduction  in  the  fever  death  rate  of  India  will  unquestion- 
ably be  brought  about  \\dthin  another  generation.  The  problems  await- 
ing solution  are  truly  of  colossal  proportions,  complicated  as  they  are 
by  the  economic  condition  of  the  people,  their  exceptional  racial  and  re- 
ligious distribution,  the  profound  adherence  to  caste  and  custom,  etc. 
Should  this  expectation  be  fulfilled,  the  present  small  natural  increase 
of  India  of  only  6.58  per  1,000  of  population,  or  the  annual  difference 
between  the  birth  rate  of  38.59  and  the  death  rate  of  32.01,  could  easily 
be  doubled,  or  in  any  event  be  made  to  attain  the  normal  average  for 
fairly  well  civilized  countries,  of  approximately  10  per  1,000  per  an- 
num. If,  in  addition  thereto,  the  cholera  mortality  of  India,  which  noAv 
accounts  for  about  390,000  deaths  per  annum,  and  the  even  larger  an- 
nual mortality  from  plague  could  be  brought  under  control  and  ma- 
terially reduced,  it  is  self-evident  that  there  are  almost  inconceivable 
possibilities  for  a  much  more  rapid  increase  in  the  population  of  India 
and  other  countries  of  the  Far  East  than  have  prevailed  in  historic 
periods  of  time.* 

REDUCTION  IN  THE  DEATH  RATE  BY  CAUSES 

An  extended  consideration  of  the  diminution  in  the  death  rate 
from  specified  causes  would  unduly  enlarge  the  present  discussion. 
The  following  observations  are  therefore  limited  to  the  registration 


*  There  ai*e  no  better  illustrations  of  sanitary  progress  in  its  relation  to 
population  increase  than  the  reports  of  sanitary  conferences  in  the  different 
provinces  of  India.  The  Report  of  the  Punjab  Sanitarj^  Conference,  held 
under  date  of  August,  1913,  includes  an  extended  consideration  of  such  im- 
portant questions  as  rural  sanitation,  town-planning,  sanitation  in  connection 
with  schools  and  the  problem  of  control  in  the  case  of  specific  diseases,  par- 
ticularly malaria,  tuberculosis,  plague  and  cholera.  After  calling  attention  to 
the  reduction  in  the  urban  death  rate  in  the  Punjab,  amounting  to  about  4.5 
per  one  thousand  of  population,  it  is  calculated  that  this  reduction  is  equiva- 
lent to  the  saving  of  some  8,700  lives  every  year  in  the  municipal  towns,  which 
would  otherwise  have  been  sacrificed.  It  has  been  pointed  out  in  this  connec- 
tion in  a  review  of  the  census  of  India  for  1911,  by  Sir  J.  A.  Baines,  that  half 
the  net  increase  in  the  population  of  India  during  the  past  decade  took  place  in 
subdivisions  which  had  less  than  150  persons  per  square  mile,  and  very  little 
of  it  in  those  which  had  over  450 ;  a  substantial  reduction  in  the  death  rate 
of  large  centers  of  population  must  therefore  result  in  a  considerable  addi- 
tional increase  in  population. 


42  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

area  of  the  United  States,  which  may  be  accepted  as  fairly  typical  of 
other  civilized  countries  of  the  world.  The  rates  are  limited  to  the 
two  quinquennial  periods  ending  respectively  with  1905  and  1910, 
since  no  earlier  comparative  data  are  conveniently  available  for  the 
registration  area  of  this  country.  The  rates  for  specified  causes  are 
given  on  the  basis  of  100,000  population,  and  for  the  principal  causes 
the  reduction  during  the  last  five-year  period,  compared  with  the  first, 
has  been  as  follows :  typhoid  fever  has  been  reduced  from  32.0  to  25.6 ; 
smallpox,  from  3.4  to  0.2 ;  diphtheria  and  croup,  from  29.6  to  22.4 ;  in- 
fluenza, from  19.9  to  16.4 ;  purulent  infections,  from  6.1  to  3.8 ;  tetanus 
from  3.5  to  2.7;  tuberculosis,  all  forms,  from  192.6  to  168.7;  chronic 
rheumatism  and  gout,  from  3.6  to  2.2 ;  alcoholism,  chronic  and  acute, 
from  6.1  to  5.8;  meningitis,  from  31.7  to  19.4;  softening  of  the  brain, 
from  3.7  to  2.5  ;  paralysis  (not  otherwise  specified),  from  20.1  to  16.1 ; 
general  paralysis  of  the  insane,  from  6.8  to  5.5 ;  epilepsy,  from  4.4 
to  4.2 ;  convulsions  of  infants,  from  21.4  to  12.8 ;  neuralgia  and  neu- 
ritis, from  6.9  to  5.5 ;  non-tubercular  respiratory  diseases,  from  220.5 
to  188.1 ;  and  finally,  diseases  of  the  skin,  from  7.3  to  6.1.  With  prac- 
tically no  important  exception  the  death  rates  for  these  eighteen  speci- 
fied and  all  more  or  less  important  causes,  which  account  for  33.6  per 
cent  of  the  mortality  from  all  causes  during  the  five-year  period  end- 
ing with  1910.  have  undergone  a  further  reduction  during  1911  and 
1912. 

CAUSES   OF   DEATH   WHICH   ARE   ON   THE   INCREASE 

The  only  important  causes  of  death  which  have  increased*  during 
the  five  years  ending  with  1910,  as  compared  with  the  previous  five 
years,  are  briefly  the  following :  syphilis  increased  from  4.1  to  5.4  per 
100,000  of  population;  cancer  and  other  malignant  tumors,  from 
67.9  to'72.6;   diabetes,  from  11.5  to  13.7;   locomotor  ataxia  and  other 


*  Two  important  diseases  which  have  increased,  thoug'h  as  yet  numerically 
of  relatively  small  importance,  considering  the  country  as  a  whole,  are  anterior 
poliomyelitis  and  pellagra.  There  are  few  better  illustrations  of  the  thor- 
oughly systematic  manner  in  which  public  health  activities  are  now  adminis- 
tered than  the  highly  specialized  studies  which  have  been  made  of  the  epidemi- 
ology of  infantile  paralysis.  See  particularly  in  this  connection  Bulletin  No. 
90  of  the  Hygrienie  Laboratory  of  the  United  States  Public  Health  Service, 
and  the  Special  Report  on  Infantile  Paralysis  of  Massachusetts,  in  1909^ 
published  by  the  State  Board  of  Health.  See  also  the  results  of  Investiga- 
tions on  Epidemic  Infantile  Paralysis,  published  in  English,  by  the  State 
Medical  Institute  of  Sweden,  and  the  Reports  and  Papers  on  Epidemiologic 
Poliomyelitis,  published  by  the  Local  Government  Board,  London,  1912. 

Even  more  extended  attention  has  been  given  to  the  subject  of  pellagra, 
the  mortality  of  which  in  the  registration  area  for  1012  amounted  to  674. 
The  disease  is  apparently  rapidly  on  the  inci-ease  throughout  the  Southern 


STATISTICAL,    STUDIES  13 

diseases  of  the  spinal  cord,  from  7.3  to  8.4;  all  diseases  of  the  cir- 
culatory system  combined,  from  161,2  to  177.7 ;  ulcers  of  the  stomach, 
from  2.9  to  3.6 ;  diarrhea  and  enteritis,  under  two  years,  from  89.0  to 
96.2 ;  diseases  of  the  puerperal  state, considered  as  a  group, from  14.2  to 
15.5 ;  malformations,  chiefly  congenital,  from  12.2  to  14.9 ;  diseases  of 
early  infancy,  chiefly  congenital  debility  and  premature  births,  from 
73.9  to  75.0;  suicide,  from  13.9  to  16.0;  accidents,  from  84.9  to  86.0; 
and,  finally,  homicide,  from  2.9  to  5.9.  In  some  cases,  no  doubt,  the 
changes  are  the  result  of  improved  medical  diagnosis,  and,  still  more, 
the  consequence  of  changes  in  methods  of  death  classification,  but  this 
objection  is  not  likely  to  impair  materially  any  of  the  foregoing  general 
conclusions.  Combining  the  thirteen  principal  diseases  which  have 
increased,  the  resulting  total  death  rate  was  536.9  per  one  hundred 
thousand  for  the  first  five  years,  against  590.3  for  the  last.  The  actual 
increase  in  this  group  of  causes  was,  therefore,  equivalent  to  53.4  per 
one  hundred  thousand  of  population,  or  the  average  combined  death 
rate  from  the  thirteen  causes  during  the  last  five  years  was  9.9  per 
cent  in  excess  of  the  rate  during  the  first  five-year  period  under  con- 
sideration. Combining  the  eighteen  principal  diseases  which  have 
decreased,  the  resulting  total  death  rate  was  63  9.6  per  one  hundred 
thousand  for  the  first  five  years,  against  508.1  for  the  last.  There  Avas, 
therefore,  an  actual  decrease  in  this  group  of  causes  equivalent  to 
111.5  per  one  hundred  thousand  of  population,  or  18.0  per  cent. 

Of  the  diseases  which  have  decreased,  the  most  important  are  un- 
questionably typhoid  fever,  diphtheria  and  croup,  tuberculosis  of  the 
lungs,  and  non-tubercular  respiratory  diseases.  Since  most  of  these 
are  of  the  strictly  preventable  class,  there  are  the  strongest  reasons  for 
believing  that  a  still  further,  and  substantial,  reduction  in  the  death 
rate,  at  least  of  civilized  countries,  will  be  obtained  in  the  near  future, 
and  that  as  a  result  of  such  diminution  the  excess  of  births  over 
deaths  will  be  increased. 

PROBLEMS    OP    CELLULAR    PATHOLOGY 

Momentous  questions  arise  out  of  these  considerations,  which  can- 
not be  adequately  considered,  even  in  part,  in  the  remaining  portion 

states.  A  concise  summary  of  the  epidemiology  of  pellagTa  has  been  published, 
as  reprint  No.  120,  by  the  United  States  Public  Health  Keports,  Washington, 
1913. 

Another  new  disease  is  spotted  or  tick  fever  of  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
which  has  become  a  problem  of  great  interest  to  the  physicians,  zoologists 
and  sanitarians.  The  report  on  the  subject  by  Dr.  John  F.  Anderson  has 
been  published  as  Bulletin  No.  14  of  the  Hygienic  Laboratory  of  the  United 
States  Public  Health  Service,  Washington,  1903. 


4-1  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

of  this  addross.  The  economic  aspects  of  tlie  probh'in  are  of  the  first 
order  of  importance  and  less  difficult  of  discussion  than  the  more  in- 
volved biolojjical  questions,  which  are  largely  beyond  my  own  under- 
standing. In  a  most  interesting  summary  account  of  the  nature,  origin 
and  maintenance  of  life,  Prof.  E.  A.  Schiifer  has  brought  forward 
much  apparent  evidence  that  the  dividing  line  between  animate  and 
inanimate  matter  is  less  sharply  drawn  than  has  hitherto  been 
believed,  and  that  the  elements  composing  living  substances  are  few 
in  number — chiefly  carbon,  hydrogen,  oxygen  and  nitrogen.  He 
therefore  concludes  that  it  is  not  a  hopeless  anticipation  that  the 
possibility  of  the  production  of  living  material  is  not  as  remote  as  is 
generally  assumed.  These  views  have  not  been  generally  accepted, 
and  among  others,  not  by  H.  E.  Armstrong  and  Sir  William 
Tilden,  who  are  of  the  opinion  that  Professor  Schafer's  address 
"leaves  us  exactly  where  we  w^ere. "  Even  if  it  is  conceded  that 
the  problem  of  the  origin  of  life  is  at  root  a  chemical  one,  and  that 
carbon  stands  alone  among  the  elements  which  condition  the  functions 
of  the  living  substance,  it  is  an  incontrovertible  fact,  in  the  words  of 
Armstrong,  that  ' '  organic  growi;h  is  clearly  a  process  of  extreme  com- 
plexity, one  that  involves  the  association  by  a  variety  of  operations  of 
a  whole  series  of  diverse  units. ' '  Of  the  vast  strides  which  have  been 
made  by  all  the  sciences  during  the  nineteenth  century,  none  have  been 
more  astonishing  than  those  in  the  domain  of  biology,  foremost  among 
the  new  discoveries  of  which  is  the  cell  structure  of  plants  and  animals, 
which  has  given  rise  to  a  new  branch  of  knowledge  known  as  ' '  Cellular 
Pathology."  It  has  properly  been  observed  that  a  new  era  was  en- 
tered upon  with  the  discovery  of  protoplasm  and  the  promulgation  of 
the  cell  theory,  as  the  result  of  refined  methods  in  microscopical  re- 
search. It  has  been  established  that  the  cell  "  is  a  microscopic  chemical 
engine  where  the  energy  of  the  foodstuffs  is  finally  set  free  and  applied 
to  the  work  of  life."  In  proportion  as  the  nature  and  the  function 
of  the  cell  become  better  understood,  the  factors  of  control  in  the 
duration  of  life  become  obviously  greater,  and  assume,  in  fact,  almost 
inconceivable  proportions.  The  discovery  of  the  functions  of  the 
hormones,  or  chemical  agents  circulating  in  the  blood,  by  means  of 
which  the  activities  of  the  cells  constituting  our  bodies  are  controlled, 
and  their  relations  to  the  internal  secreting  glands,  the  uses  and  im- 
portance of  which  were  not  understood  until  within  recent  years,  fore- 
shadows a  time  when  many  of  the  now  obscure  diseases  will  also  be 
brought  under  control,  with  a  consequential  further  improvement  in 
the  duration  of  life.  This  conclusion  applies  particularly  to  the  func-' 
tions  of  the  thyroid  and  parathyroid  glands,  the  pituitary  gland,  which 
is  a  small  structure  no  larger  than  a  nut  attached  to  the  base  of  the 


STATISTICAL     STUDIES  45 

brain,  and  the  suprarenal  glands,  which  are  adjacent  to  the  kidneys. 
Human  life, in  the  words  of  Schafer,"  is  an  aggregate  life;  and  the  life 
of  the  whole  is  the  life  of  the  individual  cells."  The  first  condition  of 
the  maintenance  of  the  life  of  the  aggregate  is  fulfilled  by  insuring  that 
the  life  of  the  individual  cells  composing  it  is  kept  normal ;  the  second 
essential  condition  for  the  maintenance  of  life  of  the  cell  aggregate 
being  the  co-ordination  of  its  parts  and  the  due  regulation  of  their 
activity  so  that  they  may  work  together  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole. 
From  this  point  of  view  the  vast  domain  of  cellular  pathology  as- 
sumes the  greatest  possible  practical  importance,  and  it  is  an  en- 
couraging indication  of  medical  progress  that  increasing  attention  is 
being  given  to  this  subject.* 

PROBLEMS  OF  AGE,  GROWTH  AND  DEATH 

The  most  important  practical  contribution  to  the  problems  which 
arise  out  of  the  foregoing  considerations  is  the  work  by  Charles  S. 
Minot,  on  * '  Age,  Growth  and  Death. ' '  Minot  discusses  the  condition  of 
old  age,  the  cellular  changes  of  age,  the  rate  of  growth,  differentiation 
and  rejuvenation,  regeneration  and  death,  the  four  laws  of  age,  the  lon- 
gevity of  animals,  and  a  new  theory  of  life.  Some  of  his  observa- 
tions are  exceedingly  suggestive,  particularly  those  on  the  rate  of 
growth,  which  unfortunately  fail  in  the  required  support  of  adequate 
statistical  data  for  man,  though,  as  pointed  out  by  Minot.  if  statistics 
of  the  growth  of  man  could  be  gathered  with  due  precautions,  "it 
would  fill  one  of  the  gaps  in  our  knowledge  which  is  lamentable. ' '  The 
important  and  almost  startling  conclusion  of  Minot  on  the  rate  of 
growth  may  be  briefly  summed  up  in  the  statement  that  the  period  of 
youth  is  the  period  of  most  rapid  decline  in  the  rate  of  growth,  and  that 


*  The  literature  of  life  pathologically  considered  is  quite  extensive.  Per- 
haps the  most  comprehensive  review  of  the  whole  subject  is  the  "Wonders  of 
Life,"  by  Emst  Haeckel,  published  in  1905.  The  address  on  "Life:  Its  Na- 
ture, Origin  and  Maintenance,"  by  Prof.  E.  A.  Schafer,  was  published  by 
Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  London,  1912.  The  essay  on  "The  Origin  of  Life, 
by  H.  E.  Armstrong,  was  republished  in  the  Smithsonian  Report  for  1912. 
The  biological  essays  on  "The  Mechanistic  Conception  of  Life,"  by  Jaques 
Loeb,  M.D.,  were  published  by  the  University  of  Chicago  Press,  in  1912.  The 
observations  and  conclusions  of  Charles  Sedgwick  Minot  on  "Modem  Prob- 
lems of  Biology,"  originally  delivered  in  the  form  of  lectures  at  the  University 
of  Jena,  in  December,  1912,  were  republished  by  Blakiston's  Son  ik  Co., 
Philadelphia,  1913.  The  more  popular  aspects  of  the  problem  have  been 
made  available  in  the  treatise  by  H.  W.  Conn,  in  the  story  of  "The  Living 
Machine,"  published  in  New  York,  in  1899,  and  "Disease  and  Its  Causes,"  by 
W.  T.  Counselman,  in  the  Home  University  Library  of  Modem  Knowledge, 
1913. 


46  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

the  period  ot"  old  age  is  that  in  which  the  decline  in  the  rate  of  growth 
is  slowest.  He  emphasizes  the  originally  enormous  power  of  growth  in 
the  embryo  and  the  rapid  proportionate  decline  almost  immediately 
after  birth.  He  therefore  argues  that  it  is  not  from  the  study  of  the 
old,  but  from  the  study  of  the  very  young,  of  the  young  embryo  and  of 
the  germ,  that  we  are  to  expect  an  insight  into  the  complicated  ques- 
tions which  confront  the  seeker  after  truth  in  the  innermost  secrets  of 
the  problem  of  life  and  death. 

THE    PROBLEM    OF    OLD    AGE 

For  immediately  practical  purposes,  however,  the  study  of  old  age 
will  continue  to  attract  attention  and  deservedly  so.  No  one  has 
written  to  better  purpose  on  the  means  available  for  the  deliberate 
prolongation  of  life  than  Sir  Herman  Weber,  whose  treatise  includes 
observations  on  the  natural  duration  of  life,  the  etfects  of  an  unfavor- 
able heredity,  the  value  of  respiratory  exercise,  the  importance  of 
great  moderation  in  food,  the  scientific  aspects  of  the  alcoholic  and 
neurotic  affections,  and,  finally,  the  psychology  of  old  age.  In  a  still 
more  recent  work  on  the  care  and  treatment  of  old  age,  in  health  and 
disease,  Robert  Saundry,  M.D.,  thoroughly  covers  the  entire  field, 
and  following  an  important  introduction  on  the  duration  of  life,  based 
upon  the  fundamental  concept  that  senility  is  not  identical  with  old 
age,  or  that,  in  other  words,  the  problem  of  longevity  is  not  merely  one 
of  a  quantitative  increase  in  duration,  but  also  one  of  a  qualitative  im- 
provement in  the  physical,  mental  and  moral  faculties,  he  gives  much 
practical  advice  wiiicli  must  needs  prove  of  much  service  to  the  physi- 
cian called  upon  to  render  qualified  aid  to  the  aged.  Out  of  considera- 
tions like  these  naturally  arise  new  conditions  which,  singly  or  com- 
bined, in  no  small  measure  affect  a  further  improvement  in  the  rate 
of  mortality,  with  a  consequent  decline  in  the  death  rate  in  adult  life, 
which  as  yet  has  been  only  very  slight  in  the  experience  of  modem 
countries.  While  at  some  age  periods,  in  fact,  the  rate  is  higher  now 
than  in  former  years.*  The  solution  of  the  problem  depends  largely 
upon  the  clear  recognition  of  the  important  truth  that  the  causes  of  old 
age  and  premature  death  in  adult  life  lie  probably  as  largely  without 
the  body  as  within  it  and  that,  in  fact,  no  definite  limit  can  safely  be 
placed  upon  human  longevity  in  the  present  inadequate  state  of  our 


*  For  an  extended  discussion  of  the  close  association  of  cancer  with  the 
degenerative  periods  of  life  and  of  the  general  subject  of  the  nature  of  old 
age  and  senility,  see  a  paper  by  Hastings  Gilford,  F.K.C.S.,  in  the  British 
Medical  Journal  for  Dec.  27,  1913. 


STATISTICAL    STUDIES  4  ( 

knowledge  regarding  the  whole  problem  of  life,  its  nature,  mainte- 
nance and  continuity.* 

THE    ASSUMED   LAW^    OF    MORTAIjITY 

No  one  can  forecast  the  future  consequences  of  these  scientifically 
tenable  and  far-reaching  conclusions.  The  chances  of  death  are  not 
fixed,  nor  is  there  a  true  law  of  mortality  in  the  sense  of  natural  law 
as  distinct  from  scientific  law,  which,  in  the  words  of  Karl  Pearson,  is 
essentially  a  product  of  the  human  mind  and  has  no  meaning  apart 
from  man.  In  the  sense  of  this  definition  there  is  a  law  of  mortality 
which  is  merely  a  descriptive  expression  of  as  wide  a  range  as  possible 
of  the  sequences  of  our  sense  impressions,  describing  but  not  explain- 
ing the  orderly  manner  in  which  human  life  terminates  in  the  mass  of 
mankind,  with  a  due  regard  to  age  and  sex.  Numerous  efforts  have 
been  made  to  establish  w'ith  scientific  precision  the  natural  and  mathe- 
matical laws  concerning  population  vitality  and  mortality,  but  no  ef- 
fort of  this  kind  has  been  successful,  chiefly  for  the  reason  that  so 
large  a  proportion  of  the  causes  of  death  among  all  mankind  are  pre- 
ventable, or  postponable,  as  the  ease  may  be.  Corbaux,  in  1835,  made 
an  elaborate  attempt  to  establish  the  natural  law,  according  to  which 
what  he  called  ' '  the  waste  of  human  life ' '  takes  place,  but  he  properly 
observed  that  to  admit  as  universal  ' '  any  law  whatsoever  of  mortality 
under  the  present  constitution  of  society  would  be  an  error. ' '  He  never- 
theless concluded  that, "on  the  other  hand, a  very  extraordinary  notion, 
that  the  law  of  mortality  had  undergone  a  material  alteration  within 


*  In  the  May  29,  1914,  issue  of  the  London  Times  (weekly  edition)  a 
statement  is  quoted  by  Professor  Metchnikoff  with  regard  to  the  ultimate  result 
of  the  campaign  against  preventable  diseases,  in  which  it  is  said  that,  "rid  of 
these  teiTible  scourges,  humanity  will  be  able  to  concentrate  upon  its  intel- 
lectual development."  "Mortality  among  civilized  peoples  has  certainly  di- 
minished," he  said.  "People  live  longer  and  though  the  strain  of  life  may  be 
said  to  be  more  intense,  improved  communication  allows  them  to  live  away 
from  the  great  centers  and  in  the  purer  air  of  the  country." 

With  reference  to  Professor  Metchnikoff's  views  on  the  ultimate  effect  of 
the  lengthening  of  human  life,  the  correspondent  states  that  "his  theories  are 
admirably  exemplified  in  his  own  power  to  work,  which  is  one  of  the  reasons 
why  he  has  not  given  more  to  the  world  in  the  form  of  scientific  exposition; 
he  considers  he  can  still  be  of  use  to  the  present  generation  in  directing  their 
studies.  This  ambition,  wholly  justified  by  the  fact  that  his  laboratory  assist- 
ants continually  consult  him  in  their  work,  is  proof  of  his  splendid  vitality. 
In  his  cosmos,  as  revealed  in  'The  Nature  of  Man,'  the  septuagenarian  and 
those  of  more  advanced  age  have  still  work  to  do.  Political  conditions  in 
Russia  would  have  improved,  he  thinks,  if  older  heads  had  directed  the  reform 
movement.  The  rashness  of  young  men  has  been  disastrous  to  the  country^ 
because  it  has  provoked  reaction." 


48  KIKST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    I5ETTERMENT 

a  century,  seems  to  have  gained  credit  with  many  who  failed  to  reflect 
upon  the  immutable  character  of  all  Nature's  laws,  without  excep- 
tion." This  conclusion  by  C'orbaux  is  absolutely  contrary  to  the  facts 
of  human  experience,  for,  as  fully  brought  out  by  the  present  dis- 
cussion, the  rate  of  mortality  is  not  only  subject  to  a  wide  range  of 
variation,  but  a  permanent  reduction  in  the  rate  may  result  from 
sanitarj'  and  other  improvements  which  more  or  less  condition  the 
termination  of  life.  Slissmilch  and  many  other  writers  aside  from 
Corbaux  have  erroneously  assumed  an  immutable  law  of  mortality, 
but  the  facts  of  human  experience  for  half  a  thousand  years,  at  least, 
sustain  the  conclusion  that  the  birth  rate,  the  death  rate,  and  human 
multiplication,  are  largely  matters  of  human  control.* 

HEREDITY  AND  THE  DEATH  RATE 

How  far  a  tendency  to  longevity  is  inherited  cannot  be  fully  dis- 
cussed on  this  occasion.  It  is  no  doubt  true  that  "the  organism  and 
its  inheritance  are,  to  begin  ivith,  one  and  the  same,"  but  the  external 
factors  which  condition  longevity  are  of  much  greater  importance,  at 
least  through  all  the  early  years  of  life,  than  the  internal  disease-re- 
sisting and  possibly  inherited  tendencies  of  the  organism.  Unquestion- 
ably there  is  much  in  inherited  individual  or  race  traits,  but  there 
are  also  innumerable  exceptions  which  have  yet  to  be  explained  by 
scientific  theories  and  which  will  continue  to  perplex  and  confuse  the 
wisest  of  mankind.  Only  a  scientific  mind  of  a  high  order  could  even 
attempt  to  unravel  the  interrelations  of  the  apparent  law  of  human 
mortality,  or  the  chances  of  death,  to  the  biological  phenomena  of  a 
selective  death  rate,  and  the  perhaps  equally  important  problem  of 


*  The  improvement  in  longevity,  actuarially  considered,  for  the  nineteenth 
centuiy  was  discussed  in  a  number  of  important  papers  on  the  occasion  of 
the  Fourth  International  Actuarial  Congress,  held  in  New, York  in  1903.  Of 
special  interest  are  the  papers  on  the  Improved  Longevity  in  England  and 
Wales,  by  Samuel  G.  Warner,  and  the  Improvement  in  Longevity  in  the 
United  States  during  the  Nineteenth  Century,  by  John  K.  Gore.  The  sub- 
ject was  further  considered  on  the  occasion  of  the  Seventh  International  Con- 
gress of  Actuaries,  held  at  Amsterdam,  in  1912,  including  observations  on  the 
Decline  in  the  Mortality  of  Assured  Persons  since  1800.  Of  special  interest 
are  the  reports  on  the  Experience  of  the  Gotha  Life  Insurance  Company, 
1829-1895;  the  Experience  of  the  Leipzig  Insurance  Company,  1830-1899; 
the  Experience  of  the  State  Insurance  Institutions  of  Denmark  during  the 
Nineteenth  Century,  and  the  Changes  in  the  Rates  of  Mortality  among  As- 
sured Lives  during  the  Past  Century,  by  Messrs.  Bum  and  Sharman  of  the 
Prudential  Assurance  Company,  London.  Mention  also  requires  to  be  made 
of  an  extremely  interesting  paper  on  a  comparison  between  the  Mortality  Ex- 
perience of  the  Equitable  Life  Assurance  Society  at  the  Beginning  and  the 
End  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,  by  Henry  William  Manly. 


STATISTICAL    STUDIES  49 

reproductive  selection.  The  selective  death  rate,  with  regard  to  which 
as  yet  very  little  is  actually  known  but  much  assumed,  represents 
the  inherited  longevity,  but  becomes  operative  as  a  general  principle 
only  during  the  adult  portion  of  life.  Pearson  has  briefly  considered 
this  phase  of  the  subject  in  his  papers  on  "Data  for  the  Problem  of 
Evolution  in  Man,"  with  particular  reference  to  the  principle  laid 
down  by  Wallace  and  Weissmann,  that  the  duration  of  life  in  an  organ- 
ism is  fundamentally  determined  by  natural  selection.  According  to 
Pearson  also,  the  selective  death  rate  represents  a  considerable  por- 
tion of  the  total  death  rate,  and,  in  his  words,  "having  demonstrated 
that  the  duration  of  life  is  really  inherited,  it  has  also  been  demon- 
strated that  natural  selection  is  very  sensibly  effective  among  man- 
kind." He  proves,  or  at  least  attempts  to  prove,  for  his  data  are 
hardly  sufficient  for  entirely  safe  assumptions,  that  there  is  certainly 
a  well-established  correlation  between  the  ages  at  death  of  fathers 
and  sons,  for  he  adds,  "the  heredity  is  not  absolute,  since  there  is  a 
sensible  divergence  from  the  law  of  inheritance,  in  that  the  death  rate 
is  only  in  part  selective. ' '  There  is  a  vast  literature  on  inherited  dis- 
eases, much  of  which  fails  to  meet  the  test  of  impartial  and  strictly 
qualified  scientific  criticism.  Pearson  himself,  in  his  interesting  ad- 
dress on  "Social  Problems:  Their  Treatment,  Past,  Present  and 
Future,"  has  emphasized  the  serious  possibilities  of  far-reaching 
errors  in  crude  methods  of  statistical  analysis,  but,  speaking  broadly, 
the  liability  to  grave  mistakes  is  even  greater  in  mathematical-statis- 
tical researches,  resting,  as  is  frequently  the  case,  upon  an  insufficient 
numerical  basis  of  facts.* 


*  See  in  this  connection  a  paper  on  "The  Supposed  Inferiority  of  First 
and  Second  Bom  Members  of  Families,"  and  statistical  fallacies  inherent  in 
discussions  of  this  kind,  by  T.  B.  Macaulay,  Montreal,  Canada.  The  Path- 
ology of  the  Order  of  Birth,  with  Special  Reference  to  Tuberculosis,  has  been 
discussed  by  W.  C.  Rivers,  briefly  reviewed  in  the  Medical  Record,  New  York, 
for  Oct.  28,  1911.  The  Influence  of  Parental  Age  on  certain  characters 
in  offspring  has  been  considered  on  the  basis  of  statistical  investigations  in 
Middlesborough  by  Robert  G.  Ewart,  M.D.,  briefly  reviewed  in  the  Lancet  of 
Oct.  26,  1912,  and  a  further  review  of  the  same  discussion  is  contained  in 
the  British  Medical  Journal,  in  Dec.  21,  1912,  issue. 

For  an  admirable  discussion  of  the  subject  of  the  Inheritance  of  Fecun- 
dity, by  Dr.  Raymond  Pearl,  see  Popular  Science  Monthly  for  October,  1912, 
the  paper  having  originally  been  read  at  the  First  International  Eugenics 
Congress,  London,  1912.  The  Comparative  Fecundity  of  Women  of  Native 
and  Foreign  Parentage  in  the  United  States  has  been  discussed  in  a  paper 
contributed  by  Joseph  A.  Hill,  published  in  the  Quarterly  Publication  of  the 
American  Statistical  Association  for  December,  1913.  See  also  in  this  con- 
nection a  monograph  by  Elderton,  Karl  Pearson,  etc.,  on  the  Correlation  of 
Fertility  with  Social  Value,  published  by  Dulau  &  Co.,  London,  1913,  and  an 


50  F1R8T    NATIONAIi    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

CENTENARIANS 

A  brief  refeiviu'e  must  here  be  made  to  the  subject  of  centenarians 
and  the  cliances  of  extreme  old  age,  which-  are  apparently  in- 
creasing in  many  civilized  countries  for  which  the  data  are  available. 
It  is  well  known  that  annuitants  are  more  likely  to  attain  to  old  age 
than  persons  badly  provided  for  with  the  necessaries  of  life,  and  it 
therefore  follows  that  substantial  improvements  in  the  social  and 
economic  condition  of  the  population  must  necessarily  tend  towards 
the  same  result.  The  economic  importance  of  this  question  is  quite 
considerable  in  view  of  the  increasing  extent  to  which  the  pecuniary- 
needs  of  the  aged  are  provided  for  now  by  state,  corporate  ^  or 
private  pensions,  best  indicated. in  the  case  of  England  and  Wales, 
where,  in  1912,  there  w^ere  642,524  old  age  pensioners,  equivalent  to 
59.9  per  cent  of  the  population  ages  70  and  over.  In  the  United 
States  in  1910  the  proportion  of  population  ages  65  and  over  was  4.4 
per  cent,  against  4.1  for  the  year  1900.  The  actual  number  of  aged 
persons  in  this  country  in  1910  was  3,950,000.  If  half  of  these  were 
provided  for  with  non- contributory  old-age  pensions  of  only  $5.00  a 
week,  the  resulting  cost  to  the  nation  would  be  now  about  $520,000,000 
per  annum.*  As  an  illustration  of  the  extent  to  which  extreme  old  age 
is  at  present  attained  in  this  country,  the  census  returns  may  be 
quoted,  though  it  is  practically  certain  that  they  are  proljably  erro* 
neous,  at  least  in  the  age  returns  for  persons  beyond  the  century  mark. 
In  1910  there  were  7,391  persons  enumerated  as  of  the  age  period 
95-99,  and  3,555  persons  were  returned  as  being  over  100  years  old. 
A  serious  question  of  doubt  naturally  arises  as  regards  the  accuracy  of 
age  returns  for  centenarians,  since  thorough  research  in  individual 
eases,  as  a  rule,  fails  to  provide  the  required  documentary  evidence  of 
fact.  In  a  monograph  on  centenarians,  by  T.  E.  Young,  published  in 
1899,  which  constitutes  one  of  the  few  thoroughly  scientific  contribu- 


extremely  valuable  work  by  Dr.  Max  Hirsch  on  the  prevention  of  conception 
in  its  relation  to  the  declining-  birth  rate,  published  under  the  title  "Frueh- 
tabtreibung  und  Priiventivverkehr  in  Zusammenhang  niit  deni  Geburtenriick- 
gang,"  Wiirzburg,  1914. 

*  I  have  quite  fully  discussed  the  subject  of  Old  Age  Pensions  in  an- 
address  on  the  Problem  of  Poverty  and  Pensions  in  Old  Age,  National  Con- 
ference of  Charities  and  Con-ections,  1908;  State  Pensions  and 'Annuities  in 
Old  Age,  an  address  before  the  Massachusetts  Reform  Club,  published  in  the 
Quarterly  Publication  of  the  American  Statistical  Association,  March,  1909; 
and'  an  address  on  the  American  Public  Pension  System  and  Civil  Sei-vice 
Retirement  Plans,  Seventh  International  Congress  of  Actuaries,  Amsterdam, 
1912.  See  also  in  this  connection  the  exceptionally  interesting  and  valuable 
report  on  the  Police  Pension  Fund  of  the  City  of  New  York,  published  by 
the  Bureau  of  Municipal  Research,  1914. 


STATISTICAL    STUDIES  51 

tions  to  the  subject,  a  discussion  is  included  of  the  dependence  of  the 
duration  of  life  upon  external  physical  conditions,  which  quite  fully 
sustains  the  earlier  conclusions  of  the  present  discussion,  that  the  hu- 
man death  rate  is  largelj^  the  resultant  of  external  conditions,  most 
of  which  are  subject  to  human  control.  Young  quotes  the  definition  of 
life  by  Bichat,  the  physiologist, •  as  "the  sum  of  the  functions  by 
which  death  is  resisted,"  and  all  the  foregoing  considerations  make  it 
clear  that  there  is  apparently  a  gradual  increase  in  disease  resistance 
on  the  part  of  an  increasing  number  of  mankind,  partly,  no  doubt,  in 
consequence  of  the  economic  improvement  in  the  condition  of  the 
population,  providing  better  food,  housing,  medical  attendance,  etc. 

LIFE  TABLES  AND  THE  AVERAGE  AGE  AT  DEATH 

The  improvement  in  human  longevity  resulting  from  a  decline  in 
the  death  rate  finds  its  most  scientific  expression  in  the  so-called  mean 
after-lifetime,  or  the  expectation  of  life.  There  are  no  life  tables  for 
the  United  States  as  a  whole,  nor  for  any  particular  section  thereof, 
for  very  recent  years  which  afford  the  means  of  comparing  accurately 
the  changes  which  have  taken  place  in  the  expectation  of  life  during  a 
considerable  period  of  years.*  The  two  Massachusetts  life  tables 
which  have  been  constructed  for  the  '50 's  and  '90 's,  it  is  true,  indicate 
a  considerable  degree  of  progress,  but  for  reasons  which  need  not  be 
discussed  heije,  they  are  not  strictly  applicable  to  the  country  as  a 
whole.  For  the  present  purpose,  therefore,  the  discussion  is  limited 
to  the  three  English  life  tables  for  healthy  districts,  which  have  been 
constructed  with  extreme  care  for  three  periods  of  time.  According 
to  these  tables  the  expectation  of  life  at  birth  for  males  living  in 
healthy  districts  increased  from  48.56  years  during  the  period  1849-53 
to  52.87  years  during  1891-1900.  The  corresponding  improvement  in 
the  longevity  of  women  was  from  49.45  years  to  55.71  years.  These  dif- 
ferences, apparently  slight,  are  of  very  considerable  economic  impor- 
tance M'hen  applied  to  the  whole  population.  Stated  in  another  form, 
according  to  the  English  healthy-district  life  tables,  out  of  1,000,000 
males  born  during  the  period  1849-53,  the  number  surviving  to  age 

*  A  life  table  for  the  United  States  has  been  in  course  of  preparation  by 
the  Division  of  Vital  Statistics  of  the  Bureau  of  the  Census  for  several  years, 
but  work  on  the  same  has  of  late  been  discontinued.  There  would  appear 
to  be  no  technical  reasons  why  at  least  an  approximate  life  table  for  the 
United  States  should  not  be  constructed  with  the  same  degree  of  accuracy  as  is 
'obtained  for  life  tables  of  many  other  countries  of  the  world.  The  life  tables 
published  for  certain  American  states  and  cities  by  the  Census  Office  in  former 
years  are  useful,  but  are  somewhat  out  of  date.  The  most  recent  United 
States  life  table,  for  the  city  of  New  York,  has  not  been  published  in  suffi- 
cient detail  to  make  the  same  practically  useful  in  the  manner  in  which  the 
corresponding  life  tables  of  London  and  certain  other  large  English  cities  are. 


52  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

sixty  Mas  485,014,  wheivas,  for  the  period  LS91-1 !)()(),  the  number  thus 
surviving  was  551,973. 

Aeoordiny  to  the  vital  statistics  of  the  United  States  for  1910,  the 
average  age  at  death  attained  by  those  dying  during  the  year  was 
38.7  years,  which  compares  with  an  average  of  35.2  years  for  1900. 
The  average  age  at  death,  of  course*  must  not  be  confused  with  the  ex- 
pectation of  life,  which  is  arrived  at  by  fundamentally  different  mathe- 
matical processes.  In  the  absence  of  life  tables  for  the  United  States, 
however,  this  rather  crude  indication  of  an  improvement  in  American 
longevity  is  the  only  statistical  evidence  available  which  can  be  relied 
upon  as  approximately  accurate.  The  improvement  has  been  chiefly 
the  result  of  the  diminishing  mortality  from  the  acute  infectious  dis- 
eases of  infancy,  typhoid  fever,  malaria,  and  tuberculosis.*  The  eco- 
nomic value  of  such  a  reduction  must  be  very  considerable,  but  it  is 
far  from  being  the  equivalent  of  a  real  improvement  obtainable  in 
consequence  of  a  material  reduction  in  the  death  rate  of  the  adult 
population,  by  means  of  which  the  more  valuable  lives  as  representing 
accumulated  human  skill  and  experience  would  be  substantially  pro- 
longed. 

THE    MORTALITY    FROM    CANCER 

Foremost  among  the  causes  of  death  in  adult  life  which  require 
present  consideration  is  cancer,  or  the  group  of  malignant  diseases 
conveniently  combined  under  that  term.  Cancer  is  unquestionably  on 
the  increase  in  this  and  other  civilized  countries,  and  the  aggregate 
mortality  therefrom  in  the  United  States  approximates  75,000  deaths 
per  annum,  and  throughout  the  civilized  world  over  half  a  million. 
There  are  the  strongest  possible  reasons  for  believing  that  by  means 
of  improved  and  early  diagnosis,  operative  technique,  and  surgi- 
cal treatment,  a  material  reduction  in  the  cancer  death  rate  can  be 
brought  about  within  a  comparatively  short  period  of  years.  This  con- 
elusion  applies  primarily  to  the  external  cancers,  chiefly  of  the  breast, 
but  also  to  some  of  the  internal  cancers,  particularly  of  the  uterus. 
In  proportion,  of  course,  as  these  efforts,  whether  medical  or  surgical, 
are  successful,  a  further  decline  in  the  death  rate  must  follow,  with 
even  greater  economic  consequences  than  would  result  from  a  cor- 
responding diminution  of  the  mortality  of  infancy  or  early  youth. t 


*  For  a  full  discussion  of  the  decline  in  the  death  rate  from  tuberculosis, 
see  my  address  on  the  Reduction  in  the  Tuberculosis  Death  Rate,  ninth  annual 
meeting  of  the  National  Association  for  the  Study  and  Prevention  of  Tuber- 
culosis, Washington,  1913,  also  my  discussion  of  the  Care  of  Tuberculous 
Wage-earners  in  Germany,  Bulletin  No.  101,  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor,  1912. 

t  See  in  this  connection  my  address  on  the  Menace  of  Cancer,  thirty-eighth 
annual  meeting  of  the  American  Gynecological  Society,  Washington,  1912. 


STATISTICAL    STUDIES  53 

ACCIDENTS,    HOMICIDES    AND    SUICIDES 

Last,  but  not  least,  among  the  preventable  causes  of  death,  a  brief 
mention  requires  to  be  made  of  accidents,  homicides  and  suicides.  In 
the  United  States  there  are  approximately  80,000  deaths  from  acci- 
dents annually,  of  which  about  25,000  are  accidents  in  industry.  In  ad- 
dition thereto  there  are  about  15,000  suicides  and  over  6,000  homicides 
per  annum,  of  which  it  is  safe  to  say  a  considerable  proportion  could 
be  prevented  by  thoroughly  effective  methods  of  moral  and  social  re- 
form. There  is  nothing  more  lamentable  than  the  growing  disregard 
for  the  sanctity  of  human  life,  as  forcibly  illustrated  in  the  truly 
astonishing  number  of  suicides  and  murders  often  for  most  trivial 
causes.  The  nation-wide  campaign  for  safety  and  sanitation  is  one 
of  the  encouraging  evidences  of  a  higher  humanitarianism,  resulting 
from  more  rational  conceptions  of  social  and  political  justice,  best 
illustrated  in  the  comparatively  rapid  progress  of  workmen's 
compensation  legislation,  which,  in  course  of  time,  is  bound  to  include 
compensation  for  industrial  diseases.  The  problem,  however,  is  not 
fully  met  by  compensation  for  injuries  and  diseases,  but  more  effec- 
tively by  the  removal  of  the  causes  and  conditions  responsible  for  fatal 
accidents  and  injuries  known  to  be  preventable  and  needless.  A  meas- 
urable reduction  in  the  number  of  accidents  must  necessarily  affect 
the  general  death  rate  and  contribute  substantially  towards  a  further 
decline  than  has  thus  far  resulted  from  the  efforts,  which  have  in  the 
main  been  limited  to  preventable  diseases. 

THE   DECLINE   IN    THE    BIRTH    RATE 

The  interrelation  of  a  declining  death  rate  to  a  declining  birth 
rate  and  population  growth  is  so  self-evident  as  not.  to  require  ex- 
tended discussion.  The  evidence  is  quite  conclusive  that  the  birth 
rate  of  civilized  countries  is  declining,  and  particularly  so  among  the 
more  prosperous  and  well-to-do  elements  of  the  population.  The  in- 
vestigations of  Karl  Pearson  and  his  associates  into  the  problem  of 
fertility  and  its  relation  to  social  worth,  are  but  indications  of  more 
elaborate  methods  of  inquiry,  which  are  bound  to  disclose  facts  and 
conditions  as  yet  very  imperfectly  understood,  if  at  all.  The  aston- 
ishing evidence  presented  to  the  Royal  Commission  on  the  decline  in 
the  birth  rate  in  New  South  Wales,  finds  its  parallel  in  nearly  every 
specialized  study  of  the  subject.  It  is  encouraging  to  find,  therefore, 
that  the  fall  in  the  birth  rate  was  recently  discussed  at  a  conference 
held  at  Edinburgh  under  the  auspices  of  the  Scottish  Council  of 
Public  Morals,  at  which  the  causes  for  the  fall  in  the  birth  rate  were 
pointed  out  to  be  the  high  standard  of  living,  the  love  of  pleasure,  the 
consequent  shirking  of  parental  responsibility,  and  the  higher  educa- 


54  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

tion  of  women  and  their  wider  entrance  into  industrial  and  profes- 
sional pursuits.  It  was  therefore  suggested  that  the  subject  should  be 
made  one  of  private  rather  than  of  government  inquiry,  so  that  the 
underlying  facts  and  conditions  might  be  ascertained  with  less  diffi- 
culty, although  the  experience  of  the  Royal  Commission  of  New 
South  Wales  abundantly  proved  the  perfect  willingness  of  important 
Avitnosses  to  come  forward  with  the  truth.  In  an  address  of  mine  on 
the  decline  in  the  birth  rate,  published  in  the  North  American  Review 
for  May,  1909,  and  a  brief  statistical  study  on  the  maternity  statistics 
of  Rhode  Island,  contributed  to  the  proceedings  of  the  First  Inter- 
national Eugenics  Congress,  I  have  quite  fully  enlarged  upon  the  de- 
tails of  these  phases  of  the  present  discussion,  of  which,  however,  a 
brief  mention  could  not  well  be  avoided.  The  birth  rate  of  the  Aus- 
tralian Commonwealth  betw^een  1886  and  1911  decreased  from  35.4 
to  27.2;  of  Austria  from  38.3  to  31.4;  of  England  and  Wales  from 
32.8  to  24.4;  of  France  from  23.9  to  18.7;  of  the  German  Empire 
from  37.0  to  28.6 ;  of  Hungary  from  45.6  to  35.0,  and  of  the  Nether- 
lands from  34.6  to  27.8  per  1,000  of  population.  There  are  no  corre- 
sponding statistics  of  births  for  the  United  States,  and  for  the  few 
New  England  States  for  which  they  are  available  the  results  are  hardly 
applicable  to  the  country  as  a  whole.* 

POSSIBLE   FUTURE   POPUT.ATION    GROV^^TII 

Passing  from  these  biological  and  general  considerations  to  the 
economic  significance  of  a  declining  death  rate,  it  is  necessary  to  con- 
sider the  statement  made  at  the  outset  of  the  numerical  relation  of 
such  a  decline  to  the  world's  growth  in  population.  It  was  shown 
that  the  annual  increase  is  approximately  13,260,000,  which  is  a  con- 
servative estimate  and  quite  likely  an  understatement  of  the  facts. 
Further  advances  in  sanitation,  the  practice  of  medicine,  safety  in 
industry,  etc.,  will  tend  to  bring  about  a  still  further  reduction  in  the 
death  rate,  equivalent  to  a  higher  general  rate  of  natural  increase 
than  prevails  at  the  present  time.  As  a  single  concrete  illustration,  it 
may  be  pointed  out  that  wiiile  for  all  India  the  natural  increase  in 
1910  was  6.3  per  1,000  of  population,  the  rate  was  as  high  as  11.25  in 
the  northwest  frontier  provinces  and  10.5  in  the  central  provinces.  It 
is  therefore  self-evident  that  there  are  vast  possibilities  for  an  augmen- 
tation in  the  natural  rate  of  increase  in  the  world's  population,  and 
there  are  the  strongest  possible  reasons  for  belie"vang  that,  largely  be- 

*  The  national  and  international  sigiiifieanee  of  the  declining  birth  rate  has 
been  discussed  with  admirable  brevity  by  Dr.  Arthur  Newsholme  in  the  new 
Tracts  for  the  Times,  issued  by  the  National  Council  for  Public  Morals, 
London,  1911. 


STATISTICAL    STUDIES  55 

cause  of  a  declining  death  rate,  the  future  rate  of  human  increase  will 
be  greater  than  the  rates  prevailing  in  the  recent  past.  The  economic 
results  of  such  an  augmentation  of  the  world's  population  will  unques- 
tionably be  quite  serious,  particularly  with  regard  to  the  available  food 
supply  resulting  chiefly  from  the  employment  of  productive  human 
energy  upon  the  land. 

DECLINE  IN  RURAL  POPULATION 

The  present  indications  in  this  respect,  however,  are  not  alarming, 
for  apparent!}"  the  area  devoted  to  the  principal  food  crops  is  increas- 
ing even  faster  than  the  corresponding  growth  in  population.  But  the 
data  are  far  from  satisfactory.  In  practically  all  the  civilized  coun- 
tries the  tendency  of  the  population  is  largely  toward  the  cities,  and 
the  employment  of  productive  energy  in  manufacturing  industries, 
governmental  or  corporated  administration,  the  professions,  and  the 
modern  methods  and  requirements  of  distribution.  The  recent  rise  in 
the  price  of  agricultural  products  is  largely  to  be  attributed  to  this 
condition.  As  previously  pointed  out,  the  urban  population  in  the 
United  States  during  the  last  decade  has  increased  35  per  cent,  whereas 
the  corresponding  increase  in  the  rural  population  was  only  11  per 
cent.  In  many  of  the  most  important  agricultural  sections  of  the  coun- 
try there  has  been  but  a  slight  increase  in  the  rural  population  or 
an  actual  decline.  Such  an  actual  decrease  in  rural  population  oc- 
curred, for  illustration,  in  such  typically  agricultural  states  as  New 
Hampshire  (5.4  per  cent),  Vermont  (4.2  per  cent),  Ohio  (1.3  per 
cent),  Indiana  (5.1  per  cent),  Iowa  (7.2  per  cent),  Missouri  (3.5 
per  cent).  In  the  state  of  New  York  15  counties  decreased  in  popula- 
tion during  the  past  decade,  including  many  in  which  the  agricultural 
opportunities  are  distinctly  encouraging ;  in  Michigan  there  was  a  de- 
crease in  population  in  26  counties;  and  a  corresponding  decline  oc- 
curred in  20  counties  of  Wisconsin.  The  rural  population  of  Michigan 
increased  only  2.0  per  cent;  of  Wisconsin,  5.7  per  cent;  and  of  Min- 
nesota, 7.7  per  cent.  In  contrast,  the  urban  population  in  these  three 
states  increased  87.3  per  cent  in  Michigan,  23.8  per  cent  in  Wiscon- 
sin, and  38.6  per  cent  in  Minnesota.  In  contrast  to  an  apparent 
decline  in  the  growth  of  agricultural  interests  there  has  been  a  de- 
cided increase  in  farm  values,  for  while  the  improved  acreage  in  farms 
increased  for  the  United  States  during  the  last  decade  only  4.8  per  cent, 
the  value  of  farm  lands  increased  118  per  cent,  and  the  average 
value  of  farm  land  per  acre  increased  from  $15.57  in  1900  to  $32.40 
in  1910,  or  at  the  rate  of  108  per  cent.* 

*  For  additional  details,  see  "Rural  Health  and  Welfare,"  published  by  the 
Prudential  Insurance  Company  of  Araeriea,  1912,  in  connection  with  the  New 
York  Agricultural  Exposition. 


56  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

PROBLEM   OF   CONSERVATION   OF   NATURAL  RESOURCES 

The  corresponding  increase  in  the  cost  of  living  during  the  last 
two  decades  affects  practically  all  of  the  necessaries,  including  every 
essential  item  of  the  food  supply.  It  would  seem  that  the  methods  of 
general  agriculture  have  not  made  anything  like  the  progress  which 
has  been  attained  in  the  mechanical  industries,  although  the  results  in 
the  latter  are  of  much  less  immediate  importance  to  the  consumers 
than  the  former.  A  constantly  increasing  urban  population  must 
tend  to  bring  about  a  further  increase  in  the  price  of  agricul- 
tural products,  unless  in  the  future  a  much  -larger  proportion 
of  human  energy  is  employed  in  the  productive  industries  which  min- 
ister to  fundamental  human  wants.  All  that  is  summed  "up  in  the 
modem  conception  of  the  governmental  duty  of  conservation  of 
natural  resources  for  the  needs  of  future  generations  is  primarily  con- 
ditioned by  the  indisputable  indications  of  a  larger  future  rate  of 
natural  increase  in  the  world's  population  than  has  prevailed  in  the 
past.  Foremost,  it  would  seem,  as  a  public  problem,  is  the  essential 
need  of  improved  methods  of  agriculture,  as  best  emphasized  in  the 
relatively  low  yield  of  agricultural  products  obtained  in  the  United 
States,  in  comparison  with  foreign  countries  where  the  soils  must  long 
ago  have  been  exhausted  to  a  more  considerable  degree.  The  average 
yield  of  wheat  per  acre,  for  illustration,  during  the  decade  ending 
with  1912,  was  only  14.1  bushels  for  the  United  States,  compared 
with  18.4  for  Hungary,  19.8  for  Austria,  20.4  for  France,  30.1  for 
Germany,  and  31.7  for  the  United  Kingdom.  The  average  yield  of 
oats,  which  is  a  food  product  of  considerable  value,  was  29.6  bushels 
per  acre  for  the  United  States,  against  29.8  for  France,  30.8  for  Hun- 
gary, 31.1  for  Austria,  44.3  for  the  United  Kingdom,  and  51.9  for 
Germany.  A  corresponding  condition  is  shown  by  the  comparative 
statistics  of  the  average  yield  of  rye,  which  was  15.8  bushels  for  the 
United  States,  18.3  for  Hungary,  20.6  for  Austria,  27.0  for  Germany, 
and  28.4  for  Ireland.  It  seems,  therefore,  an  entirely  sound  conclusion 
that  there  remain  vast  opportunities  for  increased  agricultural  pro- 
duction without  any  necessary  enlargement  of  the  area  devoted  to  the 
raising  of  cereal  crops,  but  as  a  brief  contribution  to  the  practical  side 
of  this  question,  the  following  international  crop  statistics  are  given  as 
derived  from  the  Yearbook  of  Agriculture  for  1912 : 

INTERNATIONAL    CROP    STATISTICS 

The  area  of  the  world  imder  wheat  in  1908  was  242,472,000  acres, 
which  by  1912  had  increased  to  265,736,000  acres.  The  increase  in 
area,  therefore,  was  equivalent  to  9.6  per  cent,  which  compares  with 
3.9  per  cent  of  corresponding  increase  in  population.     The  world's 


STATISTICAL    STUDIES  •  57 

wheat  crop  in  1895  was  2,593,000,000  bushels,  which  by  1912  had  in- 
creased to  3,759,000,000  bushels.  The  increase  in  the  wheat  crop  was, 
therefore,  equivalent  to  45.0  per  cent,  which  compares  with  an  in- 
crease of  12.6  per  cent  in  the  world's  population  during  the  inter- 
vening period  of  time. 

The  world's  area  under  com,  in  1908,  was  160,707,000  acres,  which 
by  1912  had  increased  to  168,154,000  acres,  or  4.6  per  cent.  The  cor- 
responding increase  in  population  during  the  same  period  was  3.9  per 
cent.  The  corn  crop  of  the  world  increased  from  2,835,000,000  bushels 
in  1895  to  4,055,000,000  bushels  in  1912.  The  increase  in  corn  pro- 
duction during  this  period  was,  therefore,  equivalent  to  43.0  per  cent, 
which  compares  with  a  corresponding  increase  of  12.6  per  cent  in  the 
world's  population. 

The  area  of  the  world  under  oats  in  1908  was  128,897,000  acres, 
which  by  1912  had  increased  to  142,935,000  acres.  The  increase  in 
area,  therefore,  was  equivalent  to  10.9  per  cent,  which  compares  with  a 
corresponding  increase  of  3.9  per  cent  in  population.  The  world's 
oat  crop  in  1895  was  3,008,000,000  bushels,  which  by  1932  had  in- 
creased to  4,585,000,000,  an  increase  equivalent  to  52.4  per  cent,  as 
compared  with  a  corresponding  increase  of  ]2.6  per  cent  in  the  world's 
population. 

The  world's  area  under  barley,  which  is  a  food  crop  of  no  small 
importance,  increased  from  65,663,000  acres  in  1908  to  67,819,000  acres 
in  1912,  an  increase  equivalent  to  3.3  per  cent,  which  compares  with  a 
corresponding  increase  in  the  world's  population  of  3.9  per  cent.  The 
world's  barley  crop  increased  from  915,504,000  bushels  in  1895  to 
1,458,000,000  bushels  in  1912.  There  was,  therefore,  a  relative  increase 
in  barley  production  of  59.2  per  cent,  which  compares  with  a  cor- 
responding increase  of  12.6  per  cent  in  the  world's  population  during 
the  intervening  period  of  time. 

The  world's  area  under  rye,  which  is  also  a  crop  of  considerable 
importance  as  a  source  of  food  supply,  increased  from  106,121,000 
acres  in  1908  to  108,292,000  acres  in  1912,  an  increase  equivalent  to 
2.1  per  cent,  corresponding  to  an  increase  of  3.9  per  cent  in  the 
population  of  the  world  during  the  same  period  of  years.  The 
world's  rye  crop  increased  from  1,468,000,000  bushels  in  1895  to  1,901,- 
000,000  bushels  in  1912.  an  increase  equivalent  to  29.5  per  cent,  which 
compares  with  a  corresponding  increase  in  population  of  12.6  per 
cent. 

The  world's  rice  crop  increased  from  91,000,000,000  pounds  in 
1900  to  174,000,000,000  pounds  in  1911.  The  increase  in  production 
during  this  period  was  equivalent  to  91.2  per  cent,  which  compares 


58  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

Avith  a  corrospondinfj  incroase  of  8.8  per  cent  in  the  population  of  the 
world. 

The  available  evidence,  therefore,  is  distinctly  encouraging,  some 
exceptions  to  this  view  notwithstanding,  that  a  considerable  further  in- 
crease in  the  world's  population  is  entirely  consistent  with  at  least 
an  equal  rate  of  growth  in  the  production  of  the  cereals  required  for 
the  world's  food  supply.  The  same  conclusion,  though  to  a  lesser  de- 
gree, applies  to  the  products  of  animal  industry,  which,  however,  it  is 
not  possible  to  discuss  on  this  occasion. 

EVIDENCE    OF    xVUGMENTED    POPULATION    GROWTH 

The  progress  of  the  race  as  an  economic  problem  is,  therefore,  ap- 
parently not  as  yet  seriously  affected  by  the  material  decline  in  the 
general  death  rate,  wdth  a  resulting  proportionately  larger  increase  in 
population.  The  problems  of  the  immediate  future  are  social,  moral 
and  political,  as  perhaps  best  emphasized  in  the  following  table,  ex- 
hibiting the  population  growth  of  Europe  and  the  United  States  com- 
bined, since  the  commencement  of  the  nineteenth  century  and  east 
forward  to  the  year  I960: 

POPULATION  OP  EUROPE  AND  THE   UNITED    STATES 

Annual  Increase 

Year                                                         Europe  United  States  Total  per  1,000 

1800  187,693,000  5,303,000  193,001,000 

1810  198,388,000  7,240,000  205,628,000  6.3 

1820  212,768,000  9,638,000  222,406,000  7.8 

1830  233,962,000  12,866,000  246,828,000  10.4 

1840  250,972,000  17,069,000  268,041,000  8.2 

1850  266,228,000  23,192,000  289,420,000  7.7 

1860  282,893,000  31,443,000  314,336,000  8.3 

1870  305,399,000  38,558,000  343,957,000  9.0 

1880  331,745,000  50,189,000  381,934,000  10.5 

1890  362,902,000  62,980,000  425,882,000  10.9 

1900  ....400,577,000  76,303,000  476,880,000  11.3 

1910  449,520,000  91,972,000  541,492,000  12.7 

1920*  506,151,000  109,999,000  616,150,000  13.0 

1930*  571,081,000  130,019,000  701,100,000  13.0 

1940*  645,901,000  151,862,000  797,763,000  13.0 

1950*  732,506.000  175,248,000  907,754,000  13.0 

1960*  833,127,000  199,783,000  1,032,910,000  13.0 

*  Based  on  an  annual  increase  of  13.0  per  1,000,  and  the  assumption  that  in  the 
future  a  larger  share  of  European  emigration  will  go  to  countries  other  than  the  United  States. 

During  the  period  of  recorded  population  growth  for  Europe  and 
the  United  States  there  has  been  a  rise  in  the  rate  of  natural  in- 
crease from  6.3  per  1,000  during  the  decade  1800-10  to  12.7  per  1,000 
during  the  decade  ending  with  1910;  and  the  actual  population  of 
Europe  and  the  United  States  combined  has,  during  this  period,  in- 
creased from  not  quite  200.000,000  to  over  540,000,000. 

POLITICAL    PROBLEMS    OF    POPULATION    GROW^TH 

Foremost  among  the  political  problems  resulting  from  .such  an  in- 
crease in  population,  with  a  corresponding  increase  in  density,  are  the 
'  increasing  expenditures  on  account  of  government,  best  illustrated  in 


STATISTICAL    STUDIES  59 

the  simple  statement  of  the  fact  that  in  1912  the  approximate  revenue 
of  civilized  countries  was  $11,574,000,000,  and  the  corresponding  ex- 
penditures, $11,687,000,000.  Of  the  expenditures,  $1,686,000,000  was 
on  account  of  interest  and  other  annual  charges  upon  an  accumulated 
debt  of  $41,737,000,000.  In  practically  every  civilized  country  these 
burdens  of  fixed  charges  on  account  of  debts,  largely  of  a  non-pro- 
ductive character,  are  increasing ;  but  particularly  so  in  the  case  of 
local  governments,  chiefly  large  cities,  which  are  not  included  in  the 
foregoing  statement  of  revenue,  expenditures,  debts  and  interest 
charges,  which  have  reference  only  to  national  obligations  and  fiduci- 
ary responsibilities.  As  a  single  concrete  illustration,  limited  to 
American  cities,  it  may  be  pointed  out  that  the  per  capita  govern- 
mental cost  payments  for  1910  amounted  to  $31.32,  ranging  from 
$37.15  for  large  cities  to  $19.66  for  small  cities.  The  increase  in 
municipal  indebtedness  during  recent  years  has  been  enormous,  with 
much  of  the  expenditures  for  non-productive  or  only  temporary  pur- 
poses, though  the  burdens  resulting  therefrom  will  have  to  be  largely 
borne  by  future  generations.  Against  a  per  capita  national  debt  of 
only  $10.60  for  the  United  States  and  an  annual  per  capita  interest 
charge  of  23  cents,  the  per  capita  debt  of  New  Zealand  is  $371.27,  and 
the  per  capita  annual  interest  charge  $11.26;  for  France,  the  per 
capita  debt  is  $158.67,  and  the  per  capita  annual  interest  charge 
$4.69 ;  for  the  German  Empire  the  respective  figures  are  $18.78  and 
88  cents.  All  statistics  of  this  kind  require  to  be  accepted  with  great 
caution  on  account  of  variations  in  underlying  elements,  since  no 
data  are  available  regarding  the  total  governmental  debts  of  any  coun- 
try, including  the  federal,  state  and  local  governments.  The  data  are 
only  referred  to  as  an  illustration  of  the  serious  problems  confront- 
ing the  future,  and  which  arise  particularly  out  of  the  rapid  actual 
growth  in  population,  which  in  modern  countries  is  without  a  parallel 
in  historic  times.* 

FIRST     CONCLUSION CONSERVATION    OF    FOOD-PRODUCING     NATURAL     RE- 
SOURCES  IN   LAND   AND    SEA 

As  observed  at  the  outset  of  this  discussion,  the  social,  economic  and 
political  problems  which  arise  out  of  a  declining  death  rate  and  the 


*  The  most  convenient  sources  of  information  regarding-  international 
statistics  of  public  finance  are  contained  in  the  statistical  abstract  of  the 
United  States,  published  annually  by  the  Bureau  of  Statistics,  of  the  Treasury 
Department.  The  financial  statistics  of  American  cities  are  annually  reported 
upon  in  considerable  detail  by  the  United  States  Census  Office.  The  most  re- 
cent critical  observ^ations  on  the  wealth  of  nations  are  contained  in  a  treatise 
on  "Wealth  and  the  Causes  of  Economic  Welfare,"  by  Edwin  Cannan,  pub- 
lished by  P.  S.  King  &  Sons,  London. 


60  FIRST  natioxaij  confewence  on  race  betterment 

resultinjr  pDpulatioii  growth,  are  of  vast  importance  and  entitled  to 
public  consideration.  Much  has  of  necessity  been  left  unsaid  which 
has  immediate  reference  to  the  factors  conditioning  race  progress  as 
measured  by  changes  in  the  death  rate,  but  the  most  pressing  question 
is  the  more  intelligent,  and  if  necessary  the  radical,  conservation  and 
control  of  the  natural  resources  of  the  earth,  including  the  food  re- 
sources of  the  sea.  On  the  last-named  subject  alone  a  well-reasoned 
plea  might  have  been  advanced,  for  it  is  a  remarkable  fact,  as  pointed 
out  in  the  report  of  the  Canadian  Commission  on  Conservation,  that 
Canada  is  the  only  country  in  the  world  with  a  governmental  organi- 
zation with  administrative  powers  over  all  the  fisheries  of  the  Domin- 
ion. The  Canadian  Department  of  Marine  and  Fisheries  has  ample 
powers  of  protection  and  conservation,  which  in  course  of  time  must 
prove  of  vast  benefit  to  the  future  generations  of  that  country.  Such 
power  should  be  exercised  by  other  governments  with  an  interest  in 
the  food  resources  of  the  sea.* 

SECOND    CONCLUSION — IMPROVED    METHODS    OP    AGRICULTURE 

The  second  conclusion,  partly  resulting  from  the  first,  is  the  im- 
perative need  of  improved  methods  of  agricultural  production  and  dis- 
tribution and  the  more  successful  prevention  of  waste  of  soil,  seed  and 
labor.  The  extent  of  destructive  soil-erosion  is  enormous  and  the  an- 
nual waste  of  soil  or  impaired  fertiliity  in  the  United  States  is  one  of 
the  most  lamentable  aspects  of  our  national  life.  Large  areas  are  be- 
coming practically  useless  for  remunerative  methods  of  farming,  be- 
cause of  neglect  and  lack  of  proper  attention  to  well-understood  princi- 
ples of  soil-conservation.  The  progress  in  the  reclamation  of  arid  and 
swamp  lands  is  gratifying,  but  considering  the  vast  possibilities,  only 
a  small  beginning  has  been  made.  The  work  of  the  United  States 
Bureau  of  Soils  and  the  United  States  Reclamation  Service  is  proving 
of  incalculable  benefit  to  the  people  and  it  is  entitled  to  more  adequate 
and  well-considered  state  and  federal  support.  The  nation-wide  move- 
ment for  the  improvement  of  the  social  conditions  of  coiuatry  life  and, 
in  connection  therewith,  of  rural  sanitation,  demands  a  properly 
guided  and  persistent  public  interest.  One  of  the  most  hopeful  signs 
of  the  times  is  the  gradual  development  of  a  deliberate  governmental 
policy  in  the  matter  of  rural  credit,  or  agricultural  finance,  and  the 

*  See  in  this  connection  the  admirable  reports  of  the  Scottish  Departmental 
Committee  on  the  North  Sea  Fishing  Industry,  published  as  a  Parliamentary 
Paper,  London,  1914.  No  such  exhaustive  investigations  have  been  made  of 
the  fishery  resources  of  the  United  States,  though  obviously  called  for  on  ac- 
count of  the  growing  importance  of  this  industry. 


STATISTICAL    STUDIES  61 

related  subject  of  intelligent  cooperative  distribution  of  farm  products. 
All  efforts  of  this  kind  foreshadow  a  time  when  agriculture  will  be- 
come the  first  interest  of  the  nation,  not  only  as  regards  remunerative 
pecuniary  results,  but  also  as  regards  health  and  happiness  on  the 
farm.* 

THIRD  CONCLUSION — UTILIZATION  OF  WASTE 

Third:  The  utilization  of  wastes  and  by-products  is  an  economic 
question  of  far-reaching  practical  national  importance.  The  losses  re- 
sulting from  crude  or  otherwise  ill-considered  methods  of  production 
are  enormous,  but  particularly  so  in  the  lumber  and  mining  industries. 
What  can  be  done  in  the  direction  of  conserving  our  forestry  resources 
has  been  clearly  established  by  numerous  investigations  of  the  Bureau 
of  Forestry.  What  can  be  done  in  the  direction  of  conserving  our  fuel 
resources,  by  more  efficient  methods  of  production,  is  best  illustrated 
in  a  recent  bulletin  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Mines  on  the 
petroleum  industry.  The  almost  infinite  possibilities  of  utilizing  waste 
products  to  economic  advantage  are  best  illustrated  in  the  commercial 
success  of  the  cotton-seed-oil  industry,  modern  meat-packing  plants 
and  by-product  coke-ovens.  Improved  efforts  in  this  direction  will  go 
far  to  mitigate  the  economic  consequences  of  an  increasing  population, 
resulting  from  a  reduction  in  the  death  rate. 

FOURTH  CONCLUSION — TOWN  PLANNING 

Fourth :  There  is  the  utmost  urgency  for  the  earliest  possible  adop- 
tion of  rational  town-planning  schemes  for  American  cities,  in  con- 
formity to  the  principles  laid  down  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Third 
National  Conference  on  City  Planning,  held  in  Philadelphia  in  1911. 
The  fundamental  facts  of  a  housing-reform  propaganda  are  gradu- 
ally being  ascertained  by  means  of  local  surveys  and  given  wide 


*  See  in  this  connection  the  exceptionally  valuable  and  interesting  report 
of  the  United  States  Commission  on  Agricultural  Cooperation  and  Rural 
Credit  in  Europe,  Washing-ton,  1913;  the  Joint  Hearings  before  the  Sub- 
Committee  of  the  Committee  on  Banking  and  Currency  of  the  Senate  and  the 
House  of  Representatives  charged  with  the  Investigation  of  Rural  Credits, 
Washington,  1914 ;  the  Report  to  the  Board  of  Agriculture  and  Fisheries  of 
an  Inquiry  into  Agricultural  Credit  and  Agi*icultural  Cooperation  in  Germany, 
by  J.  R.  Cahill,  published  as  Parliamentary  Paper  Cd.  6626,  London,  1913; 
also,  Bulletin  No.  56,  Department  of  Agriculture,  State  of  New  York,  on 
Agricultural  Cooperation  in  Europe  (this  report  contains  some  exceptionally 
useful  facts  and  observations  on  the  business  organization  of  agriculture  in 
Europe,  and  the  commercialization  and  industrialization  of  agriculture  for 
the  purpose  of  securing  higher  returns  to  the  producer  and  reduction  of  cost 
to  the  consumer). 


62  FIRST    XATIONAli    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

publicity  by  the  National  Confprenee  on  Housing.*  There  is  a  strong 
tendency,  at  least  in  the  development  of  suburban  territory,  towards 
the  adoption  of  European  town-planning  methods,  as  admirably  set 
forth  in  recent  reports  of  the  London  Garden  Cities  and  Town-Plan- 
ning Association  and  the  Westphalian  Leagne  for  Housing  and  Build- 
ing Reform.  The  American  aspects  of  the  problem  have  been  dis- 
cussed with  admirable  clearness  and  an  unusual  breadth  of  vision  at 
a  meeting  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science, 
held  in  Philadelphia  in  1914.  This  conference  included  observations  on 
the  important  question  of  the  relation  between  transit  and  housing  and 
of  the  equally  important  problem  of  properly  considered  plans  for  the 
most  suitable  location  and  most  effective  distribution  of  industrial 
establishments.  In  view  of  a  rapidly  increasing  urban  population 
throughout  the  world,  the  most  effective  and  suitable  control  of  build- 
ing operations,  particularly  in  badly  congested  cities,  and  with  special 
reference  to  the  housing  of  wage-earners,  assumes  the  greatest  possible 
practical  importance. 

FIFTH  CONCLUSION — EDUCATION  IN  PRACTICAL  DOMESTIC  ECONOMY 

•  Fifth:  There  is  greater  need  of  emphasis  being  placed  in  educa- 
tional courses  on  the  principles  and  practices  of  domestic  economy  and 
the  required  reduction  of  per  capita  food  consumption,  with  a  larger 
proportionate  and  easily  obtainable  increase  in  nutritive  values,  con- 
forming to  the  results  of  qualified  studies  of  dietaries,  such  as  have 
been  made  by  Atwater,  Chittenden,  and  others.  It  is  gratifying  evi- 
dence of  an  increasing  extent  of  public  interest  in  this  extremely  im- 
portant problem  that  more  or  less  drastic  national  food  laws,  aiming 
chiefly  at  the  prevention  of  adulterations,  should  have  been  enacted 
within  recent  years,  mth  the  certainty  of  far-reaching  benefits  to  the 
health  of  the  nation.     The  physiology  and  pathology  of  metabolism 

*  The  direct  relation  of  model  dwellings  to  the  death  rate  has  been  pre- 
cisely established  by  English  experience.  The  following  table  shows  the 
general  death  rate  of  groups  of  model  dwellings  in  London,  compared  with 
the  death  rate  of  the  city  as  a  whole.  For  additional  information  on  this  im- 
portant question,  see  my  report  on  the  sanitary  condition  of  Trinity  Tene- 
ments, published  in  1895,  and  my  address  on  the  relation  of  the  suburb  to  the 
city,  published  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Federation  of  Churches,  New  York, 
1912. 

The    Improved  Metropolitan  Asso- 

Industrial  The  ^''''^t'?"    ^"^"^  I'?^"  Peabodx- 

Years                                Dwellin,  Co.,  Guine..  'i::^!^^t  Donation  Greater 

Ltd.  Trust  rtustrial  Classes              Fund  London 

1908 8.0  13.3  9.0                         12.4  13.6 

1909 8.6  14.7  11.5                         13.7  13. S 

1910 6.3  13.8  6.6                         10.8  12.4 

1911 10.8  13.4  10.2                         11.3  13.8 

191:4 9.4  11.3  12.6                         10.4  12.3, 


STATISTICAL    STUDIES  63 

are  as  yet  but  imperfectly  understood,  and  further  progress  in  this 
direction  is  bound  to  have  a  decided  effect  upon  the  death  rate.  What 
can  be  done  in  educating  the  general  public  in  the  elements  of  nutri- 
tion is  best  shown  by  an  admirable  set  of  fourteen  charts  on  the  com- 
position, functions  and  uses  of  food,  prepared  by  C.  F.  Langworthy, 
expert  in  charge  of  nutrition  investigations  of  the  United  States  De- 
partment of  Agriculture. 

SIXTH    CONCLUSION — RATIONAL    CONTROL    OF    MARRIAGE,   FECUNDITY, 
AND    DIVORCE 

Sixth :  The  increasing  complexity  of  social  and  sex  relations,  re- 
sulting partly  from  the  vast  migratory  movements  of  modern  peoples, 
suggests  the  necessity  of  more  qualified  studies  than  have  heretofore 
been  made  of  the  actual  extent  of  such  changes  and  their  effect  upon 
the  stability  of  the  family  and  its  intrinsic  social  worth.  State  regu- 
lation of  marriage  within  reasonable  limitations  and  with  special  ref- 
erence to  the  required  prevention  of  the  marriage  of  the  obviously  unfit 
is  a  first  step  in  the  direction  of  deliberate  race-betterment  on  the  basic 
principle  of  social  control.  The  actual  and  relative  increase  in  divorce 
indicate  a  large  amount  of  prevailing  marital  discontent,  as  well  as 
the  possible  necessity  of  more  effective  legal  safeguards  against  the 
dissolution  of  the  family.  The  economic  problem  of  widowhood  in- 
creases in  seriousness  with  an  increase'  in  the  duration  of  life  and 
the  consequent  necessity  for  more  prolonged  pecuniary  support  in  old 
age.  The  present  status  of  family-desertion  and  non-support  laws  is 
far  from  satisfactory,  largely  because  of  a  rapid  augmentation  of 
urban  population,  chiefly  by  migration  from  the  south  of  Europe. 
In  its  fundamentals  the  progress  of  the  race  is  determined  by  the 
progress  of  the  family  and  its  greater  stability  and  intrinsic  moral 
worth.* 

SEVENTH  CONCLUSION — IMPROVED  METHODS  OP  GENERAL  EDUCATION 

Seventh :  Our  methods  of  general  education  are  unquestionably  far 
from  being  as  practical  as  they  require  to  be  made  in  view  of  an 
increasing  complexity  of  social,  economic  and  political  problems, 
which  necessitates  the  elimination  of  all  evidently  useless  courses  im- 
parting mere  information  or  rules  and  formulas  never  likely  to  be 
applied  in  the  solution  of  practical,  every-day  problems. 

*  For  a  discussion  of  the  rates  of  moi-tality,  with  special  reference  to  mar- 
riage and  fruitfulness  of  miarriage,  see  the  Transactions  of  the  Faculty  of 
Actuaries  for  1912 ;  the  classical  treatise  on  Fecundity,  Fertility  and  Sterility 
by  J.  Mathews  Duncan,  New  York,  1871;  my  address  on  the  Maternity  Sta- 
tistics of  Rhode  Island,  First  International  Congress  of  Eugenics,  London, 
1912 ;  and  the  work  by  Chas.  Letourneau  on  the  Evolution  of  Marriage  of  the 
Family. 


64  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

EIGHTH     CONCLUSION — PHYSICAL    TRAINING    AND     MEDICAL    SUPERVISION 

Eighth  -.  The  physical  training  of  the  young,  and  the  medical  super- 
vision of  schools  and  factories,  including  periodical  examination  for 
the  purpose  of  correcting  physical  defects  in  the  initial  stage,  or  treat- 
ing incipient  disease,  with  a  reasonable  chance  of  cure,  have  become 
accepted  principles  of  modern  government.  In  course  of  time  these  ef- 
forts must  profoundly  modify  not  only  the  health  of  the  young,  but 
what  is  equally  important,  the  health  of  adult  persons  employed  in  in- 
dustry. Furthermore,  there  must  come  about  in  consequence  of  such 
efforts,  a  decided  improvement  in  physique  and  more  general  con- 
formity to  a  normal  physical  type,  and  the  gradual  elimination  of  the, 
at  present,  disproportionately  large  number  of  persons  physically  de- 
fective or  infirm,  and  by  inference,  or  obviously,  less  efficient  for  the 
economic  needs  of  society. 

NINTH    CONCLUSION — LOCAL    HEALTH    ADMINISTRATION 

Ninth :  A  decided  improvement  is  required  in  local  health  adminis- 
tration and  the  more  intelligent  coordination  of  health-promoting 
public  and  private  agencies  and  institutions.  There  is  a  considerable 
amount  of  needless  waste  in  present  efforts,  but  even  more  important 
is  the  abundant  evidence  of  inefficiency,  particularly  in  the  health 
administration  of  small  communities  and  rural  districts.  With  an  in- 
creasing appreciation  of  the  economic  value  of  health  must  come  a 
higher  regard  for  the  scientific  and  practical  utility  of  accurate  vital 
statistics  on  the  one  hand,  and  a  thoroughly  efficient  administrative 
control  of  the  public  health  on  the  other.  Every  improvement  in  this 
direction  tends  towards  a  lowering  of  the  general  death  rate,  at  least 
from  the  more  easily  preventable  diseases,  and  in  course  of  time  a 
reduction  may  also  be  anticipated  in  the  chronic  degenerative  dis- 
eases less  subject  to  public  control  but  more  amenable  to  a  rational 
mode  of  living,  personal  hygiene,  progress  in  medical  and  surgical 
diagnosis  and  treatment,  and  a  higher  standard  of  life  generally. 

TENTH    CONCLUSION MODERN    LIFE    CONCEIVED    AS    SOCIAL    SERVICE 

Tenth  -.  Coincident  with  a  more  rational  education  must  come  the 
inculcation  of  new  and  higher  ideals  of  life  conceived  as  social  service, 
and  therefore  primarily  for  the  benefit  of  the  community  as  a  whole. 
The  purely  individualistic  view  of  personal  aims  and  pleasures  is 
bound  to  give  way  to  higher  conceptions  of  social  duty,  without  in  the 
least  diminishing  the  chances  for  individual  development,  conceived 
as  an  economic  function,  or  as  a  life-long  struggle  for  intellectual, 
moral  and  spiritual  perfection. 


STATISTICAL    STUDIES  65 

ELEVENTH      CONCLUSION ECONOMIC      UTILITY      OF      LONGEVITY 

Eleventh  :  An  increasing  average  duration  of  life,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  a  larger  proportion  of  aged  persons  on  the  other,  must  mean  new 
economic  problems,  particularly  with  regard  to  the  social  and  in- 
tellectual utilization  of  old  age.  It  has  beautifully  been  observed  by 
Jean  Finot  that  ' '  our  life  is  nothing  but  a  long  and  implacable  battle 
with  death."  But  life  is  also  for  the  mass  of  mankind  an  incessant 
struggle  against  poverty  and  economic  dependence  and  the  more  or 
less  degrading  and  always  humiliating  necessity  of  private  charitable 
aid  or  state  support  in  sickness,  invalidity  and  old  age.  No  modern 
agency  for  the  amelioration  of  the  economic  condition  of  mankind  has 
been  of  greater  benefit  to  the  masses  than  life  insurance  in  its  various 
forms.  To  an  increasing  extent,  the  needs  of  even  the  poor  in  sickness 
and  premature  death  are  now  being  provided  for  on  the  basis  of  in- 
surance principles,  gradually  developed  into  the  ministry  of  a  uni- 
versal provident  institution.  For  a  tranquil  and  otherwise  happy  old 
age,  a  modest  but  certain  amount  of  financial  support  is  absolutely 
essential,  but  it  is  equally  important  on  the  ground  of  public  mortality 
that  such  support,  to  the  largest  possible  extent,  should  be  the  result  of 
individual  thrift,  or,  in  other  words,  represent  voluntary  methods,  the 
reward  of  a  rational  economy,  enhanced  in  value  by  the  use  of  sound 
and  profitable  methods  of  savings  and  insurance.  It  is  on  this  ground 
that  non-contributory  universal  old-age  pensions  are  to  be  looked  upon 
with  apprehension  and  as  a  hindrance,  rather  than  a  help,  in  the 
struggle  for  a  genuine  and  lasting  betterment  in  the  social  condition  of 
the  poor.  It  is  for  the  same  reason  that  voluntary  methods  of  savings 
and  insurance  afford  the  most  satisfactory  means  within  the  reach  of 
all  but  the  very  poor,  to  provide  in  however  modest  a  manner  for  self- 
support  in  sickness,  infirmity  and  old  age. 

The  suitable  occupation  of  persons  advanced  in  years  in  some  ca- 
pacity useful  to  themselves  and  society,  is  another  serious  social  prob- 
lem, which  as  yet  has  received  but  slight  consideration.  The  most 
helpful  suggestions  along  this  line  are  those  advanced  by  the  late 
Professor  Shaler,  in  his  book  on  ' '  The  Individual ; "  by  William  Ed- 
ward Hartpole  hoeky,  in  ' '  The  May  of  Life ; ' '  and  by  Professor  Metch- 
nikoff's  books  on  "The  Prolongation  of  Life"  and  "The  Nature  of 
Man."  That  old  age  has  its  own  and  properly  assigned  function  in 
the  human  economy,  as  applied  to  the  needs  of  society,  is  best  brought 
out  in  the  admirable  discourse  on  "The  Age  of  Mental  Virility," 
which  is  an  inquiry  into  the  records  of  achievement  of  the  world's 
chief  workers  and  thinkers,  by  W.  A.  Newman  Borland. 

(4) 


66                   FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 
TWELFTH    CONCLUSION HIGHER   EDUCATIONAL   IDEALS 

Twelfth  :  .\jul  last,  it  may  be  suggested  that  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant problems  resulting  from  a  declining  death  rate  and  the  pro- 
longation of  life  and  its  consequential  relation  to  the  progress  of  the 
race,  is  the  imperative  duty  of  self-culture,  the  adoption  of  new  edu- 
cational standards,  emphasizing,  on  the  one  hand,  the  economic  limita- 
tions of  life,  but  on  the  other,  the  practically  unlimited  possibilities 
of  individual,  intellectual,  moral  and  spiritual  development.  There  is 
nothing  more  discouraging  to  the  mass  of  mankind  than  the  obvious 
evidences  of  inherent  economic  limitations  as  regards  the  distribution 
of  wealth  and  the  individual  actiuisition  of  articles  of  necessity  or 
luxury  which  only  money  can  buy.  There  is  the  most  urgent  need  for 
higher  standards  of  education,  resting  upon  the  incontrovertible  argu- 
ment by  Bishop  Spalding,  in  his  masterly  treatise  on  "Education  and 
the  Higher  Life,"  that  the  true  ideal  is  summed  up  in  the  aim  to  he 
rather  than  to  have  more ;  and  to  he  more  spiritually,  morally  and  in- 
tellectually is  practically  within  the  power  of  every  individual  whose 
eyes  have  once  been  opened  to  the  truth.  It  is  true  that  the  standard 
of  economic  well-being  has  risen  all  over  the  world,  and  unquestionably 
an  inconceivable  amount  of  good,  has  resulted  from  the  comparatively 
recent  economic  progress  of  mankind;  but  there  is  great  danger  in 
overemphasizing  the  value  of  such  progress,  at  least  in  the  individual 
case,  and  in  underrating  the  social  value  of  a  disciplined  imagination 
and  the  more  readily  attainable  ideals  of  the  intellectual  life.  With 
an  increasing  population  and  an  increasing  struggle  for  the  possession 
of  the  land  and  the  means  of  subsistence,  it  would  seem  to  be  of  the 
utmost  importance  that  these  more  subtle  and  less  readily  definable 
elements  of  the  problem  of  race  progress  should  not  be  lost  sight  of.  If 
the  prolongation  of  life  resulting  from  a  diminishing  death  rate  is  to 
be  really  worth  while,  the  present  disharmonies  of  human  existence 
must  be,  as  far  as  practicable,  eliminated,  but  whatever  changes  for 
good  may  result  from  improved  methods  of  production,  from  more 
abundant  means  of  subsistence,  from  increased  earnings  and  shorter 
hours  of  labor,  they  will  all  be  of  small  consequence  unless  balanced 
by  an  even  greater  advance  in  the  moral,  intellectual  and  spiritual 
type  of  the  generation  which  is  yet  to  be. 


STATISTICAL    STUDIES  67 

THE   CAUSES  OF   THE   DECLINING   BIRTH   RATE 

Professor  J.  McKeen  Cattell,  LL.D.,  Editor  Popular  Science  Monthly, 
Gan-ison-on-Hudson,  N.  Y. 

From  prehistoric  times  the  population  of  the  world  has  been  held 
in  check  by  war,  pestilence  and  famine.  Towards  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth  century  these  were  relaxing  in  severity,  thanks  to  the 
applications  of  science  and  to  a  gradually  ameliorating  civilization, 
and  the  population  of  Europe  was  increasing  at  the  rate  of  about  one 
per  cent  a  year.  It  is  no  wonder  that  Malthus  Avas  appalled  by  this 
geometrical  compounding  of  human  beings,  which  would  exhaust  the 
food  supply  and  even  leave  no  standing  room  on  the  earth,  and  that 
his  point  of  view  dominated  the  economic  theory  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  But  two  factors  already  in  existence  soon  gained  force.  The 
applications  of  science — the  use  of  the  steam  engine  in  manufactures 
and  transportation  and  innumerable  other  advances — increased  the 
means  of  subsistence  more  rapidly  than  one  per  cent  a  year,  and  the 
birth  rate  was  beginning  to  decline. 

Owing  to  a  remarkable  balance  between  a  decreasing  birth  rate  and 
a  decreasing  death  rate,  the  population  of  Europe  continued  to  in- 
crease throughout  the  nineteenth  century  at  a  rate  in  the  neighborhood 
of  one  per  cent  a  year,  rising  from  175  million  in  1800  to  420  million 
in  1900.  The  population  increased  about  as  rapidly  as  it  could  be  con- 
veniently assimilated,  with  gradually  improved  conditions  of  living, 
for  all.  A  new  factor  in  the  adjustment  of  population  was  emigration 
on  a  large  scale,  some  thirty-five  million  people  leaving  Europe  in  the 
course  of  the  century,  more  than  half  of  whom  came  to  the  United 
States,  where  the  increase  in  population  has  been  in  the  neighborhood 
of  two  per  cent  a  year. 

The  adjustment  of  population  to  means  of  subsistence  appears  at 
first  sight  to  be  so  exact  that  there  is  likely  to  be  an  assumption  of  a 
controlling  mechanism  such  as  exists  in  a  state  of  nature.  The  fact  of 
the  matter  is,  however,  that  the  food  supply  and  the  other  necessities 
of  life  are  not  fixed  quantities,  but  increase  in  proportion  to  the  num- 
ber of  men  who  both  use  and  produce  them.  In  an  era  of  the  applica- 
tions of  science,  there  are  no  diminishing  returns  with  increasing 
population,  but  rather  increasing  returns,  owing  to  the  production 
of  larger  numbers  of  men  who  make  discoveries  and  improvements  for 
the  benefit  of  all.  The  average  well-being  is  about  the  same  in  France 
with  a  stationary  population,  as  in  Germany  with  a  rapidly  increas- 
ing population ;  but  Germany  through  its  greater  share  in  the  ad- 
vancements of  science  and  its  applications  is  contributing  more  to  the 
world  than  is  France.     The  first  effect  of  a  lowered  birth  rate  is  to 


68 


FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERKNCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 


increase  Aveallh — tlioii,i>ii  it  is  <2^enerally  consuiued  in  luxuries — by 
saving  the  cost  of  the  rearing  of  children,  but  later  when  the  produc- 
tive workers  are  lacking  there  is  an  economic  loss.  France,  as  com- 
pared with  Germany,  saves  each  year  over  a  billion  dollars  by  having 
fewer  children  to  support;  but  the  gain  in  wealth  is  temporary.  In 
fact  it  ended  in  1895,  whereas  the  increase  in  wealth  in  Germany  in 
the  course  of  the  next  generation  will  be  enormous. 

It  is  a  fundamental  question  whether  the  relation  between  the 
birth  rate  and  the  death  rate  will  be  maintained  under  existing  condi- 
tions so  as  to  give  an  increasing,  or,  at  all  events,  a  stationaiy  popu- 
lation. Will  both  continue  to  decrease  or  remain  approximately  as  at 
present,  or  will  the  balance  of  the  nineteenth  be  lost  as  has  apparently 
happened  in  France?  The  death  rate  has  been  halved  by  the  partial 
abolition  of  war,  pestilence  and  famine  in  their  grosser  forms,  and  by 
alleviation  of  their  milder  aspects — improved  conditions  for  the  strug- 
gling classes,  the  limitation  and  mitigation  of  disease,  and  better  condi- 
tions of  living.  There  is  abundant  room  for  further  improvement ;  it 
is  stated  that  the  death  rate  can  again  be  halved.  But  this  is  impos- 
sible ;  indeed,  it  seems  that  in  certain  nations  the  death  rate  has  now 
reached  its  minimum.  Australia  and  New  Zealand  report  a  death  rate 
of  ten.  This  means  that  in  a 
stationary  population  the  average 
age  at  death  is  one  hundred  years. 
For  every  infant  that  dies,  a  man 
must  live  to  be  two  hundred  years 
old,  or  ten  men  live  to  be  one 
hundred  ten.  This  is  beyond  the 
limit  of  possibility.  The  death 
rate  in  England  and  Wales  is 
about  thirteen.  It  is  so  low  be- 
cause decreasing  birth  rates  and 
death  rates  have  given  a  popula- 
tion so  constituted  that  an  un- 
usually large  part  is  of  the  age 
when  deaths  are  few.  The  death 
rate  in  England  will  probably  de- 
crease a  little  further  and  will 
then  begin  to  rise. 

The  relation  between  births, 
deaths  and  marriages  in  England 
and  Wales  is  shown  on  Chart  I. 
The  marriage  rate  fluctuates,  but 
is  now  as  high  as  it  was  in  1880. 


35 

30 
^5 
10 

15 

10 
li 

BIRTH 

RATES 

V 

V,  , 

- 

--, 

"\ 

A 

DEATH 

RATES 

\ 

V 

^ 

\'\. 

\'  ■     . 

M 

ftRRIAGf 

RATES 

\' 

\ 

76       Ifi 

31        1(86      1691        18 

96       1901        m        15 

STATISTICAL    STUDIES 


69 


The  maximum  birth  rate  in  1876  may  be  due  to  the  introduction 
of  compulsory  registration  in  1874.  From  that  time  it  has  fallen 
steadily;  if  it  should  continue  to  decline  at  the  same  rate  it  would 
reach  the  minimum  death  rate  of  ten  in  about  forty  years. 
The  death  rate  has  also  fallen  constantly,  though  with  greater 
fluctuations,  dropping  from  21  in  1876  to  13.3  at  the  present 
time.  In  France,  with  its  small  birth  rate  and  stationary  population 
there  are  relatively  about  four-fifths  as  many  young  children  and 
nearly  twice  as  many  old  people  as  in  England.  When  the  latter  coun- 
try attains  a  stationary  population  its  death  rate  must  increase,  and 
unless  there  is  a  change  in  the  birth  rate  curve  the  population  will 
soon  become  stationary  and  will  then  begin  to  decrease. 

The  declining  birth  rates  of  the  three  great  cultural  nations  of 
Western  Europe  are  shown  on 
the  curves  (Chart  II),  and 
they  have  continued  in  the 
same  course.  Thus  in  Eng- 
land and  Wales  the  rate  was 
24.4  in  1911  and  23.8  in  1912. 
The  decline  for  France  has 
been  very  regular  since  the 
beginning  of  the  last  century 
at  the  rate  of  one  and  one- 
half  per  thousand  for  each 
decade.  The  decline  for  Eng- 
land since  1876  is  also  nearly 
in  a  straight  line  and  twice  as 
rapid  as  for  France.  The  de- 
cline for  Germany,  beginning  chart  n. 
later  than  for  England,  as  that  was  later  than  for  France,  has  since 
1895  been  more  rapid  than  for  England.  These  three  curves,  if  con- 
tinued, give  the  queer  result  that  births  in  these  three  nations  will 
<3ease  altogether  in  about  the  same  time  one  hundred  years  hence. 
Such  results  are  of  course  absurd.  Still  it  should  be  remembered 
that  there  are  now  only  three  births  to  replace  four  deaths  in  some 
French  departments  and  in  the  native  population  of  New  England. 

The  vital  statistics  of  the  United  States  are  entirely  inadequate. 
Where  registrations  of  deaths  and  births  exist,  they  are  imperfect,  and 
the  changing  population,  its  age,  composition,  and  the  amount  of  im- 
migration, render  them  difficult  to  interpret.  But  some  information 
concerning  birth  rates  is  given  by  the  proportion  of  children  as  de- 
termined by  the  census.  If  the  percentage  of  children  under  sixteen 
years  of  age  in  the  population  should  continue  to  decrease  as  it  did 


^ 

-\ 

30 
25 
20 

15 
10 
5 

n 

\ 

\ 

TOP    -  GERMANY 
MIDDLE- ENGLAND 
BOTTOM  -  FRANCE 

\ 

\ 

\^ 

V 

^ 

N 

^\.^     ^\^ 

\ 

^"n^ 

^N     ^^^  ^ 

'*X 

81 

85  51-95  m  1910                        1950                                 20OO      | 

70 


FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 


from   1880  to  1900.  there  would  be  no  children  two  humlred  years 
hence. 

From  a  special  study  by  Mr.  Kuczynski  it  appears  that  the  birth 
rate  of  the  native  population  of  Massachusetts  was  63  per  thousand 
women  of  child-bearing  age,  as  compared  with  85  in  France,  104  in 
England  and  143  in  Russia.  As  the  French  population  is  stationary, 
the  native  New  England  population,  even  apart  from  any  further 
decline  in  the  birth  rate,  decreases  to  three-fourths  in  one  generation. 
Its  birth  rate  was  17,  the  size  of  family  2.61  and  of  the  surviving 
family  1.92.  Special  statistics  have  been  gathered  for  college  gradu- 
ates. President  Eliot  in  his  report  for  1901-02  stated  that  634  married 
Harvard  graduates  of  the  classes  from  '72  to  '77  had  an  average 
family  of  1.99  surviving  children.  Other  data  concerning  the  families 
of  college  graduates  have  been  published  by  Pl^ofessor  Thorndike, 
President  Hall  and  others.  The  Harvard  graduate  has  on  the 
average  three-fourths  of  a  son,  the  Vassar  graduate  one-half  of  a 
daughter.    Curves  are  here  drawn  for  some  of  the  data,  which  show 


6 

5 

1 

^.^ 
^^\^ 

\  \ 

3 

3 
2 

1 
0 

^^v'\\ 

, 

x\ 

'■■■•■■.. 

EBURY 
EYAN 
YORK 

'■■. 

■■■.... 

- 

NEW 

I8!5             1835            1855            1875             1895            1915              1935      | 

CHABT  ni. 


STATISTICAL    STUDIES 


71 


that  the  gross  size  of  the  family  of  college  graduates  has  decreased 
from  5.6  at  the  beginning  of  the  century  to  2.5  and  2  for  classes 
graduating  in  1875.  A  projection  of  these  curves  gives  the  curious 
result  that  students  graduating  in  1935  would  have  no  children. 

"What,  then,  are  the  causes  leading  to  the  recent  decline  of  the 
birth  rate,  and  are  they  likely  to  alter  so  that  the  rate  may  again  in- 
crease, to  maintain  the  existing  state  of  affairs,  or  to  produce  a  further 
decrease  ?  There  is  a  biological  adaptation  which  limits  the  fertility  of 
a  woman  to  about  twelve  children,  and  social  conditions  have  led  to 
one-half  of  the  women  of  child-bearing  age  being  unmarried.  The 
further  decrease  of  the  average  family  to  three  or  four — in  the  case 
of  American  scientific  men  or  college  graduates  to  two — must  be  due  to 
infertility  or  to  voluntary  limitation.  Both  causes  have  been  recog- 
nized since  the  time  of  the  writing  of  the  book  of  Genesis ;   both  have 


CHART  IV. 


72 


FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 


doubtless  increased  in  force  in  the  course  of  tlie  nineteenth  century. 
It  is  generally  believed  that  the  principal  cause  of  the  small  size  of 
the  modern  family  is  voluntary  limitation.  A  definite  answer  is  sup- 
plied by  information  given  to  me  by  461  leading  scientific  men. 

The  curves  of  Chart  V  show  the  distribution  of  these  families 


20% 
15% 
10% 
5% 

,AM 

ERI 

:an 

5 

CIE 

NT! 

FIC 

M 

EN 

/ 
/ 

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/ 

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OUT 

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MO 

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RS 

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■"■- 

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( 

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10     II     12    13    14    15    16     1 

CHART  V. 

of  scientific  men  in  comparison  with  the  families  of  some  twenty  thou- 
sand New  South  Wales  mothers  who  died  toward  the  close  of  the  last 
century.  In  both  cases  all  children,  whether  they  survived  or  not,  are 
included  and  no  more  children  would  be  born.  The  New  South  Wales 
families  of  from  one  to  eight  are  nearly  equally  numerous  and  there 
is  then  a  gradual  decrease  to  families  of  sixteen  and  larger.  The 
families  of  American  scientific  men — which  may  be  regarded  as  typical 
of  the  professional  classes  and  other  college  graduates — show  a  re- 
markable contrast.  Nearly  one-fourth  are  childless ;  less  than  one  in 
four  is  larger  than  three,  only  one  in  seventy-five  is  larger  than  seven, 
none  is  larger  than  nine.  The  average  size  of  family  is  2.2.  Excluding 
the  earlier  marriages,  it  is  2 ;  the  surviving  family  is  about  1.8  and 
the  number  of  surviving  children  for  each  scientific  man  is  about  1.6. 

THE    NEED    OF    THOROUGH    BIRTH    REGISTRATION    FOR 
RACE    BETTERMENT 

Cressy   L.   Wilbur,   M.D.,    Chief   Statistician   Divisiun   of   Vital   Statistics, 
Bureau  of  the  Census,  Department  of  Commerce,  Washington,  D.  C. 

The  main  purpose  of  my  coming  here  as  representing  the  Bureau 
of  the  Census,  Department  of  Commerce,  was  to  see  that  the  subject  of 
vital  statistics  was  one  of  the  fundamental  planks  of  this  new  organi- 
zation, and  since  coming  here,  since  looking  over  the  program,  the  dia- 


STATISTICAL    STUDIES  73 

grams  and  other  things  over  in  the  Annex  and  hearing  the  remarks 
of  Mr.  Hoffman,  I  am  sure  that  there  will  be  no  difficulty  about  the 
main  proposition — that  is  to  say,  the  necessity,  the  absolute  impor- 
tance of  vital  statistics,  especially  birth  registration,  as  the  foundation 
of  all  intelligent  effort  for  race  betterment. 

You  will  find  in  the  corridor  of  the  other  building  a  little  diagram 
entitled,  ' '  The  United  States  Registration  Area  for  Deaths. "  It  is  a 
map  of  the  states  showing  the  space  in  which  the  registration  of  deaths 
is  sufficiently  complete  to  be  used  for  statistical  purposes,  with  this 
inscription  below  it:  "Vital  statistics  are  the  bookkeeping  of  health 
and  we  cannot  economize  health  any  more  successfully  than  we  can 
economize  money  unless  we  keep  books. — Irving  Fisher." 

That  is  so  absolutely  true,  it  is  not  worth  while  to  argue  about  it. 
Yet,  look  at  the  condition  in  this  country  in  regard  to  our  bookkeeping 
of  public  health.  For  a  large  proportion  of  the  country,  the  registra- 
tion of  deaths  is  so  worthless  that  we  cannot  have  any  reliable  statistics 
in  regard  to  it.  Even  the  great  state  of  Illinois,  the  state  of  Iowa, 
the  state  of  West  Virginia  and  practically  all  the  Southern  States 
have  not  any  successful  death  registration.  The  registration  of  vital 
statistics  in  the  United  States  began  in  1880  when  we  had  only  two 
states,  Massachusetts  and  New  Jersey.  In  1890  the  area  had  grown 
so  that  it  took  in  all  New  England.  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  Dela- 
ware was  added  by  mistake  in  1900.  You  see  some  of  the  Middle  West 
added  Michigan  and  Indiana,  and  I  am  very  proud  as  a  native  Michi- 
gander  to  be  able  to  say  that  Michigan  was  the  first  state,  west  of 
New  York,  that  had  an  effective  law  for  registration  of  deaths  and  the 
first  state  to  be  accepted  by  the  Bureau  of  Census,  before  my  time 
there,  as  belonging  to  the  registration  area  for  deaths.  Michigan  was 
added  for  the  census  in  the  year  1900,  whereas  Indiana,  which  fol- 
lowed, was  not  added  until  half  a  year  later.  Since  1900  we  have 
been  making  a  srood  deal  of  progress.  A  large  number  of  states  are 
now  added,  some  of  them  in  the  Far  West,  We  are  now  beginning  in 
the  South.  Missouri  was  added  in  1911 ;  Kentucky  in  1911 ;  Virginia 
added  in  1913,  together  with  the  partial  registration  in  North  Caro- 
lina. A  law  establishing  registration  went  into  effect  this  month  in 
Arkansas  and  Tennessee.  A  law  has  been  in  operation  in  Mississippi 
since  November.  1912,  The  whole  South  is  awakening  to  the  impor- 
tance of  death  registration,  so  that  I  can  predict  that  perhaps  by  the 
year  1920.  all  the  states  of  the  Union  will  be  covered  with  adequate 
death  registration  laws — although  some  of  them  will  not  be  properly 
enforced,  but  enforcement  must  follow  the  passage  of  proper  legis- 
lation. 

When  we  turn  to  the  condition  of  birth  registration,  we  have  rather 


74  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

a  dili'erent  picture.  The  only  states  in  I!)!!  in  which  statistics  of  birth 
were  practically  complete  were  Rhode  Island,  Massachusetts  and 
Connecticut. 

We  have  a  test  in  birth  registration  that  can  be  applied  to  the 
operation  of  the  state  law.  As  you  Imow,  every  ten  years  we  have  an 
enumeration  of  the  population.  In  that  enumeration,  the  proportion 
of  infants  under  one  year  of  age  is  always  given.  Now  the  number  of 
infants  under  one  year  of  age  as  enumerated  in  the  population  is  al- 
ways considerably  less  than  the  number  of  births.  By  comparison 
of  international  statistics  of  leading  European  countries,  it  will  be 
found  that  the  number  of  births  will  usually  exceed  the  number  of 
infants  under  one  year  of  age,  as  enumerated  by  the  census,  by  per- 
haps ten  or  fifteen  per  cent,  or  even  more.  Now,  applying  the  com- 
parison to  1910  or  1911,  we  find  that  the  only  states  in  which  the 
registration  of  births  gives  results  greater  than  the  enumeration  of  in- 
fants under  one  year  of  age  in  population  are  Connecticut,  Indiana, 
Maine,  Massachusetts,  Michigan,  New  Hampshire,  New  York,  Ohio, 
Pennsylvania,  Rhode  Island  and  Vermont.  The  remainder  are  confined 
to  New  England,  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Michigan,  Indiana,  Mis- 
souri and  Utah.  In  Kentucky  the  first  registration  law  went  into  efi'ect 
in  1911.  It  is  not  fair,  therefore,  to  compare  the  results  in  Kentucky^ 
for  the  first  year  of  operation  of  the  law,  with  states  in  which  the  law 
has  been  in  operation  for  some  time.  It  would  be  better  to  compare  the 
results  in  Kentucky  for  the  next  year  of  operation,  1912,  in  which  the 
number  of  births  slightly  exceeded  the  number  of  deaths  under  one 
year  of  age,  very  much  like  Indiana,  Missouri  and  Michigan. 

The  results  in  Michigan  are  of  special  interest  because  there  is 
beginning  to  be  some  improvement.  Michigan  had  no  vital  statistics  at 
all,  so  far  as  complete  figures  are  concerned,  until  1908,  when  the  new 
death  registration  law  went  into  effect.  The  death  registration  law 
was  not  passed  until  1905  and  went  into  operation  in  1906.  In  1910, 
five  years  after  that,  the  number  of  births  registered  only  very  slightly 
exceed  the  number  of  infants  under  one  year  of  age  in  population — 
I  think  about  one  per  cent.  Since  that  time,  in  1911-12  and  I  suppose 
in  1913,  there  has  been  some  improvement,  so  that  Michigan  now  shoAvs 
a  death  registration  about  four  per  cent  in  excess  of  infants  under  one 
year  of  age.  But  I  do  not  believe  birth  registration  will  ever  be 
approximately  accurate  until  it  exceeds  at  least  by  ten  or  fifteen  per 
cent  the  nutaber  of  infants  under  one  year  as  in  Massachusetts,  Con- 
necticut and  Rhode  Island.  So  there  is  yet  much  to  do  in  Michigan 
to  bring  up  the  registration  of  births  so  that  they  will  be  of  real 
statistical  value,  not  only  for  purposes  of  race  betterment,  but  for  the 
special  application  to  the  study  of  infant  mortality.     In  fact,  even 


STATISTICAL    STUDIES  75 

in  our  best  states,  calculating  their  registration  exclusive  of  the  great 
metropolitan  cities  of  five  hundred  thousand  population  and  over, — 
even  in  Massachusetts,  which  has  the  highest  percentage  of  births  to 
infants  under  one  year  of  age — the  city  authorities  do  not  claim  that 
the  registration  is  even  as  fairly  complete  as  that  of  the  ordinary 
European  country. 

I  say,  therefore,  that  the  time  must  surely  come — and  I  hope  it  may 
be  the  function  of  this  organization  to  bring  about  that  time  more 
rapidly — when  we  shall  have  fully  dependable,  fully  reliable,  statistics 
of  births  for  use  in  connection  with  the  subject  of  race  betterment. 
The  time  and  place  to  begin  this  is  right  now  and  here,  in  Michigan, 
I  presume  the  majority  of  this  audience  is  composed  of  Michigan  peo- 
ple, who  can  lend  effective  aid  in  bringing  about  this  result.  It  is 
only  necessary  to  see  that  the  first  law  is  enforced.  Michigan  has  the 
best  law-  for  this  purpose  of  any  state  in  the  Union,  because  it  places 
the  full  responsibility,  the  undivided  responsibility  for  uniform  state 
enforcement  upon  one  man,  the  Secretary  of  state.  He  has  the  means 
for  obtaining  information  in  regard  to  the  failure  to  register  births. 
Every  physician  and  every  midwife  in  Michigan  who  registers  births 
is  paid  fifty  cents.  It  is  a  large  sum  compared  to  the  amount  paid  in 
some  states.  In  some  states  it  is  not  thought  necessary  to  give  any 
compensation  for  this  purpose.  There  can  be  no  reasonable  excuse, 
therefore,  for  failing  to  enforce  the  law  in  cases  of  delinquency  every 
time  a  physician  or  midwife  fails  to  register  a  birth.  If  the  public 
sentiment  of  the  state  is  aroused  to  this  purpose,  so  that  the  state  reg- 
istration authorities  and  the  local  legislation  authorities  will  be  obliged 
to  do  this,  we  may  then  have,,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the 
United  States,  a  state  where  the  registration  records  of  births  are  re- 
liable for  the  important  purposes  for  which  they  should  be  used. 

In  Kentucky,  for  the  second  year  of  registration,  the  second  year 
of  the  operation  of  the  law,  the  rates  in  a  general  way  are  graded  from 
the  lowest.  Certain  counties  have  birth  rates  below  twenty.  Along 
the  Ohio  River,  up  in  the  mountains,  and  in  the  extreme  southM-estem 
portion  9f  the  state,  the  registration  is  imperfect.  Remember  this  is 
the  second  year  of  the  operation  of  the  law.  Then  we  have  quite  a 
number  of  counties  showing  the  next  higher  rate,  twenty  to  twenty- 
five.  We  can  comprehend  the  significance  of  this  when  we  consider  that 
twenty -five  is  about  the  birth  rate  of  England,  the  lowest  they  have 
recorded  in  the  history  of  that  country  and  a  very  low  rate.  Of  course, 
below  twenty  is  absurd  for  any  county.  The  counties  having  the  rates 
twenty-five  to  thirty-five  are  usually  accepted  as  approximately  rep- 
resentative of  conditions.  The  point  that  is  of  special  interest  is  the 
great  uniformity  of  registration  in  the  state  after  the  second  year  of 


76  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

operation.  Nearly  all  of  the  mountain  counties  undoubtedly  have 
very  high  actual  birth  rates,  and  the  birth  rates  recorded  are  all  in 
excess  of  thirty-five.  The  great  bulk  of  counties  range  between  twenty- 
five  and  thirty-five.  You  may  be  able  to  find  some  interest  in  a  com- 
parison with  Michigan.  For  the  county  birth  rates  of  Michigan  in  ]912 
the  real  population  of  which  compares  exactly  with  the  population  of 
Kentucky,  for  practically  all  of  the  southern  part  of  the  state  of 
^lichigan,  the  rates  are  under  twenty.  Other  counties  are  twenty  to 
twenty-five,  others  from  twenty-five  to  thirty-five,  and  others  from 
thirty  to  thirty-five.  Then  the  only  two  counties  having  rates  of 
thirty-five  and  over  are  Keweenaw  and  Gogebic.  Now  this  is  of  in- 
terest. If  these  rates  be  correct,  we  certainly  have  a  great  problem 
before  us  in  the  low  birth  rates  in  the  rest  of  the  state.  But  I  don't 
believe  the  Secretary  of  the  state  of  Michigan  would  assert,  and  I 
certainly  cannot  assert  on  the  comparative  evidence,  that  we  are  get- 
ting, as  we  should  have,  absolutely  complete  registration  of  births  in 
Michigan.  These  facts  are  of  the  most  absorbing  interest,  in  the  com- 
parative study  of  the  growth  of  our  population. 

One  point  I  should  like  to  make  is  in  regard  to  the  number  of  in- 
dividuals in  Michigan  by  counties  and  minor  civil  divisions.  The 
growth  of  the  rural  population  of  the  state  can  be  compared  with  the 
rural  birth  rates.  Almost  half  or  two-thirds  of  the  lower  counties 
of  the  state  show  a  decrease  in  rural  population,  corresponding  to  the 
extremely  low  birth  rates  prevailing  in  the  state. 

I  should  like  to  make  reference  to  one  very  important  use  of  the 
birth  rate  statistics  in  connection  with  the  saving  of  infant  life.  Many 
of  you  have  seen,  I  presume,  the  pamphlet  published  on  birth  registra- 
tion, the  first  pamphlet  issued  on  that  subject.  A  New  York  investi- 
gation showed  the  great  difficulty  of  conducting  the  work  of  prevent- 
ing infant  mortality,  for  the  reason  that  we  do  not  know  what  infant 
mortality  is.  It  is  the  ratio  of  deaths  under  one  year  of  age  to  the  total 
deaths.  The  infant  mortality  in  a  great  number  of  European  coun- 
tries has  been  declining  somewhat.  It  has  been  brought  down  from  1901 
to  1905  on  the  basis  of  statistics  published  by  the  French  Government. 
Sw^eden  goes  away  back  in  statistical  data  valuable  for  this  study  to 
1801  to  1805,  beginning  last  century,  the  first  century  for  which  such 
data  w^ere  available.  Then  comes  France,  then  comes  the  German  Gov- 
ernment, and  England  and  Wales  begin  as  late  as  1851  to  1855.  But 
practically  now  all  civilized  countries  in  the  world  have  effective 
registration  of  births,  and  of  course,  the  registration  of  deaths,  so 
they  can  tell  what  the  ratio  of  infant  mortality  is  from  year  to  year. 
Some  countries,  China,  Africa  and  the  United  States  even,  yet  possess 
no  records  of  infant  mortality.    Unless  the  American  people  wake  up^ 


STATISTICAL    STUDIES  '  < 

China  and  Turkey  will  have  satisfactory  data  for  infant  mortality 
long  before  the  United  States. 

A  pamphlet  published  by  the  Children 's  Bureau  states,  ' '  Convinced 
that  the  most  effective  work  in  behalf  of  the  public  health  that  can  be 
done  in  this  country  today  lies  in  the  prevention  of  infant  mortality." 
The  Children's  Bureau  is  brought  to  the  necessity  of  appealing  for 
legislation,  and  for  such  local  records  as  will  indicate  where  and  when 
the  babies  are  born  and  where  and  when  they  die,  as  a  preliminary 
to  an  intelligent  study  of  the  subject." 

I  have  a  letter  from  Miss  Lathrop  which  I  received  since  coming  to 
this  meeting,  dated  Washington,  Jan.  6,  1914:  "In  answer  to  your 
message  with  reference  to  Children's  Bureaus  concerned  in  the  ques- 
tion of  raising  the  standard  of  birth  registration  in  this  country,  I 
can  say  that  I  am  glad  of  any  opportunity  to  express  our  deep  interest 
in  this  subject.  The  registration  of  all  births  is  regarded  as  of  so 
much  importance  as  a  mechanical  expedient  necessary  in  the  abler  care 
of  children  that  it  was  made  a  subject  of  the  first  publication  of  the 
Children's  Bureau.  The  possibility  of  taking  advantage  of  the  in- 
terest shown  by  women  in  the  Bureau  is  suggested  as  a  second  step 
toward  improvement  of  registration,  a  .systematized  co-operation  with 
the  General  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs  and  other  associations  in 
making  a  test  of  birth  registration  in  different  states.  The  response 
has  been  very  gratifying.  Committees  of  women  are  now  working  in 
many  of  the  cities  and  towns  of  New  Hampshire,  Connecticut,  Iowa, 
Kentucky  and  Colorado,  and  the  work  will  soon  be  organized  in  the 
states  of  Washington  and  California.  The  club  women  are  taking  the 
names  of  a  certain  number  of  the  babies  bom  in  1913  and  learning  by 
inquiry  of  the  local  authorities  whether  births  have  been  registered. 
The  attitude  of  the  state  toward  local  health  officers  and  registration 
authorities  has  been  sho\\Ti  friendly  throughout  the  investigation. 
The  authorities  can  assist  most  especially  by  giving  publicity  to  their 
endorsement  of  the  club  women 's  work  in  making  the  test. 

''In  some  instances  a  little  difficulty  has  been  experienced  in  con- 
vincing the  woanen  that  the  proposed  investigation  is  not  intended 
as  a  critical  test  of  the  work  of  the  registration  officials,  but  is  pri- 
marily a  propaganda  to  stimulate  public  interest  and  very  complete 
registration,  and  thereby  to  be  a  distinct  help  to  the  authorities.  In- 
terest and  friendly  attitude  on  the  part  of  the  health  officials  will  do  a 
great  deal  toward  removing  the  impression  that  the  test  is  not  welcomed 
by  all  earnest  state  officers." 

There  I  see  a  very  important  opportunity  for  this  Conference  to 
demand  that  such  registration  be  complete  in  this  state,  and  in  our 


78  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

other  states,  and  to  stand  behind  the  healtli  authorities  and  urge  upon 
them  the  neeessity  of  enforeing  the  hiw. 

I  will  close  now  by  a  brief  reference  to  the  birth  rates  of  certain 
countries,  and  the  general  decline  in  birth  rates  and  death  rates.  The 
difference  between  the  birth  rates  and  the  death  rates  in  England,  and 
in  Wales,  for  instance,  is  an  actual  increase  of  population.  That  de- 
termines the  growth  of  a  country,  aside  from  immigration.  If  we  have 
interest  in  our  national  existence,  if  we  believe  in  ourselves  as  Ameri- 
cans, or  if  any  other  country  believes  in  itself,  it  should  be  a  very  ap- 
prehensive time  when  the  difference  between  the  death  rate  and  the 
birth  rate  is  wiped  out.  I  have  no  idea  that  the  science  of  eugenics 
will  ever  become  a  science  of  nogenics,  but  it  is  certain  that  there  is  a 
marked  tendency  in  some  of  the  more  civilized  populations  to  a  very 
great  reduction  in  this  difference. 

I  have  called  your  attention  to  the  Michigan  death  rates  because 
they  were  utterly  worthless  up  to  this  time  and  to  show  the  great 
waste  of  effort  given  in  this  country  in  collecting  statistics  that  are  of 
no  value,  because  the  laws  for  collecting  are  either  not  properly 
regulated  or  not  properly  enforced.  The  Michigan  birth  rate,  until 
the  passage  of  the  law  that  went  into  effect  Jan.  1,  1906,  was 
equally  worthless.  In  1890  the  record  went  up  higher  than  it  was 
for  the  first  year  of  the  operation  of  the  new  law,  but  the  Michigan 
birth  rate  records  from  about  1877  to  1891  were  the  result  of  fraudulent 
efforts  employed,  and  should  be  wiped  out.  Beginning  in  1906,  the 
law  ran  along  without  the  improvement  which  should  have  resulted 
the  first  few  years.  It  was  naturally  not  enforced.  In  1911  and 
1912,  there  has  been  some  increase,  but  I  do  not  believe  it  means  an 
increase  in  the  birth  rate  of  Michigan  but  simply  means  an  increase 
in  the  returns  of  births  owing  to  better  registration. 

I  will  conclude  by  simply  making  the  suggestion  that  it  might  be 
well,  perhaps,  if  this  organization  would  formally  take  some  action  in 
regard  to  the  importance  of  birth  registration,  and  perhaps  appoint 
a  committee  to  take  up  the  matter  as  a  national  and  state  question. 

Acting  CnAniMAN  Cbbegan 

Dr.  Wilbur  has  given  us  a  wonderfully  interestino:  address,  but  his  modesty 
has  omitted  something  that  will  be  of  intense  interest  to  all  of  you.  He  said 
Michig'an  was  the  first  to  start  off  with  vital  statistics,  but  he  did  not  tell  us 
that  Doctor  Wilbur  was  the  man  who  started  the  thing  off  with  Michigan. 
The  distinction  he  won  for  himself— without  trying  to  do  it— carried  him  to 
Washington  to  take  the  whole  United  States  under  his  care,  on  this  matter 
of  vital  statistics.    Let  us  all  help  him  to  carry  out  his  program. 


STATISTICAL    STUDIES  79 

DIFFERENTIAL    FECUNDITY 

Walter  F.  Willcox,  LL.D.,  Professor  of  Political  Economy  and  Statistics, 
Cornell  University,  Ithaca,  N.  Y. 

Having  been  honored  with  an  invitation  to  address  you  upon  the 
subject  of  ' '  difterential  fecundity  as  one  of  the  causes  of  the  need  for 
race  betterment, ' '  I  have  felt  it  both  a  privilege  and  a  duty  to  accept 
the  invitation. 

At  the  start  it  is  well  to  define  fecundity.  This  is  the  more  neces- 
sary because  the  definition  used  in  biology  and  medicine  differs  some- 
Avhat  from  that  used  in  statistics.  The  definition  propounded  by 
Prof.  Raymond  Pearl,  in  his  paper  before  the  First  International 
Eugenics  Congress  at  London  in  1912,  was  as  follows:  "the  innate 
potential  reproductive  capacity  of  the  individual  organism  as  denoted 
by  its  ability  to  form  and  separate  from  the  body  mature  germ  cells. ' ' 
For  human  statistics  this  definition  is  inapplicable  and  useless.  Sta- 
tistics disregards  potential  as  distinguished  from  actual  or  realized 
fecundity  and  makes  fecundity  a  characteristic,  not  of  men  or  women, 
husbands  or  wives,  but  of  marriages.  For  present  purposes,  then, 
it  is  a  term  applied  to  marriages  which  have  proved  fruitful  in  the 
birth  of  at  least  one  child,  and  is  thus  the  opposite  of  sterility. 

In  some  technical  discussions  a  distinction  is  drawn  between  fecun- 
dity and  fertility,  the  former  being  applied  indiscriminately  to  every 
marriage  which  has  resulted  in  the  birth  of  a  child,  the  latter  taking 
into  account  also  the  number  of  children  born  to  the  marriage. 
If  we  were  to  accept  this  distinction,  two  marriages,  to  one  of 
which  a  single  child  had  been  born  and  to  the  other  of  which  six  chil- 
dren had  been  born,  would  be  equally  fecund,  for  fecundity  has  no 
degrees,  but  the  marriage  which  had  resulted  in  six  children  would  be 
more  fertile  than  the  other.  In  the  present  paper,  which  must  be 
general  in  character,  this  distinction  between  fecundity  and  fertility 
will  be  ignored.  For  our  purposes,  fecundity  means  the  yield  of  living 
births  in  any  population  group  in  a  unit  of  time,  usually  a  year. 
This  yield  can  seldom  be  effectively  stated  as  a  total  number  of  births, 
for  such  a  number  ignores  variations  in  the  size  of  the  group  which 
produces  it.  To  avoid  this  difficulty  fecundity  is  stated  ordinarily  as 
a  proportion  or  ratio,  called  the  birth  rate. 

The  word  differential  also  must  detain  us  a  moment.  The  differ- 
ences which  it  implies  are  differences  in  the  fecundity  of  various  popu- 
lation groups  and,  in  consequence,  differences  in  the  rates  at  which 
these  groups  perpetuate  themselves  and  multiply  by  Nature 's  processes 
of  birth  and  death.  The  real  things  to  be  compared  are  the  rates  of 
increase   or  of  decrease  resulting  from   the  balance   between  these 


80  KIKST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

natural  procH'sses.  The  birth  rate  or  fecundity  gives  only  one  term, 
when  what  is  wanted  is  the  difTerenee  between  two  terms,  the  birth* 
rate  and  the  death  rate.  A  population  group  may  increase  either  by  ex- 
cess of  births  over  deaths,  or  by  excess  of  immigration  over  emigration 
or  by  various  combinations  of  these  two  kinds  of  change  reenforcing  or 
antagonizing  each  other.  An  increase  by  excess  of  births,  or  what  is 
called  natural  increase,  differs  from  an  increase  by  excess  of  immigra- 
tion over  emigration,  or  migratory  increase,  in  that  it  is  more  likely  to 
carry  on  into  the  next  generation  through  heredity  the  main  char- 
acteristics of  the  parent  stock.  Where  the  group  is  increased  by  immi- 
gration there  is  less  warrant  for  supposing  that  its  qualities  will  be 
perpetuated. 

My  real  theme,  then,  may  be  phrased  as  "Differences  in 
the  Rates  of  Natural  Increase,"  a  more  accurate  title  than  "Differ- 
ential Fecundity."  In  addition  to  defining  my  subject  more  exactly 
this  has  an  incidental  advantage.  The  fecundity  or  birth  rate  of  the 
population  of  the  United  States  is  unknown ;  the  fecundity  of  any  of 
the  numerous  groups  into  which  that  population  may  be  divided,  with 
the  possible  exception  of  a  few  states,  is  likewise  unknown.  Neither 
do  we  Imow  the  mortality  or  death  rate  of  the  population  of  the 
United  States,  although  we  do  know  the  death  rate  of  many  states 
and  are  rapidly  advancing  towards  a  determination  of  the  rate  for  the 
entire  country.  These  facts  might  seem  to  make  a  paper  on  "Differ- 
ential Fecundity"  or  "Natural  Increase"  almost  impossible.  But  if 
a  group  is  unaffected  by  migration,  its  total  increase  at  one  date  over 
the  number  at  a  prior  date  determined  from  two  successive  censuses 
is  a  measure  of  its  natural  increase.  The  population  of  the  United 
States  is  far  from  satisfying  this  condition,  yet  within  it  there  are 
certain  groups,  e.  g.,  Negroes  and  Indians,  so  little  affected  by  mi- 
gration that  we  may  measure  their  natural  increase  from  census  re- 
turns, though  neither  their  fecundity  nor  their  mortality  is  Imown. 
Even  for  the  whites  the  effort  to  measure  the  natural  increase  by  al- 
lowing for  the  increase  due  to  immigration  is  not  absolutely  hopeless. 

My  subject,  then,  assumes  that  the  population  can  be  divided  into 
groups  the  natural  increase  of  which  can  be  determined  and  compared, 
and  my  aim  is  to  review  the  present  state  of  statistical  knowledge  re- 
garding the  natural  increase  of  such  groups.  The  American  popula- 
tion groups  of  whose  natural  increase  I  shall  speak  briefly  are  the  white 
and  the  negro  races,  the  native  and  the  foreign  born,  the  several 
nativity  strains  among  the  foreign  born,  the  urban  and  the  rural 
population. 

Among  savage  or  semi-civilized  people,  where  the  overwhelming 
majority  live  little  above  the  starvation  point,  there  is  a  reciprocal  re- 


STATISTICAL.    STUDIES  81 

lation  between  births  and  deaths.  When  the  deaths  increase,  the 
births  decrease;  when  the  deaths  decrease,  the  births  increase.  For 
example,  in  European  Russia  in  the  famine  year  1892  the  deaths  ex- 
ceeded the  annual  average  of  the  years  before  and  after  the  famine  by 
more  than  half  a  million  and  the  births  in  that  year  fell  below  the 
annual  average  for  the  years  before  and  after  by  more  than  300,000. 
Conversely,  in  such  countries  a  bountiful  crop  lowers  the  death  rate 
during  the  time  the  food  lasts,  and  raises  sharply  the  birth  rate  a  few 
months  later.  Most  civilized  countries  have  emancipated  themselves 
from  this  close  dependence  upon  food  and  in  them  no  relation  can  be 
traced  between  the  crop  of  grain  and  the  crop  of  babies.  In  such 
countries  the  only  surviving  relies  of  this  reciprocal  relation  between 
births  and  deaths  are  found  in  cases  of  war  and  pestilence.  Thus,  in 
Massachusetts,  the  effect  of  the  Civil  War  was  apparently  more  marked, 
in  reducing  the  birth  rate  than  in  raising  the  death  rate.  The  first  of 
the  recent  epidemics  of  influenza,  sweeping  rapidly  from  Russia  over 
Europe  and  her  outposts  in  the  winter  of  1889-90,  was  the  main  reason 
that  in  nearly  every  civilized  country  1890  was  a  year  with  a  very 
high  death  rate.  But  no  attention  has  been  called  to  the  fact  that  the 
births  in  Europe  during  that  year  were  200,000  below  the  average  of 
the  preceding  five  years  and  that  these  losses  of  life  by  reduction  of 
the  births  came  in  each  country  from  eight  to  ten  months  after  the 
mortality  from  the  influenza  reached  its  height. 

During  the  last  fifty  years  or  less  the  most  marked  change  in  the 
birth  rates  and  death  rates  of  civilized  countries  has  been  the  gradual 
decline  and  almost  complete  disappearance  of  this  reciprocal  rela- 
tion between  births  and  deaths,  whereby  the  most  significant  changes 
w^ere  those  between  one  year  and  the  next  and  these  changes  were 
usually  in  opposite  directions,  and  the  appearance  in  its  place  of  a 
tendency  for  birth  rates  and  death  rates  to  decrease  slowly  but  steadily 
for  a  long  series  of  consecutive  years.  The  annual  variations  are 
much  less,  but  the  total  change  in  ten  or  twenty  years  much  greater 
than  under  the  earlier  conditions.  Usually  the  decline  began  with  the 
death  rate  and  in  that  case  its  effect  would  necessarily  be  to  magnify 
the  natural  increase.  But  a  decline  in  the  birth  rate  soon  set  in  and 
is  proceeding  now  in  most  civilized  countries  about  as  fast  as  the 
death  rate.  Indeed,  such  a  change  was  inevitable,  if  the  natural  in- 
crease was  not  to  be  more  rapid  than  the  increase  in  wealth  or  food. 
We  must  never  forget  that  the  decline  in  the  birth  rate  and  that  alone 
has  enabled  mankind  to  hold  fast  the  advantages  promised  by  the 
advance  of  civilization  and  the  sharp  fall  in  the  death  rate.  The 
serious  and  disturbing  fact  is  not  the  mere  decline  in  the  birth  rate 
but  the  differential  decline.    Apparently  many  strains  or  lines  of  de- 


82  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

sceut  which  one  might  most  dosire  to  see  continued  and  increased  are 
strains  which  are  losing  ground  rehitively,  if  not  absolutely,  by  a  de- 
crease of  the  birth  rate  more  rapid  than  that  of  the  death  rate. 

The  largest  and  in  some  respects  the  most  important  population 
groups  about  whose  rates  of  natural  increase  I  wish  to  speak 
are  the  great  races  of  man — the  European,  Asiatic,  and  Afri- 
can. Their  increase  has  been  and  still  is  in  the  main  dependent  upon 
diiferences  in  the  certainty  and  sufficiency  of  the  food  supply.  The 
great  reason  for  the  rapid  multiplication  of  the  European  folk  and 
their  descendants  in  other  parts  of  the  world  from  perhaps  130  mil- 
lions in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  to  more  than  550  mil- 
lions now,  Mobile  during  the  same  period  the  numbers  of  other  races 
have  altered  but  little,  is  found  in  the  fact  that  new  territorial  dis- 
coveries and  new  methods  of  stimulating  agricultural  production  and 
the  transportation  of  persons  and  goods  have  concurred  to  increase 
enormously  the  supplies  of  food  available  for  the  white  race.  There  is 
no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  fecundity  or  fertility  of  this  race  is 
greater  than  that  of  other  races  or  greater  than  it  formerly  w^as.  Its 
natural  increase  has  been  unprecedented  not  because  its  birth  rate 
has  risen  but  because  its  death  rate  has  fallen,  and  fallen  more  rapidly 
than  its  birth  rate. 

In  our  own  country  and  especially  in  the  Southern  States  this 
divergence  in  rates  of  natural  increase  is  working  out  results  of  in- 
terest for  the  two  great  races.  That  the  white  race  is  slowly  dis- 
placing the  negroes  in  the  United  States  is  now  well  knowTi.  That 
this  is  due  to  the  differences  in  the  rates  of  total  increase  is  equally 
familiar.  But  the  whites  are  being  constantly  reinforced  by  immi- 
grants and  the  negroes  are  not.  Where  migration  is  a  potent  factor, 
total  increase  is 'an  untrustworthy  clue  to  natural  increase.  For  this 
reason  w^e  may  get  nearer  the  truth  by  confining  attention  to  the 
Southern  States.  Under  the  slavery  regime  and  the  saturnalia  of  re- 
construction which  followed,  i.  e.,  from  1790  to  1880,  the  increase  of 
the  two  races  in  the  South,  and — so  far  as  w^e  may  disregard  the  ef- 
fects of  migration  and  identify  natural  increase  with  total  increase — 
their  natural  increase  was  at  about  the  same  rate.  During  these  ninety 
years,  when  the  negroes  were  fewest  relatively,  they  were  35  per  cent 
of  the  total  population  of  the  South ;  when  they  were  most  numerous, 
they  were  38  per  cent,  a  difference  of  only  3  per  cent.  But  since  ]  880 
the  Southern  whites  have  increased  much  more  rapidly  than  the 
Southern  negroes  and  as  a  result  the  proportion  of  the  latter  is 
dwindling.  In  thirty  years  that  proportion  has  decreased  more  than 
six  per  cent,  or  more  than  two  per  cent  in  each  decade. 

In  the  United  States  as  a  whole  the  more  rapid  increase  of  the 


STATISTICAL    STUDIES  83 

whites  is  due  not  only  to  the  influx  of  himdreds  of  thousands  of  white 
immigrants,  but  also  to  the  fact  that  in  the  registration  area  in  1910 — 
an  area  including  nearly  three-fifths  of  the  whites  and  more  than  one- 
fifth  of  the  negroes  and  so  a  fair  index  of  conditions  in  the  country 
at  large — the  negro  death  rate  exceeded  the  white  by  about  two- 
thirds.  If  the  fecundity  of  the  darker  race  likewise  exceeded  that  of 
the  whites  by  two-thirds,  the  difference  in  the  death  rates  would  not 
entail  a  different  rate  of  natural  increase.  Although  no  exact  mea- 
sure of  fecundity  can  be  gained  until  there  is  an  effective  registration 
of  births,  a  rough  substitute  for  it  has  been  found  in  the  proportion 
of  living  children  under  five  years  of  age  to  one  thousand  women  of 
child-bearing  age.  Measured  in  this  way,  the  fecundity  of  the  Ameri- 
can negro  is  and  has  been  for  the  sixty  years  since  1850  greater  than 
that  of  the  white.  During  the  thirty  years  since  1880 — and  those  are 
just  the  years  within  which  the  proportion  of  negroes  in  the  South  has 
been  falling — the  excess  in  the  proportion  of  negro  children  to  mothers 
over  white  children  to  their  mothers  in  the  country  has  likewise  been 
falling.  The  present  difference  in  fecunditj^  between  the  races  is  little 
more  than  one-fourth  of  that  in  1880  and  at  present  rates  of  change 
it  will  have  disappeared  entirely  before  the  next  census  is  taken.  Itf 
the  South  the  proportions  of  children  in  the  total  population  and  in 
each  race  are  notably  above  the  corresponding  proportions  in  the 
North.  Indeed  it  is  probable  that  a  main  reason  for  the  greater  fe- 
cundity of  the  negro  race  is  found  in  the  fact  that  this  race,  of  which 
nearly  nine-tenths  live  in  the  South,  has  the  high  fecundity  character- 
istic of  the  South,  while  the  white  race,  of  which  the  majority  live 
in  the  North,  has  the  lower  fecundity  characteristic  of  the  North.  For 
in  the  Southern  States  the  proportion  of  children  to  women  among 
the  whites  already  exceeds  that  among  the  negroes  by  ten  per  cent. 

The  evidence,  then,  points  to  a  differential  natural  increase  as  an 
important  factor,  a  factor  in  my  opinion  at  least  as  important  as  im- 
migration, in  determining  the  present  and  future  relative  proportions 
of  the  two  main  races  in  this  country. 

Among  the  whites,  the  main  classes  whose  differential  fecundity  has 
been  somewhat  studied  are  the  native  and  the  foreign-born  stock.  This 
branch  of  the  inquirj^  is  difficult  not  only  because  of  that  lack  of  data 
which  almost  baffles  one  in  studying  the  differential  fecundity  of 
white  and  negro,  but  also  because  the  lines  between  the  two  classes  are 
fluid  and  variable.  A  son  born  of  immigrant  parents  the  day  after 
their  landing  is  of  the  same  stock  as  they,  yet  in  the  statistical  tables 
he  stands  as  a  native  American  and  they  as  foreign-born  or  immigrant. 
Although  efforts  have  been  made  to  measure  the  proportion  of  the 
white  population  of  the  United  States  at  the  end  of  the  nineteenth 


84  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

ceutiiry  wliifli  sprang  from  tlie  whiU's  who  were  in  this  country  at  its 
beginning  and  the  proportion  due  to  immigration  during  the  century, 
yet  none  of  the  results  seems  to  have  won  or  to  be  entitled  to  general 
acceptance,  and  for  that  reason  I  must  pass  this  topic  as  still  a  happy 
hunting  ground  for  conjecture, 

A  careful  and  illuminating  study  of  the  comparative  fecundity  of 
the  native  and  the  foreign-born  population  of  Massachusetts  and  of 
the  various  strains  of  the  foreign-born  in  that  state  during  the  fifteen 
years  1883-1897  was  made  in  1901  by  Dr.  R.  R.  Kuczynski.*  The  pro- 
portion of  married  women  who  had  outlived  the  child-bearing  age  with- 
out ha\ang  borne  any  child  was  9  per  cent  among  the  foreign-born,  and 
15  per  cent  among  the  native,  indicating  tbat  the  proportion  of  sterile 
marriages  is  about  two-thirds  greater  among  natives  than  among 
foreign-born.  The  average  annual  number  of  births  among  1,000 
immigrants  was  more  than  three  times  as  great  as  among  1,000  na- 
tives of  the  United  States.  But  a  large  proportion  of  the  natives  and 
a  small  proportion  of  immigrants  are  children,  and  for  this  reason  a 
fairer  comparison  of  fecundity  was  made  by  excluding  the  children 
both  from  the  native  and  from  the  foreign-born.  After  this  correc- 
tion had  been  made,  the  fecundity  of  the  foreign-bom  was  found  to 
be  a  little  more  than  twice  that  of  the  native.  The  birth  rate  varied 
with  the  place  of  birth  of  the  mother,  the  lowest  rate  being  found 
when  the  Massachusetts  wife  was  born  in  some  other  New  England 
state,  the  highest  rate  when  the  Massachusetts  wife  was  bom  in  Portu- 
gal, the  latter  rate  being  more  than  four  times  the  former.  When  all 
women  over  fifty  years  of  age  and  all  younger  unmarried  women 
were  excluded,  the  foreign-bom  birth  rate  was  found  to  be  greater 
than  the  native  by  about  three-fourths. 

Another  study  of  the  fecundity  of  married  women,  comparing  na- 
tive and  foreign-born  wives  in  New  Hampshire  and  introducing  a 
classification  by  age,  added  the  interesting  result  that,  while  the  birth 
rate  of  foreign-born  wives  at  all  ages  was  twice  that  of  native  wives, 
this  was  a  resultant  or  average  of  differences  which  grew  steadily 
greater  with  the  age  of  the  classes  compared.  The  birth  rate  of  foreign- 
bom  wives  at  ages  under  20  exceeded  that  of  native  wives  by  less  than 
one-fourth,  but  at  ages  25  to  34  it  was  more  than  double  and  at  ages 
35  to  44  w^as  almost  treble  that  of  native  wives.t  This  suggests  that 
a  large  part  at  least  of  the  difference  between  the  fecundity  of  the 
native  and  the  immigrant  stock  in  New  Hampshire  is  due  to  psycho- 


*  In  the  Qimrterhj  Journal  of  Economics  for  November,  1901,  and  Feb- 
ruary, 1902. 

tA.  A.  Young,  "Birth  Rate  in  New  Hampshire"  in  Am.  Stat.  Assn., 
Quart.  Puhs.,  IX  (September,  1905),  p.  280. 


STATISTICAL    STUDIES  85 

logical  rather  than  physiological  causes,  or  causes  which  express  them- 
selves in  the  voluntary  choice  of  small  families  rather  than  in  sterility. 
An  attempt  to  estimate  the  comparative  fecundity  in  1900  of  native 
and  foreign-born  women  in  the  United  States,  including  wives  and 
spinsters  and  with  no  allowance  for  differences  in  age  distribution, 
indicated  that  the  fecundity  of  foreign-born  women  exceeded  that  of 
native  women  by  more  than  fifty  per  cent.* 

The  statistics  of  Massachusetts,  although  they  were  probably  as 
good  as  those  of  any  state,  did  not  and  do  not  yet  afford  the  informa- 
tion needed  for  a  thorough  study  of  the  death  rate,  and  so  of  the  dif- 
ference between  birth  rate  and  death  rate,  or  natural  increase,  of  the 
native  and  foreign-born.  But  a  comparison  of  the  existing  material 
with  that  furnished  in  Berlin,  where  a  similar  problem  has  been 
studied,  perhaps  as  carefully  as  anywhere  in  the  world,  led  Doctor 
Kuczynski  to  conclude  that  the  native  population  of  Massachusetts 
is  probably  dying  out  at  a  rapid  rate. 

Since  his  articles  were  written,  material  has  accumulated  making 
it  possible  to  compare  the  mortality  of  the  native  and  the  foreign-born 
in  1900  in  the  registration  area  of  the  United  States,  which  embraced 
two-fifths  of  the  population  of  the  country  and  much  more  than  that 
proportion  of  the  foreign-bom, t  and  in  1910  in  New  York  State. 
These  results  show  that  for  ages  between  ten  and  forty  there  is  very 
little  difference  between  the  death  rate  of  natives  and  of  foreign-born 
of  the  same  sex  and  age  and  that  what  differences  do  exist  are  quite 
as  often  in  favor  of  the  foreign-born  as  the  native.  Since  the  fe- 
cundity of  the  foreign-bom  is  at  least  fifty  per  cent  greater  than  that 
of  the  native  and  the  mortality  is  about  the  same,  the  difference  be- 
tween them,  or  the  natural  increase  of  the  foreign-bom,  must  be  far 
above  that  of  the  native  population. 

Another  classification  of  the  population  has  been  employed  in 
studies  of  differential  fecundity,  that  into  the  urban  and  the  rural 
population.  Under  urban  is  included  all  residents  of  cities  each  hav- 
ing at  least  25,000  inhabitants,  all  the  rest  of  the  population  being 
treated  as  rural.  The  division  line  of  25,000  is  much  too  high,  but  the 
form  of  the  printed  tables  makes  it  impossible  to  put  the  limit  lower. 
The  fecundity  of  city  women  15-44  years  of  age  is  only  about  two- 


*  Twelfth   Census,  Supplementary  Analysis,  p.  420. 

t  This  is  the  only  fact  brought  out,  I  believe,  for  the  first  time  in  the 
present  paper.  The  results  for  New  York  State  in  1910  will  he  found  in  my 
last  report  as  consulting  statistician  to  the  New  York  State  Department  of 
Health;  the  confirmatoi-y  results  for  about  forty  per  cent  of  the  population 
of  the  United  States  in  1900  have  been  computed  from  a  ms.  table  kindly 
furnished  me  by  the  Census  Bureau. 


S6  FIRST    NATIONiVL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

thirds  that  of  country  women.  But  in  the  United  States  cities  are 
massed  at  the  North  and  the  North,  has  a  low  fecundity.  The  low 
urban  fecundity,  then,  may  be  due  to  the  northern  location  and  not  to 
city  life.  To  test  this,  a  comparison  has  been  made  between  the 
cities  of  the  North  and  the  country  districts  of  the  North  and  between 
the  cities  of  the  South  and  the  country  districts  of  the  South.  Such 
a  comparison  indicates  that  in  all  main  divisions  of  the  United  States 
fecundity  in  country  districts  is  greater  than  fecundity  in  cities.  It 
indicates  also  that  the  difference  between  city  and  country  in  this  re- 
spect is  at  a  minimum  of  about  10  per  cent  in  the  North  Atlantic 
group  and  at  a  maximum  in  the  Southern  groups  where  rural  fecun- 
dity is  about  double  urban  fecundity.  This  geographic  difference  may 
be  plausibly  explained  as  due  to  the  numerous  immigrants  in  Northern 
cities  and  their  high  fecundity  and  to  the  numerous  negroes  in  South- 
ern cities  and  their  low  fecundity.  For  the  fecundity  of  city  negroes 
is  only  about  two-thirds  the  fecundity  of  city  whites,  but  the  fecundity 
of  country  negroes  is  much  above  that  of  country  whites.  The  growth 
of  cities,  especially  in  the  South,  and  of  a  negro  urban  population 
seems  likely  to  increase  the  differences  in  the  fecundity  of  whites  and 
negroes. 

The  twenty-eighth  volume  of  the  Report  of  the  Immigration  Com- 
mission, printed  in  1911,  contains  a  contribution  to  our  subject,  en- 
titled "Fecundity  of  Immigrant  Women,"  the  main  conclusions  of 
which  have  been  summarized  by  the  author  in  an  article  in  a  recent 
issue  of  the  Quarterly  PuUications  of  the  American  Statistical  Asso- 
ciation.* The  tables  were  compiled  from  manuscript  data  in  the 
United  States  Census  Bureau  and  deal  in  the  main  with  nearly  80,000 
married  women  under  45  years  of  age  living  in  the  second  decade  of 
married  life  and  with  the  number  of  children  they  have  had. 

This  is  the  most  important  American  study  of  fecundity  and  sup- 
plements in  many  ways  what  we  previously  knew.  It  classifies  white 
wives  as  native  of  native  parents,  native  of  foreign  parents  and 
foreign-born  and  adds  scanty  data  about  negro  wives.  Of  the  negro 
wives  who  had  been  married  between  ten  and  twenty  years,  one  in 
five  had  had  no  child ;  of  the  native  white  of  native  parents,  one  in 
eight ;  of  the  native  white  of  foreign  parents,  one  in  sixteen ;  and  of 
the  foreign-born  wives,  one  in  nineteen.  The  proportion  of  sterile 
marriages  was  determined  for  the  various  nationality  classes  of  the 
foreign-bom ;  it  is  highest  among  wives  bom  in  Scotland  or  England, 
lowest  among  wives  bom  in  Poland,  Bohemia,  or  Russia  and  the  pro- 

*  Joseph  A.  Hill,  "Comparative  Fecundity  of  "Women  of  Native  and 
Foreign  Parentage,"  in  Am.  Stat.  Assn.  Quart.  Puhs.,  XIII,  pp.  583-604 
(December,  1913). 


STATISTICAL    STUDIES  87 

portion  of  sterile  marriages  among  those  where  the  wife  was  born  in 
one  of  the  first-mentioned  countries  was  about  four  times  as  great  as 
among  marriages  where  the  wife  was  born  in  a  country  belonging  to 
the  second  group.  Among  no  group  of  foreign-born  wives,  however, 
is  the  proportion  of  sterile  marriages  as  great  as  among  marriages 
where  the  M'ives  were  born  in  the  United  States. 

With  reference  to  the  average  number  of  children  born  to  these 
groups  of  wives  of  various  countries  of  birth,  the  smallest  number  is 
to  wives  of  native  American  birth  and  parentage.  Ten  such  mar- 
riages have  resulted  in  27  children ;  ten  negro  marriages,  in  31  chil- 
dren ;  ten  marriages  in  which  the  wives  were  born  in  England,  in  34 
children ;  and  at  the  other  extreme,  ten  marriages  with  wives  born  in 
Russia,  in  54  children ;  ten  A\dth  wives  bom  in  French  Canada,  in 
56 ;  and  ten  with  wives  born  in  Poland,  in  62. 

The  average  interval  of  time  elapsing  between  births  is  for  wives 
born  in  the  United  States  5.3  years ;  for  wives  born  in  Poland,  2.3  years. 
This  interval  between  births  is  uniformly  greater  in  the  second  genera- 
tion of  immigrants  than  in  the  first.  But  the  proportion  of  sterile 
marriages  does  not  rise  similarly.  So  the  tendency  is  to  a  reduction  in 
the  size  of  families  rather  than  to  a  larger  proportion  of  sterile  unions. 

The  influence  of  rural  conditions  upon  fecundity  is  best  measured 
by  the  statement  that  among  wives  born  in  this  country  of  native 
parents  and  married  between  ten  and  twenty  years,  t^n  living  in 
urban  districts  have  had  on  the  average  24  or  25  children,  Avhile  ten 
living  in  rural  districts  have  had  on  the  average  34  children,  indicating 
that  the  fecundity  of  wives  of  a  given  nativity  class  living  in  the 
country  is  about  two-fifths  greater  than  it  is  in  the  city. 

Perhaps  the  most  important  body  of  information  regarding  dif- 
ferential fecundity  or  comparative  rates  of  natural  increase  in  the 
United  States  has  been  secured  as  an  immediate  or  remote  result  of 
the  addition  to  the  Massachusetts  census  schedule  of  1875  of  the  ques- 
tion, "Number  of  children  borne  by  women, "  the  object  of  which  "was 
to  ascertain  the  relative  fecundity  of  women  of  different  nationalities 
and  to  settle  .  .  .  the  question  which  continually  arises  concerning 
the  growth  of  our  native  population  as  compared  with  that  of  our 
foreign-bom."*  Ten  years  later  similar  information  was  sought  in 
fuller  detail  by  asldng  of  each  married  woman  two  questions: 
' '  Mother  of  how  many  children ' '  and  * '  Number  of  those  children  now 
living. ' '  The  results  of  'tabulating  the  answers  to  these  questions  were 
carefully  analyzed  in  the  state  census  and  were  also  of  importance  to 
Doctor  Kuczynski  in  the  preparation  of  his  articles.  The  interest 
aroused  in  these  questions  and  their  answers  was  so  great  that  five 

*  Massachusetts  Census  of  1875,  Vol.  1,  p.  xli. 


88  FIRST    NATlONiVL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

years  later,  in  1890,  the  same  questions  were  placed  on  the  schedules 
of  the  United  States  census,  but  unfortunately  no  tabulation  of  the 
results  was  ever  made.  In  1900,  after  much  consideration  by  the 
office,  the  same  questions  were  asked  again,  and  again,  after  much 
preliminary  work  had  been  done  upon  the  answers,  the  work  was 
discontinued  and  no  results  ever  reached  the  public  except  for  the 
fragmentary  tabulation  made  by  the  Immigration  Commission  and 
applying  to  about  four  per  cent  of  the  population. 

Yet  again  at  the  census  in  1910  these  questions  were  repeated  a 
third  time  and  in  the  report  of  the  Director  of  the  Census  to  the 
Secretary  of  Commerce  and  Labor  for  that  year  one  may  find  the 
following  passage:  "It  is  also  proposed  ...  to  work  out  from  the 
returns  on  the  schedules  statistics  with  regard  to  fecundity  as  indi- 
cated by  the  number  of  children  bom  and  the  number  living  for 
women  of  different  classes  in  comparison  with  their  age  and  the  dura- 
tion of  marriage.  ...  A  considerable  amount  of  preliminary  work 
on  this  subject  was  undertaken  at  the  census  of  1900  but  the  results 
were  never  tabulated  or  published.  It  is  respectfully  suggested  that 
the  Secretary  recommend  to  Congress  that  the  Director  of  the  Census 
be  authorized  to  tabulate  the  more  important  information  on  this  sub- 
ject for  the  1900  census  as  well  as  that  for  1910.  .  .  .  This  subject  is 
one  of  profound  importance  and  the  census  schedules  furnish  data  by 
which  conclusions  of  the  utmost  value  can  be  readily  drawn.  A  plan 
has  been  devised  by  which  the  expense  of  .  .  .  tabulating  the  results  on 
this  subject  for  the  census  of  1910  will  be  much  less  than  would  have 
been  necessary  to  complete  the  work  on  the  lines  begun  in  1900. '  '* 

At  the  present  time  no  funds  are  available  for  completing  this 
work  and  there  is  danger  that  for  the  third  time  the  inquiry  wdll 
suffer  shipwreck.  This  investigation  has  been  imitated  abroad,  some 
of  the  most  interesting  and  significant  results  of  the  last  French 
census  being  derived  from  the  answers  to  similar  questions.  In  my 
opinion  the  failure  to  utilize  the  answers  to  these  questions  was  one  of 
the  main  defects  of  the  census  of  1890,  was  the  most  serious  defect  of 
the  census  of  1900  and  now  bids  fair  to  be  the  most  serious  defect  of 
the  census  of  1910.  In  Doctor  Hill's  paper  already  quoted  and  written 
a  few  months  ago.  we  read :  "  It  is  to  be  hoped  .  .  .  that  the  returns 
obtained  at  the  census  of  1910  will  not  be  similarly  neglected,  but  as 
yet  no  steps  have  been  taken  towards  their  tabulation."  If  it  had 
been  the  policy  of  this  Conference  to  adopt  resolutions  or  make  rec- 
ommendations, I  should  have  proposed  the  adoption  of  some  such  reso- 
lution as  the  following : 


*  Beport  of  the  Director  for  1909-10,  pp.  45-6. 


STATISTICAL    STUDIES  89 

Resolved,  that  the  National  Conference  on  Race  Betterment  ap- 
point a  committee  with  power : 

1.  To  memorialize  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  in  the  name 
of  this  Conference,  urging  it  to  provide  the  funds  needed  for  com- 
piling the  returns  now  on  the  schedules  of  the  census  of  1910  and 
thereby  measuring  the  fecundity  of  the  races  and  national  elements 
within  the  United  States; 

2.  To  attempt  to  secure  the  presentation  of  similar  petitions  from 
other  organizations  or  from  individuals  interested  in  this  subject. 

Whether  such  a  resolution  would  be  welcome  or  not,  I  sincerely 
hope  that  individuals  will  write  to  individual  Congressmen  urging 
such  action  as  is  here  proposed. 

In  my  judgment,  no  statistical  result  could  come  from  this  Con- 
ference more  valuable  than  a  concerted  effort  to  increase  the  available 
information  regarding  the  comparative  fecundity  of  the  various  strains 
in  our  population,  for  this  information  lying  unused  in  the  government 
files  is  of  more  value  and  importance  than  the  entire  sum  of  informa- 
tion on  differential  fecundity  now  possessed  by  the  American  people. 


GENERAL  INDIVIDUAL  HYGIENE 

THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  FREQUENT  AND  THOROUGH  MEDICAL 
EXAMINATIONS  OF  THE  WELL 

Victor  C.  Vaughax,  LL.D.,  M.D.,  President-Eleet  American  Medical  Asso- 
ciation ;    President  Michigan  State  Board  of  Health,  Ann  Arbor,  Mich. 

What  I  have  to  tell  tonight  is  iu  a  little  different  form  than  that 
announced  to  you.    I  am  going  to  read  to  you  Dr.  Smith's  dream: 

THE    doctor's    dream 

Doctor  Smith  is  a  practitioner  in  one  of  the  large  cities  of  the 
Middle  West.  He  is  a  man  of  good  training,  a  classical  graduate, 
took  his  professional  course  in  one  of  our  best  schools,  and  did  hospital 
service  both  at  home  and  abroad.  He  is  a  general  practitioner,  and 
keeps  well  posted  in  all  that  he  does.  He  makes  no  claim  to  universal 
knowledge  or  skill,  but  is  conscientious  in  all  his  work,  and  when  he 
meets  with  a  case  needing  the  service  of  a  specialist  he  does  not  hesi- 
tate to  call  in  the  best  help.  He  has  made  a  good  living,  demands  fair 
fees  from  those  who  are  able  to  pay,  and  gives  much  gratuitous  service 
to  the  poor.  He  is  beloved  by  his  patients,  held  in  high  esteem  by  his 
confreres,  and  respected  by  all  who  know  him.  He  is  a  keen  observer, 
reads  character  for  the  most  part  correctly,  and  is  not  easily  imposed 
upon.  Wliile  he  recognizes  the  value  of  his  services,  he  is  not  in  the 
practice  of  medicine  with  the  expectation  of  getting  rich,  and  his  in- 
terests are  largely  human  and  scientific.  He  has  deep  sympathy  for 
those  whose  ignorance  leads  them  to  sin  against  their  own  bodies,  but 
he  is  devoid  of  weak  sentimentality  and  does  not  hesitate  to  admonish 
and  even  denounce  the  misdeeds  of  his  patients,  whatever  their  social 
position.  During  twenty  years  of  practice  in  the  same  locality  he  has 
become  acquainted  with  the  vices  and  virtues  of  many  families.  He 
is  not  looking  for  the  coming  of  the  millennium,  but  he  is  often  im- 
patient of  the  slow  pace  with  which  the  race  moves  towards  physical, 
mental  and  moral  betterment.  One  of  his  patients  is  a  large  manu- 
facturer employing  many  unskilled  laborers.  Doctor  Smith  has  often 
pointed  out  to  this  man  that  the  efficiency  of  his  working  force  would 
be  multiplied  many  times  were  the  men  paid  better  wages,  the  work 
done  in  rooms  better  lighted  and  ventilated,  and  in  general  with  a 
little  more  humanness  sho\vn  them.     Another  is  at  the  head  of  a 


GENERAL    INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  91 

large  mercantile  house  which  employs  clerks  at  the  lowest  possible 
wages  and  makes  the  conditions  of  life  well-nigh  unendurable.  A 
wealthy  woman  gives  largely  to  church  and  charity  from  her  revenues 
which  come  from  the  rental  of  houses  in  the  red  light  district.  An- 
other of  the  doctor's  patrons  is  a  grocer  who  sells  "egg  substitutes" 
and  similar  products  ' '  all  guaranteed  under  the  pure  food  law. ' '  We 
Mali  not  continue  the  list  of  the  doctor's  patrons  and  it  must  not  be  in- 
ferred that  all  are  bad,  for  this  is  not  true.  The  majority  are  honest, 
conscientious  people,  as  is  the  case  in  all  communities.  Our  country 
has  a  population  of  nearly  one  hundred  millions.  Millions  of  these  are 
decent,  respectable  citizens,  not  altogether  wise,  but  for  the  most 
part  well  intentioned.  Thousands  are  brutal  in  their  instincts,  crimi- 
nal in  their  pursuits,  and  breeders  of  their  kinds.  We  claim  to  be 
civilized,  but  there  are  those  among  us  who  w^ould  be  stoned  to  death 
were  they  to  attempt  to  live  in  a  tribe  of  savages.  But  I  must  stop 
these  parenthetical  excursions  and  get  back  to  Doctor  Smith  and  his 
dream. 

On  a  certain  day  in  November  of  the  past  year  he  had  been 
unusually  bu.sy.  even  for  one  whose  working  hours  frequently  double 
the  legal  limit.  During  his  office  hours  he  had  seen  several  cases  which 
gave  him  grave  concern.  There  was  William  Thompson,  the  son  of 
his  old  classmate  and  college  chum,  now  Judge  Thompson.  William 
finished  at  the  old  University  and  is  now  an  embryo  lawyer  promising 
to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  his  honored  and  honorable  father,  but 
William  belonged  to  a  fast  fraternity  at  college  and  came  to  Doctor 
Smith  this  morning  with  copper  colored  spots  over  his  body  and  a 
local  sore.  The  doctor  easily  diagnosed  the  case  and  pointed  out  to 
William  that  he  was  a  walking  culture  flask  of  spirochetes,  a  constant 
source  of  danger  to  all  who  should  come  in  contact  with  him,  and  that 
years  of  treatment  would  be  necessary  to  render  him  sound  again. 
On  the  lip  of  a  girl,  the  daughter  of  another  old  friend,  the  doctor 
had  found  a  chancre  caused  by  a  kiss  from  her  fiance,  a  supposedly  up- 
right man  prominent  in  church  and  social  circles.  He  had  seen  a 
case  of  gonorrhea  in  a  girl  baby  contracted  from  her  mother,  the 
wife  of  a  laboring  man.  A  case  of  gonorrheal  ophthalmia  in  a  young 
man  whose  only  sin  was  that  he  had  used  the  same  towel  used  by  an 
older  brother  next  demanded  his  attention.  Several  cases  of  advanced 
tuberculosis  among  those  who  had  been  told  by  less  conscientious  physi- 
cians that  the  cough  was  only  a  bronchial  trouble  made  Doctor  Smith 
lament  the  standard  of  skill  and  honor  among  some  of  his  professional 
brethren.  Rapid  loss  in  weight  in  an  old  friend  who  had  been  too 
busy  to  consult  him  earlier  was  diagnosed  as  neglected  diabetes.  In 
another  instance  dimness  of  vision  and  frequent  headaches  persisting 


92  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

for  luonths  h;id  not  sufficed  to  send  an  active  business  man  to  the 
physician.  This  proved  to  be  an  advanced  ease  of  Bright 's  disease, 
which  should  have  been  recognized  two  years  earlier.  Urinary,  oph- 
thalmoscopic and  blood-pressure  tests  demonstrated  the  seriousness  of 
the  present  condition.  A  breast  tumor  on  the  wiie  of  an  old  and  re- 
spected friend  showed  extensive  involvement  of  the  axillary  glands 
and  the  operation  demanded  promised  only  temporary  relief,  while 
had  it  been  done  months  before,  complete  removal  of  the  diseased 
tissue  would  have  resulted.  In  making  his  calls  for  the  day  Doctor 
Smith  had  experienced  both  among  the  well-to-do  and  the  poor  many 
things  Avhich  had  brought  within  the  range  of  his  vision  more  and 
darker  clouds  than  those  which  floated  in  the  dull  November  sky. 

More  than  a  year  before  he  had  become  estranged  from  the  family 
of  one  of  his  oldest  and  best  friends.  The  breaking  of  this  relationship, 
which  had  continued  from  his  earliest  professional  service  and  had 
been  filled  with  the  common  joys  and  sorrows  shared  only  by  the 
family  physician  and  those  under  his  charge,  had  cast  a  deep  shadow 
over  the  doctor's  life.  He  had  officiated  at  the  birth  of  each  of  his 
friend's  five  children,  and  he  felt  a  parental  love  and  pride  in  them 
as  he  saw  them  grow  into  healthy  womanhood  and  manhood.  A  little 
more  than  a  year  ago,  he  learned  that  the  oldest  of  these  children,  a 
beautiful  and  healthy  girl  of  eighteen,  was  engaged  to  a  young  man 
whom  he  knew  to  be  a  rake.  In  a  spirit  of  altruism  he  had  gone  to 
the  father  and  mother  and  protested  against  the  sacrifice  of  the 
daughter.  This  kindly  intended  intervention  was  met  with  a  stormy 
rebuff,  and  the  doctor  was  rudely  dismissed  from  his  friend's  house. 
But  when  the  young  woman,  whose  life  with  her  unfaithful  husband 
had  made  her  deeply  regret  her  fatal  infatuation,  felt  the  first  pains 
of  childbirth  she  begged  of  her  parents  that  her  old  friend  might  be 
sent  for,  and  that  morning  he  had  delivered  her  of  a  syphilitic  child. 
How  unlike  the  previous  births  at  which  he  had  officiated  in  this 
friend's  house!  It  had  been  the  custom  to  have  the  doctor  at  every 
birthday  dinner  given  the  five  children,  and  one  of  the  boys  bore  his 
name.  There  would  be  no  birthdays  for  this,  the  first  grandchild,  and 
what  could  the  future  promise  the  young  mother?  Surely,  the  No- 
vember day  was  overcast  with  clouds  for  Doctor  Smith  before  its  gray 
light  awoke  the  slumbering  city.  As  he  walked  the  few  short  blocks 
from  his  friend's  to  his  own  home,  he  cried  in  deepest  sorrow.  How 
many  thousands  of  daughters  must  be  sacrificed  before  their  parents 
will  permit  them  to  walk  in  the  light  of  knowledge  and  not  in  the 
shadow  of  ignorance?  After  a  breakfast,  which  was  scarcely  tasted, 
he  read  in  the  morning  paper  the  announcement  that  "Damaged 
Goods,"  which  was  to  have  been  given  in  his  University  town,  had  met 


GENERAL    INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  93 

wdth  such  a  storm  of  protest  from  the  learned  members  of  the  faculty 
that  the  engagement  had  been  canceled.  "Surely,"  he  said,  "the 
fetters  of  prudery  and  custom  bind  both  the  learnecl  and  the  un- 
learned. ' ' 

After  his  morning  office  hours  Doctor  Smith  visited  his  patients 
at  the  city  hospital.  Here  is  a  wreck  from  cocaine  intoxication,  the 
poison  having  been  purchased  from  a  drug-store  owned  by  a  promi- 
nent local  politician.  In  a  padded  cell  is  a  man  with  delirium  tre- 
mens, a  patron  of  a  gilded  saloon  run  by  another  political  boss.  In 
the  lying-in  ward  are  a  dozen  girls  seduced  in  as  many  dance  halls  with 
drinking  alcoves.  Time  will  relieve  these  girls  of  the  products  of 
conception,  a  longer  time  will  be  required  to  free  them  from  the  dis- 
eases which  they  have  contracted,  but  all  time  will  not  wash  away  the 
stains  on  their  lives,  and  what  of  the  fatherless  children  to  be  bom? 
Thirty  beds  are  filled  with  typhoids,  who  under  the  best  conditions 
must  spend  long  weeks  in  the  bondage  of  a  fever,  which  day  by  da;y 
gradually  but  inexorably  tightens  its  grasp.  The  furred  tongue, 
glazed  eyes,  flushed  cheeks,  bounding  pulses,  emaciated  frames,  de- 
lirious brains  were  all  due  to  the  fact  that  a  large  manufacturer  had 
run  a  private  sewer  into  the  river  above  the  water  works.  The  greed 
and  ignorance  of  one  business  firm  had  been  permitted  to  endanger 
the  lives  of  half  a  million  of  people.  In  his  family  calls  the  doctor 
met  with  conditions  equally  lamentable.  A  fond  mother  in  her  ignor- 
ance had  nursed  a  sore  throat  in  one  of  her  children  with  domestic 
remedies.  The  membranous  patches  on  the  tonsils,  extending  up- 
ward into  the  nasal  passages  and  downward  into  the  larynx,  and  the 
cyanotic  face  with  labored  breathing  showed  that  even  the  magical 
curative  action  of  diphtheria  antitoxin,  that  wonderful  discovery  of 
modern  medicine,  would  be  of  little  avail  in  this  individual  case.  The 
other  children  were  treated  with  immunizing  doses  and  the  doctor  had 
the  consolation  of  knowing  that  death's  harvest  in  that  household 
would  be  limited  to  the  one  whom  the  mother's  ignorance  had  doomed. 

The  next  call  brought  Doctor  Smith  to  a  home  in  which  the  condi- 
tions were  equally  deplorable  and  still  more  inexcusable.  One  of  the 
children  some  months  before  had  been  bitten  by  a  strange  cur  which 
soon  disappeared  in  the  alley.  The  wound  was  only  a  scratch  and  was 
soon  forgotten.  Now,  the  child  was  showing  the  first  symptoms  of 
that  horrible  disease  hydrophobia.  But  dogs  must  not  be  muzzled — 
women,  with  plumes  torn  from  living  birds  in  their  hats,  had  formed  a 
society  for  the  prevention  of  cruelty  to  animals,  and  had  so  declared. 

It  must  not  be  inferred  that  all  of  Doctor  Smith's  experiences  on 
that  November  day  were  sad.  Men  are  mortal ;  all  siclmess  is  not  pre- 
ventable, accidents  will  happen  and  distressing  injuries  result.    This 


94  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    HETTERMENT 

worlil  is  not,  ail  Kdcu  and  no  onr  cxiXH'ts  tliat  all  soi'r-ow  will  be 
banislied  from  it.  Decay  and  death  approach  with  advancing  years. 
Strength  and  weakness  are  relative  terms  and  those  possessed  of  the 
former  must  helj)  bear  the  burdens  of  those  afflicted  with  the  latter. 
Doctor  Smith,  being  a  hard-headed,  reasonable,  scientific  man,  is  no 
Utopian,  and  he  frequently  meets  in  sick  rooms  experiences  which 
greatly  increase  both  his  interest  and  his  confidence  in  man.  He 
finds  the  young  and  vigorous  denying  themselves  many  pleasures  iu 
order  to  brighten  the  pathways  of  the  old  and  infirm,  the  fortunate 
lending  a  helping  hand  to  the  unfortunate,  and  the  wise  leading  the 
unwise.  No  one,  more  than  the  family  physician,  can  measure  and 
appreciate  the  innate  goodness  that  springs,  without  an  effort,  from 
the  heart  of  humanity.  It  is  difficult  for  the  physician  of  large  ex- 
perience to  unreservedl}'  condemn  anyone,  and  he  is  inclined  to  regard 
all  sins  as  due  to  either  heredity  or  environment.  However,  it  must 
be  admitted  that  on  this  day  Doctor  Smith  had  seen  but  little  sun- 
shine and  the  clouds  that  had  gathered  about  him  had  hidden  the 
virtues  and  magnified  the  vices  of  his  community.  Especially  was  this 
true  of  the  vice  of  ignorance,  for  ignorance  which  results  in  injury  to 
one 's  fellows  is  not  only  a  vice,  but  a  crime,  a  moral  if  not  a  statutory 
one. 

Late  that  night  as  the  doctor  sat  before  his  grate  he  fell  asleep, 
and  now  he  is  busy  among  his  patients  in  a  way  hitherto  quite  un- 
known to  him.  His  w^aiting-room  is  filled  with  people,  old  and  young, 
of  both  sexes,  who  have  come  to  be  examined  in  order  to.  ascertain 
the  exact  condition  of  their  health.  A  young  man  before  proposing 
marriage  to  the  woman  of  his  choice  wishes  a  thorough  examination. 
He  wishes  to  know  that  in  offering  himself  he  is  not  bringing  to  the 
woman  any  harm.  He  desires  to  become  the  father  of  healthy  children 
and  he  is  hot  willing  to  transmit  any  serious  defect  to  them.  He  tells 
the  doctor  to  examine  him  as  carefully  as  he  would  were  he  applying 
for  a  large  life  insurance.  The  doctor  goes  through  the  most  thorough 
physical  examination  and  tests  the  secretions  and  blood  with  the  ut- 
most care.  He  nnderstands  his  own  responsibility  in  the  matter  and 
appreciates  the  high  sense  of  honor  displayed  by  his  patient.  A  young 
woman  for  like  reasons  has  delayed  her  final  answer  to  the  man  who 
has  asked  her  hand  in  order  that  the  doctor  might  pass  upon  her  case. 
Here  is  the  doctor's  old  friend,  William  Stone.  Mr.  Stone  is  in  the 
early  fifties.  He  has  been  a  highly  successful,  honorable  business  man, 
has  accumulated  a  sufficiency  and  enjoys  the  good  things  which  his 
wife  prepares  for  the  table.  A  careful  examination  of  the  urine  leads 
the  doctor  to  caution  Mr.  Stone  to  reduce  the  carbohydrates  in  his 
food.   Mr.  Perkins,  a  la^^'yer  who  throws  his  whole  strength  into  every 


GENERAL    INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  95 

■case  he  tries,  of  late  has  found  himself  easily  irritated,  shows  in- 
creased urinary  secretion  and  a  blood-pressure  rather  high.  A  vaca- 
tion with  light  exercise  and  more  rest  is  the  preventive  prescription 
wliieh  he  receives.  Mrs.  Williams,  after  being  examined  by  Doctor 
Smith,  undergoes  a  slight  operation  under  local  anesthesia,  and  is  re- 
lieved of  the  first  and  only  malignant  cells  found  in  her  breast. 
Richard  Roe,  who  is  preparing  for  a  long  journey,  is  vaccinated  against 
typhoid  fever,  a  disease  no  longer  existent  in  Doctor  Smith's  city 
since  pollution  of  the  water  has  been  discontinued.  John  Doe,  who  is 
a  mineralogical  expert  and  wishes  to  do  some  prospecting  in  high  alti- 
tudes, has  his  heart  examined.  There  are  numerous  applicants  for 
pulmonary  examination.  This  is  done  by  Doctor  Smith  and  his  as- 
sistants in  a  most  thorough  and  up-to-date  manner,  and  advice  is 
given  each  according  to  the  findings.  It  has  been  many  years  since 
Doctor  Smith  has  seen  an  advanced  case  of  pulmonary  tuberculosis 
and  the  great  white  plague  will  soon  be  a  thing  of  the  past.  Every^- 
body  goes  to  a  physician  twice  a  year  and  imdergoes  a  thorough  exami- 
nation. The  result  of  this  examination  is  stated  in  a  permanent  record 
and  no  two  consecutive  examinations  are  made  by  the  same  physician, 
in  order  that  a  condition  overlooked  by  one  may  be  detected  by  an- 
other. Cases  of  doubt  or  in  which  there  is  difference  of  opinion  are 
referred  to  special  boards.  The  average  of  human  life  has  been  greatly 
increased  and  the  sum  of  human  suffering  has  been  greatly  decreased. 
Preventive  has  largely  replaced  curative  medicine.  Tenements  are 
no  longer  kno\\ai ;  prostitution  and  with  it  the  venereal  diseases  have 
disappeared.  Institutions  for  the  feeble-minded  are  no  longer  needed, 
because  the  breed  has  died  out.  Insanity  is  rapidly  decreasing  be- 
cause its  chief  progenitors,  alcoholism  and  syphilis,  have  been  sup- 
pressed. These  and  many  other  pleasing  visions  come  to  Doctor 
Smith  in  his  dream,  from  which  he  is  startled  by  the  ring  of  the  tele- 
phone at  his  elbow.  The  call  says:  "Come  quickly  to  Pat  Ryan's 
saloon  at  the  corner  of  Myrtle  and  Second.  There  has  been  a  drunken 
row.  Bring  your  surgical  instruments. ' '  Then  the  smiles  which  had 
played  over  the  face  of  the  doctor  in  his  dream  were  displaced  by 
lines  of  care  and  he  went  forth  into  the  darkness  of  ignorance  and 
crime. 

There  are  many  Doctor  Smith 's  and  they  have  been  seeing  pleasing 
visions  in  their  dreams,  and  meeting  with  stern  realities  in  their  wak- 
ing hours.  Nearly  fifty  thousand  Doctor  Smith's  constitute  the 
American  Medical  Association,  which  is  expending  thousands  of  dollars 
annually  in  trying  to  so  educate  the  people  that  unnecessary  disease 
may  be  prevented.  The  doctors  are  asking  that  the  work  of  the  na- 
tional, state,  municipal  and  rural  health  organizations  may  be  made 


96  FIRST    NATIONAI,    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

more  effective,  that  the  knowledge  gained  in  the  study  of  the  causation 
of  disease  may  he  utilized.  The  world  has  seen  what  has  been  done 
in  Havana  and  on  the  Canal  Zone,  how  yellow  fever  and  malaria  have 
been  suppressed,  and  how  the  most  pestilential  spots  on  earth  may  be 
converted  into  healthful  habitations  for  man.  Scientific  medicine  has 
made  these  demonstrations  and  the  world  applauds,  but  seems  slow  to 
make  general  application  of  the  rules  of  hygiene. 

Doctor  Foster  had  experienced  the  doctor's  dream  when  he  said 
in  1909 :  "I  look  forward  with  confidence  to  the  time  when  pre- 
ventable diseases  will  be  pi'evented,  and  when  curable  diseases 
will  be  recognized  in  the  curable  stage  and  will  be  cured,  and  I  believe 
the  grandest  triumphs  of  civilization  will  be  the  achievements  which 
will  result  from  a  realization  of  the  possibilities  of  preventive  medi- 
cine. ' ' 

Professor  Fisher,  a  most  earnest  and  intelligent  student  of  means 
for  the  prevention  of  sickness  and  the  deferring  of  death,  has  stated 
that  "by  the  intelligent  application  of  our  present  knowledge,  the 
average  span  of  human  life  may  be  increased  full  fifteen  years. ' ' 


ETJTHENICS  AND  ITS  FOUNDER 

Mrs.    Melvil   Uewey,   Honorary    Chairman,   Institution    Economics   of   the 
American  Home  Economics  Association,  Lake  Placid,  N.  Y. 

Genius  has  been  defined  as  an  "infinite  capacity  for  taking  pains." 
Thomas  Edison's  formula  for  genius  is  perhaps  more  forcible — "two 
per  cent  inspiration,  ninety-eight  per  cent  perspiration." 

Mrs.  Ellen  H.  Richards,  who  named  the  science  of  better  living,  was 
endowed  with  a  genius  for  hard  work.  America  has  not  yet  produced 
a  woman  her  equal  in  grasp  and  breadth  of  scientific  attainments. 
The  list  of  her  degrees,  societies  and  publisht  writings  fills  six  pages  in 
the  Memorial  number  of  the  Journal  of  Home  Economics,  which  she 
founded  in  1909.  Prof.  Maria  Mitchell,  of  Vassar  College,  claimed  to 
have  first  discovered  her  unusual  gifts  thru  her  devotion  to  astronomy. 
Her  chosen  life  work  was  sanitary  chemistry  and  as  a  pioneer  she  first 
opened  the  doors  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology  to 
women.  She  was  also  at  home  in  her  husband's  chair  of  Mining  and 
Metallurgy  and  was  the  only  woman  ever  elected  to  active  member- 
ship in  the  American  Institute  of  IVIining  Engineers. 

Like  a  strong  magnet,  she  attracted  to  her  men  and  women  of 
earnest  purpose  who  were   doing  things  in   the  world,  at  the  same 


Mrs.    Ellen    K.    Richards 


GENER.VL    INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  97 

time  radiating  powerful  currents  of  enthusiasm  and  inspiration  to  all 
who  were  associated  with  her  intimately.  To  discover  a  new,  efficient 
worker  in  her  sphere  of  interests  gave  her  the  same  joy  that  the  as- 
tronomer feels  when  his  searching  eyes,  sweeping  the  heavens  with 
telescope,  discover  a  new  planet. 

Sept.  19,  1904,  the  sixth  annual  Lake  Placid  Conference  on  Home 
Economics  met  in  the  large  rustic,  white  birch  living  room  of  an  Ad- 
irondack lodge,  whose  windows  commanded  full  view  of  the  highest 
mountain  peaks  of  the  state  and  looked  directly  into  the  beautiful 
Indian  Pass,  the  dividing  line  from  the  tribes  of  the  north,  of  the 
famous  five  nations  who  formed  the  ancient  Iroquois  League. 

She  was  full  of  enthusiasm  for  the  new  word  which  had  come 
to  her,  telling  us  about  it  before  her  traveling  wraps  were  fairly  re- 
moved, but  it  was  during  a  discussion  on  nomenclature  that  she 
formally  referred  to  the  word  coined  by  Sir  Francis  Galton  to  express 
race  betterment,  Eugenics,  and  suggested  that  Euthenics,  better  living, 
might  be  used  to  represent  this  work  in  higher  education,  adding  that 
"the  manufacture  of  new  words  is  not  easy.  To  suit  the  public  a 
word  must  be  correctly  formed,  it  must  please  the  public  ear  and  fit 
the  popular  tongue."  With  her  usual  scientific  accuracy  she  had 
studied  well  its  etymology  and  brought  ample  authority  for  its  mean- 
ing from  Demosthenes,  Herodotus  and  Aristotle.  It  seemed  much  the 
best  word  yet  offered  and  it  was  voted:'  That  the  following  nomen- 
clature be  recommended  as  the  suggestion  of  the  Conference : 

HANDWORK  in  elementary  schools. 

DOMESTIC  SCIENCE  in  secondary  schools. 

HOME  ECONOMICS  in  normal  and  professional  schools. 

EUTHENICS  in  colleges  and  universities. 

(Household  arts  and  science  and  Household  Economics  have  also 
been  widely  used.) 

Nature  had  denied  her  children  of  flesh  and  blood  and  the  children 
of  her  brain  w^ere  of  absorbing  interest.  Would  the  new  word  be 
adopted?     Would  it  live? 

The  new  edition  of  the  Standard  dictionary  gives  full  definitions 
of  both  Eugenics  and  Euthenics.  Their  place  in  the  Decimal  Classifi- 
cation of  literature  for  libraries  has  been  assigned  for  the  general  sub- 
jects and  will  be  included  in  the  next  edition,  now  in  preparation. 

575     Evolution. 

.3     Environment,  Euthenics. 

.6     Development.     Survival  of  the  Fittest.     Eugenics. 

This  Conference  on  Race  Betterment  proves  abundantly  the  hold 
they  have  taken  in  public  sentiment,  wath  promise  of  large  results. 

From  the  very  beginning  the  purpose  of  her  work  in  home  eco- 


98  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    U ACE    BETTERMENT 

noiuics  was  educational,  dealing'  with  eeonoiuic  and  sociologic  study 
of  the  home  and  with  problems  of  rit^-ht  living'.  Its  key-note  was 
"Efficieney  thru  health." 

To  a  marked  degi'ee  Mrs.  Richards  had  the  gift  of  prophetic  vision, 
the  clear  ideal  that  precedes  intelligent  action.  Recognizing  that  only 
the  child  can  be  educated  to  acquire  habits  of  right  living  so  perfectly 
that  the  suitable  action  takes  place  unconsciously,  her  first  eiforts  were 
concentrated  on  developing  courses  of  study  correlated  with  science  in- 
struction in  all  grades  of  our  school  system.  In  a  paper  before  the 
National  Education  Association  Council  in  1908.  her  masterful  plea 
for  the  true  place  of  Home  Economics  in  the  teaching  w^orld  as  the 
4th  R,  Right  living, — to  be  incorporated  in  the  education  of  the  peo- 
ple— ^not  only  brought  recognition  of  its  assured  place  but  was  fol- 
lowed by  her  election  for  a  term  of  six  years  to  the  N.  E.  A.  Council, 
the  highest  educational  authority  in  the  country. 

History  teaches  that  the  art  is  developed  long  before  the  science  in 
any  branch  of  applied  knowdedge.  Following  this  logical  order,  she 
publisht  in  1904  a  small  volume  called  "The  Art  of  Right  Living,"  in 
which  she  considers  briefly  the  factors  that  make  up  the  efficient  human 
individual,  showing  that  right  living  conditions  demand  pure  food 
and  water,  fresh  air,  sound  sleep,  safe  exercise,  cleanliness  and  sani- 
tary conditions;  while  environment,  shelter  (the  home)  and  the  proper 
adjustment  of  work,  rest  and  amusement,  give  true  zest  and  happiness 
to  life. 

She  had  a  forceful,  original  way  of  saying  things  which  often  gave 
to  others  the  stimulus  for  doing  them.  The  mind  is  apt  to  grow  callous 
and  give  little  heed  to  oft-repeated  truisms.  We  know  perfectly  well 
the  importance  and  value  of  daily  exercise  in  order  to  get  rid  of  the 
waste  which  results  from  all  living  processes,  but  we  are  much  more 
likely  to  take  the  brisk  morning  walk  when  reminded  that  "we  must 
shake  out  the  ashes,  as  it  were,  from  the  human  furnace,  so  that  the 
fuel  may  give  energy. ' '  The  fortunate  guest  in  her  Jamaica  Plain 
home,  coming  down  to  a  7.30  breakfast,  was  often  surprised  to  find 
that  she  and  the  Professor  had  already  been  out  for  a  long  walk  or 
bicycle  ride  thru  the  beautiful  park  ways  of  the  Boston  suburbs  and 
were  full  of  enthusiasm  in  watching  the  daily  progress  of  buds  and 
blossoms  on  plants  and  shrubs,  and  to  learn  that  this  Avas  their  daily 
habit  thruout  the  year,  rain,  snow  or  sunshine,  before  breakfast  and 
the  day's  work,  either  a  brisk  w^alk  around  Jamaica  Pond,  or  a  bicycle 
ride,  according  to  season.  To  them  all  Nature  was  an  open  book,  re- 
vealing wonderful  secrets  to  those  who  understand  her  language. 
There  was  great  interest  one  spring  in  watching  the  frequent  flights  of 
a  male  robin  who  was  evidently  caring  for  two  nests.    All  day  he  car- 


GENERAL    INDIVIDUAI-    HYGIENE  99 

ried  food  to  the  hungry  occupants  in  one  tree  and  then  the  other ;  but 
one  problem  remained  forever  unsolved,  was  this  busy  bird  a  philan- 
thropist or  a  bigamist? 

In  1910  was  publisht  her  book  on  Euthenics,  the  science  of  con- 
trollable environment,  a  plea  for  better  living  conditions  as  a  first 
step  toward  higher  human  efficiency.  In  endeavoring  to  interpret  the 
spirit  of  her  ideals,  her  \dsion  for  the  future  of  this  science,  world  old 
in  substance  but  new  in  its  dedication  to  scientific  research,  her  own 
words  are  used  as  far  as  practicable. 

The  betterment  of  living  conditions,  thru  conscious  endeavor,  for 
the  purpose  of  securing  efficient  human  beings,  is  what  euthenics 
meant  to  her.  Not  thru  chance  but  thru  increase  of  scientific  knowl- 
edge; not  thru  compulsion  but  thru  democratic  idealism  consciously 
working  thru  common  interests,  will  be  brought  about  the  creation  of 
right  conditions,  the  control  of  environment. 

Mrs.  Richards  had  been  greatly  interested  in  Professor  Fisher's 
Report  on  National  Vitality,  publisht  about  this  time  and  quoting  from 
him:  "Human  vitality  depends  upon  two  primary  conditions — he- 
redity and  hygiene — or  conditions  preceding  birth  and  conditions  dur- 
ing life,"  she  added: 

Eugenics  deals  with  race  improvement  thru  heredity. 

Euthenics  deals  with  race  improvement  thru  environment. 

Eugenics  is  hygiene  for  future  generations. 

Euthenics  is  hygiene  for  the  present  generation. 

Eugenics  must  await  careful  investigation. 

Euthenics  has  immediate  opportunity. 

Euthenics  precedes  eugenics,  developing  better  men  noiv,  and  thus 
inevitably  creating  a  better  race  of  men  in  the  future. 

Euthenics  is  the  preliminary  science  on  which  eugenics  must  be 
based.  This  new  science  seeks  to  emphasize  the  immediate  duty  of 
man  to  better  his  conditions  by  availing  himself  of  knowledge  already 
at  hand  Avhich  shall  tend  to  increase  health  and  happiness.  He  must 
apply  this  knowledge  under  conditions  which  he  can  either  create,  con- 
trol or  modif3^     Euthenics  is  to  be  developed: 

1.  Thru  sanitars^  science. 

2.  Thru  education. 

3.  Thru  relating  science  and  education  to  life. 

Students  of  sanitary  science  discover  for  us  the  laws  which  make 
for  health  and  the  prevention  of  disease.  The  laboratory,  studying 
conditions  and  causes,  can  already  show  the  way  to  many  remedies. 

Mrs.  Richards  strongly  urged  the  education  of  all  women  in  the 
principles  of  sanitary  science,  as  the  key  to  race  progress  in  the 
twentieth  century.     Sanitary  science,  above  all  others,  when  applied, 


100  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    IJACE    HETTKliMENT 

beiiofits  the  wholo  people,  raises  the  level  of  productive  life.  As  long 
ago  as  1892  the  president  of  the  British  iVIedical  Association  said: 
"The  whole  future  proj?ress  of  sanitary  movement  rests,  for  its  perma- 
nent and  executive  support,  upon  the  women  of  our  land." 

It  is  barely  fifty  years  since  w^omen  began  to  ask  questions  and  in- 
sist upon  knowing,  to  claim  freedom  of  movement,  a  chance  to  breathe. 
Some  pioneers  had  to  enter  the  field  of  research,  of  investigation,  in 
order  that  they  might  call  to  those  below  that  the  way  was  open,  and 
in  science  Mrs.  Richards  was  the  pioneer.  In  this  book  she  appeals  to 
the  women  of  America  with  faith,  hope  and  courage,  to  put  their  edu- 
cation, their  power  of  detailed  w^ork,  and  any  initiative  they  may 
possess,  at  the  service  of  the  state,  at  the  same  time  warning  them  that 
much  harm  has  been  done  by  indiscreet,  pushing  women  with  only 
a  glinuner  of  knowledge  who  too  often  approach  city  councils  with 
some  whim  or  fad,  so  that  all  women's  demands  are  classed  together. 
The  question  is  not  WOMAN,  but  ability  and  women.  She  advises  that 
it  is  better,  as  a  rule,  to  work  out  ideas  thru  existing  organizations, 
rather  than  create  new  ones.  There  must  be  cooperation  between  in- 
dividual and  community  because  the  strength  of  combined  endeavor  is 
required  to  meet  all  great  problems.  There  is  a  real  contagion  of 
ideas  as  well  as  of  disease  germs. 

The  dangers  to  modern  life  are  no  less  than  in  pioneer  days  when 
stockades  were  built  as  a  defense  against  the  Indians.  Our  enemies  are 
no  longer  savages  and  wild  animals.  To  see  our  crudest  foes  today, 
we  must  use  the  microscope.  Men  and  women  are  apathetic  over  the 
prevalence  of  disease,  often  because  of  their  disbelief  in  the  teachings 
of  science,  coupled  with  a  lingering  superstition  that,  after  all,  it  is 
fate,  not  will  power,  which  rules  the  destinies  of  mankind.  In  the 
heedless  rush  of  modern  life,  it  is  the  indifference  of  the  people  them- 
selves which  is  the  greatest  obstacle  to  progress.  "Where  wisdom  means 
effort  and  discomfort,  many  feel  it  folly  to  be  wise. 

The  great  struggle  lies  with  matter  in  the  wrong  place — dust,  gar- 
bage, dirt  (flies,  mosquitoes) — and  as  population  becomes  denser, 
with  crime  and  the  death  rate.  But  man  is  aw^akening  at  last  to  the 
fact  that  he  is  "the  sickest  beast  alive,"  that  he  has  himself  to  blame 
and  that  it  is  "wathin  his  power  to  change  his  conditions  speedily.  What 
has  already  been  accomplished  in  Cuba,  Panama,  India,  the  Philip- 
pines, and  recently  in  lighting  the  "black  death"  in  Manchuria,  are 
great  lessons  in  the  possibility  of  reform. 

Laws  interfering  with  personal  liberty  have  always  been  deeply 
resented  by  the  American  citizen.  The  protection  of  the  man  against 
himself,  and  of  his  wife  and  child  against  his  ignorance  and  greed,  is 
a  comparatively  new  idea  in  republican  democracy.     The  cry  of  pa- 


GENERAL    INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE.  101 

temalism  is  raised  on  one  hand,  of  socialism  on  the  other.  Each  gain 
has  been  at  the  cost  of  a  hard-fought  battle,  but  it  is  certain  that  the 
individual  must  delegate  more  or  less  of  his  so-called  rights  for  the 
sake  of  the  race,  and  since  the  only  excuse  for  the  existence  of  the 
individual  is  the  race,  he  must  so  far  relinquish  his  authority.  "It  is 
only  the  exceptional  man,  almost  a  genius,  who  learns  to  modify  his 
habits  and  his  life  to  his  environment  and  to  triumph  over  his  sur- 
roundings, his  appetites,  and  the  absurd  dictates  of  fashion." 

Production  of  energy,  force,  power,  is  the  main  object  of  life  and 
nutrition  easily  ranks  first  of  the  primal  forces  of  all  living  matter  and 
affects  the  others  most  pi'ofoundly.  The  richest  food  areas  in  the 
world  have  provided  the  most  powerful  stocks  of  men  of  which  we 
have  any  record.  All  that  we  are,  either  as  individuals  or  as  a  com- 
plex society,  is  made  possible  by  the  food  supply,  but  curiously,  in 
proportion  as  this  is  abundant  and  easily  obtained,  and  as  nations  rise 
in  the  scale  of  intelligence  and  comforts,  the  birth  rate  is  lowered,  not 
increased. 

All  great  nations,  too,  have  lived  in  a  temperate  climate,  where 
physical  and  mental  activity  was  possible  for  many  hours  a  day.  The 
relation  of  both  food  and  environment  to  man's  efficiency  is  a  vital 
question.  How  far  they  are  responsible  for  his  character,  his  health 
and  understanding,  what  special  elements  are  most  potent  and  which 
are  the  most  readily  controlled,  are  questions  offering  an  interesting 
field  for  research. 

Probably  more  harm  is  done  to  health  by  ignoring  physical  law  in 
the  matter  of  eating  than  in  any  other  one  thing.  Public  men  are 
dying,  not  from  overwork  but  from  their  dinners.  Habit,  heedless- 
ness, inertia,  are  all  roots  of  the  great  disease,  ignorance,  and  the 
remedy  is  education,  beginning  with  the  child. 

We  hear  much  of  educating  the  child  for  life,  but  little  or  nothing 
of  teaching  him  to  live  so  that  the  life  may  be  worth  living.  In  our 
zeal  for  the  mind  we  have  starved  and  dwarfed  the  body. 

The  home  is  responsible  for  the  upbringing  of  healthy,  intelligent 
children  and  in  the  well-ordered  home  the  child  is  the  business  of 
the  day.  So  long  as  affection  lasts  it  will  seek  satisfactory  expression 
in  home  life,  and  love  of  home  and  of  what  the  home  stands  for,  con- 
verts the  drudgery  of  daily  routine  into  a  high  order  of  social  service. 
The  home  table  should  be  the  school  of  good  manners  and  of  good  food 
habits  of  which  the  child  ought  not  to  be  deprived,  for  right  living 
demands  the  right  manner  of  serving  and  eating  the  food.  At  school 
the  child  should  become  accustomed  to  the  best  conditions  known  to 
science,  he  should  imbibe  with  the  3  R's  the  fundamental  principles  of 
right  living.     This  is  the  time  to  inculcate  facts  and  habits  in  regard 


102  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

to  foods,  i-leanliiu'ss,  dirt,  iufection  and  porsonal  methods  in  eating, 
sleeping,  exercising,  while  he  is  yet  plastic  and  absorbs  good  methods 
as  readily  as  bad  ones.  This  is  economic,  for  then  he  does  not  have 
to  unlearn  before  he  can  adopt  new  ways. 

There  was  never  any  artificial  teaching  devised  so  good  for  children 
as  the  daily  helping  in  the  household  tasks.  Boys  and  girls,  healthy, 
industrious,  frugal,  capable,  intelligent,  self-supporting,  cheerful  and 
patriotic,  have  abounded  in  country  homes  in  the  past  and  it  has  been 
recognized  that  the  prevalence  there  of  these  high  qualities  was  largely 
due  to  the  family  life,  which  re(iuired  each  individual  from  his  earliest 
years  to  bear  his  share  in  providing  for  the'  maintenance  of  the  home. 
But  the  ideal  American  homestead,  that  place  of  busy  industry,  with 
occupation  for  the  dozen  children,  no  longer  exists.  Gone  out  of  it  are 
the  industries,  gone  out  of  it  are  ten  of  the  children,  gone  out  of  it  in 
large  measure  is  that  sense  of  moral  and  religious  responsibility  which 
was  the  key-note  of  the  whole.  The  child  wdthout  interest  in  work  or 
play  does  not  develop ;  the  man  with  no  stimulus  walks  thru  life  as  in 
a  dream.  The  simplest  tasks  when  well  done  give  a  glow  of  satisfac- 
tion. Every  child  naturally  tries  to  express  his  thoughts  in  making 
things.  Of  course  his  attempts  are  crude  but  the  necessity  is  there; 
therefore  this  joy  of  doing  should  be  cultivated  in  children. 

The  psychology  of  life  includes  a  definite  aim  and  purpose,  there- 
fore the  task  or  daily  work  is  a  necessity  for  mental  and  physical 
health.  It  must  be  accepted  as  a  part  of  the  science  of  right  living  and 
the  will  and  energy  directed  to  doing  it  well.  It  is  astonishing  how  in- 
teresting a  dull  piece  of  work  may  become  when  intelligence  is  put  into 
it.  A  young  man  who  went  out  to  California  as  a  '49-er  was  one  day 
digging  away  mechanically  and  listlessly,  when  an  old  experienced 
miner  near  him  said:  ''Young  man,  you  are  wasting  a  heap  of  time 
and  strength."  He  show^ed  him  just  how  to  dig,  where  to  take  and 
where  to  put  each  shovelful  of  earth.  At  the  end  of  the  day  the 
youth  was  surprised  to  find  that  he  had  done  twice  as  much  and  was 
only  half  as  tired. 

The  first  step  in  civilizing  a  nation  or  tribe  is  to  teach  the  people 
to  want  things  they  never  had  or  eared  to  have,  to  suggest  things  to 
strive  for.  With  savages  it  may  not  be  the  things  that  are  good  for 
them  for  which  they  strive,  too  often  the  reverse,  but  it  is  the  incentive 
to  work  in  order  to  have  more  that  arouses  ambition,  stirs  dormant 
faculties,  and  makes  a  man  or  makes  a  nation  out  of  a  horde  of  in- 
efficient people.  All  great  men  and  women  have  had  to  struggle  with 
obstacles,  to  deny  themselves  in  order  to  gain  the  goal  of  their  ambitions. 

A  nature  lover  was  watching  the  efforts  of  a  butterfly  to  free  itself 
from  the  cocoon.     A  period  of  struggle  was  followed  by  a  period  of 


GENERAL    INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  103 

rest  till  only  a  few  threads  remained.  The  impatient  watcher  cut  these 
with  scissors  and  the  beautiful  moth  soared  upward  in  the  sunshine, 
fluttering  more  and  more  feebly  till  at  last  it  fell  to  the  ground,  un- 
able to  rise  again.  That  last  struggle  was  just  what  was  needed  to 
develop  the  power  of  sustained  flight. 

If  one  lives  for  pleasure,  one  does  not  enjoy  life  in  the  degree 
possible  to  one  who  lives  for  work  and  finds  his  pleasures  unexpectedly, 
as  side  lights  on  the  pathway.  Eighty  per  cent  of  so-called  amusements 
are  not  recreations.  They  exhaust  more  rapidly  than  they  rest.  Momen- 
tary excitement  is  not  recuperation,  the  re-making  of  nervous  tissue. 
The  real  pleasure  in  life  comes  from  the  consciousness  of  power  to  do 
what  the  mind  has  willed,  from  seeing  the  work  of  one 's  own  hand  and 
brain  prosper.  Madame  de  Stael  defined  happiness  as:  "Constant 
occupation  upon  some  desirable  object  with  a  continued  sense  of 
progress  towards  its  attainment."  This  work  of  creation,  of  trans- 
formation to  desirable  result,  is  the  purest  joy  the  human  mind  can 
experience.  Mrs.  Richards  thought  that  fourteen  hours  a  day  was  not 
too  much  for  this  kind  of  task. 

Finding  that  many  distractions  were  breaking  in  upon  their  work- 
ing time  and  vitality  and  recognizing  that  work  for  the  body  and  work 
for  the  mind  must  be  balanced,  Mrs.  Richards  and  her  husband  evolved 
an  acrostic,  to  be  followed  as  a  general  rule,  which  they  called  the 

FEAST  OF  LIFE 

F  Food — one-tenth  the  time. 

E  Exercise — one-tenth  the  time. 

A  Amusement — one-tenth  the  time. 

S  Sleep — three-tenths  the  time. 

T  Task- — four-tenths  the  time. 

The  delight  in  life  is  what  we  can  do  with  it.  The  unrecognized 
cause  of  the  restless  discontent  so  prevalent  today  is  due  to  an  inner 
sense  of  inetfectiveness,  a  want  of  the  feeling  of  conscious  power  over 
things.  The  wage-earner  is,  for  the  most  part,  unsldlled.  He  cannot 
do  well  the  thing  he  undertakes ;  he  has  power  neither  over  his  tools, 
his  materials,  nor  his  muscles  and  the  daily  round  becomes  a  deadly 
monotony.  There  is  a  general  feeling  that  the  task  is  something  to  be 
rid  of.  We  have  lost  pride  in  our  work  and  have  transferred  our 
distaste  for  poor- work  to  work  itself,  to  the  great  danger  of  our  physi- 
cal and  moral  health.  The  real  psychology  of  work  seems  to  be :  that 
which  one  subconsciously  knows  one  is  doing  badly,  is  drudgery.  One 
who  is  accomplishing  something,  seeing  it  grow  under  his  hands  to 
what  it  was  in  his  thought,  is  never  discontented.  The  feeling  of 
drudgery,  the  craving  for  something  new,  is  strongest  in  those  who  are 
not  satisfied  with  their  daily  work. 


104  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

It  is  a  mistake  to  think  that  the  fact  of  making-  the  ai'ticle  for  some- 
one else  and  not  for  one 's  self,  is  the  cause  of  dissatisfaction.  The  time 
pleasure  of  work  is  in  the  doing  and  not  in  the  possession  afterwards, 
in  most  cases.  The  great  evil  of  present  industrial  conditions  is  that 
the  conscious  purpose  is  for  so  many  limited  to  the  week's  wage,  that 
is,  the  end  of  effort  is  expressed  in  money,  and  the  thought  of  the  pur- 
pose that  money  shall  serve  is  too  subconscious  to  be  appreciated.  In 
some  way  the  average  wage-earner  must  be  brought  to  see  the  end  re- 
sult; namely,  a  more  comfortable,  M'holesome,  and  energy-producing 
life  for  him  and  his.    If  he  strives  for  pleasure  only,  it  will  elude  him. 

No  state  can  thrive  while  its  citizens  waste  their  resources  of  health, 
bodily  energy,  time  and  brain  power,  any  more  than  a  nation  may  pros- 
per that  wastes  its  natural  resources.  If  the  scientifically  trained 
man  is  to  lead  the  world  to  better  things,  he  must  secure  a  suitable  en- 
vironment, he  must  seek  perfection  of  the  body  as  a  machine.  But, 
however  far  eugenics  may  carry  the  race  towards  perfection,  unless 
its  sister  science,  euthenics,  goes  hand  in  hand,  th6  race  will  again 
deteriorate  in  the  future  as  surely  as  it  has  in  the  past.  Accepted  to- 
gether, as  guiding  principles  in  the  evolution  of  life,  man  may  build 
for  himself  a  temple  worthy  of  an  unconquerable  soul. 


7  HE  RELATION  OF  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  TO  RACE  BETTERMENT 

[Abstract  of  Address] 

D.  A.  Sargent,  M.D.,  Director  Hemenway  Grymnasium,  Harvai'd  University, 
Cambridge,  Mass. 

In  considering  a  few  of  the  causes  which  are  generally  conceded  to 
be  potent  factors  in  the  declining  birth  rate  in  most  civilized  countries, 
we  soon  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  trouble  is  largely  a  conflict  be- 
tween individual  instincts  and  abilities,  and  racial  needs.  This  con- 
flict may  be  variously  expressed  as  poverty,  or  the  inability  of  the 
individual  to  make  headway  against  the  many ;  selfishness,  or  the  un- 
willingness to  assume  the  responsibility  of  giving  and  maintaining  life  ; 
indifi'erence,  preference  for  other  occupations,  or  conscious  abstinence 
from  marriage  through  the  lack  of  physical  fitness. 

Some  of  th€  reasons  which  are  brought  forward  in  defense  of  a 
marriage  resulting  in  few  children  are  unfortunately  justifiable  in 
the  light  of  our  social  and  economic  conditions.  It  rests  with  thinkers 
and  workers  along  these  lines  to  solve  this  side  of  the  problem  thru 
such  movements  as  mothers'  pensions  and  all  such  agencies  which 
center  about  child  welfare. 


GENERAL    INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  105 

And  it  rests  first  with  parents  themselves,  then  with  all  teachers 
and  preachers,  to  so  present  and  exemplify  the  ethical  significance  of 
family  life  that  youth  will  gravitate  towards  high  and  pure  ideals  of 
sex  union. 

It  is  the  province  of  this  paper  to  consider  those  physical  conditions 
which  have  in  the  past  produced  and  maintained  superior  races  and  to 
try  to  point  out  the  necessity  of  reconstructing  an  age  of  physical 
idealism,  so  to  speak,  which  shall  help  to  reunite  the  inclinations  of  the 
individual  and  the  claims  of  the  race. 

The  old  biblical  idea  of  perpetuating  the  families  of  the  Patriarchs 
by  many  ' '  begettings "  must  be  justified  in  the  light  of  heredity,  the 
superior  races  maintaining  a  high  birth  rate  in  spite  of  individual 
preference  for  more  ease  and  leisure.  There  was  sometliing  of  this 
stern  idea  of  the  duty  of  procreation  which  actuated  our  forefathers 
in  building  up  a  new  nation.  There  needs  still  to  be  a  note  of  serious 
concern  for  the  physical  vigor  of  our  nation  in  the  pleas  against  ' '  race 
suicide. ' ' 

The  present  tendency  of  the  superior  races  and  individuals  to 
diminish  in  number  is  contrary  to  the  accepted  theory  of  the  ' '  survival 
of  the  fittest."  as  that  law  is  worked  out  under  natural  conditions  of 
plant  and  animal  life.  Here  it  is  the  most  perfect  specimens  of 
tribe  and  race,  the  strongest  and  most  adaptable,  who  become,  as  is 
desirable,  progenitors  of  the  future  race.  But  when  applied  to  man, 
those  principles  of  the  "survival  of  the  fittest"  through  the  struggle 
for  existence  have  been  forced  into  the  background  because  of  man's 
mental,  social  and  sympathetic  development. 

It  is  especially  this  growth  of  the  human  sympathies  that  has 
largely  checked  the  action  of  the  natural  elimination  of  the  weak,  the 
sickly,  and  the  deformed ;  and  while  there  has  accrued  much  benefit 
to  the  finer  emotions  of  the  race,  through  exercising  these  qualities  of 
service  and  care,  there  have  also  arisen  many  present  regrettable  con- 
ditions of  physical  unfitness,  which  it  has  become  the  task  of  our  age 
to  eliminate. 

And  here  again  we  confront  the  conflict  between  the  individual  and 
the  race,  for  there  is  undeniably  a  contradiction  between  the  aims  of 
hygiene  as  applied  to  these  two. 

Hygiene,  as  applied  to  the  individual,  strives  to  conserve  the  life  of 
even  the  most  wretched  human  being,  but  the  hygiene  of  the  race  has 
for  its  ultimate  aim  the  elimination  of  those  of  weak  constitution  for 
the  improvement  of  people  as  a  whole. 

Now  it  is  the  province  of  the  physical  educator  not  only  to  in- 
vigorate the  individual  for  himself  but  through  him  to  improve  the 


106  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

race.  That  is,  physical  edueation  offers  at  least  oue  coustructive  so- 
lution of  the  problem  of  race  betterment.  Through  our  biological 
studies,  we  know  that  there  is  in  the  human  organism  iself  a  competi- 
tion and  antagonism  as  well  as  a  cooperation  among  the  organs  and 
tissues,  but  that  these  organic  forces  can  be  so  influenced  and  harmon- 
ized by  physical  education  as  to  produce  a  more  highly  perfected 
structure.  This  is  especially  true  of  the  interdependence  between 
motor  or  muscular  exercise  and  efficient  mental  work. 

It  is  also  important  to  remember  that  the  consciousness  of  physical 
disability  produces  a  reluctancy  on  the  part  of  many  women  towards 
child-bearing,  while  the  knowledge  of  a  large,  well-developed  pelvis 
which  permits  the  normal  birth  of  healthy  children  increases  assurance 
and  courage. 

Statistics  go  to  show  that  as  the  race  advances,  the  head  increases  in 
size,  and  unless  the  w^oman's  body  is  perfectly  developed  to  meet  this 
condition,  it  means  her  immolation  and  the  deterioration  of  the  race. 

Long  experience  and  careful  observation  have  shown  us  that  physi- 
cal education,  in  its  best'  and  broadest  sense,  is  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant factors  in  the  betterment  of  the  race.  Through  improving  the 
structure  and  function  of  various  parts  of  the  human  organism,  it 
tends  to  make  such  functions  natural  and  normal  from  the  moral  and 
mental,  as  well  as  from  the  physical  point  of  view.  It  so  harmonizes 
the  nervous  processes  that  super-sensitiveness  is  allayed  by  motor 
activity  and  power  and  efficiency  are  developed  through  habits  of 
health. 

Above  all,  through  this  individual  improvement  in  the  physical 
condition  of  men  and  women  there  results  a  better  race  of  children,  so 
that  we  may  consider  physical  education  an  agent  in  our  modem 
sciences  of  euthenics  and  eugenics. 


APPiLRENT     INCREASE     IN    DEGENERATIVE    DISEASES 

Elmer   E.    Rittekhouse,    Conservationist;     President    The    Life   Extension 
Institute,  Inc.,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

We  have  good  reason  to  rejoice  over  the  wonderful  progress  made 
in  recent  years  in  the  field  of  preventive  medicine,  in  the  spread  of 
knowledge  of  right  living,  and  in  human  uplift  generally. 

The  American  people,  however,  cannot  afford  to  rest  upon  these 
splendid  achievements  nor  to  permit  their  confidence  as  to  the  future 
to  blind  them  to  the  urgency  and  magnitude  of  the  task  still  before 


GENERAL    INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  107 

them.  It  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  they  give  heed  to  the  fact 
that  in  spite  of  the  marvelous  advance  of  our  race,  there  are  certain 
evidences  of  physical  deterioration  among  our  people  which,  if  allowed 
to  continue  unchecked,  promise  not  only  to  retard  further  progress, 
but  possibly  to  turn  backward  the  advance  already  made  in  this  di- 
rection. 

We  find  in  this  Conference  and  in  similar  meetings  of  the  serious 
students  of  race  betterment  problems,  the  best  of  evidence  of  their 
optimism  as  to  the  future,  for  they  would  not  be  apt  to  meet  for 
the  discussion  of  these  problems  if  they  did  not  believe  our  civilization 
competent  to  successfully  combat  them. 

SIGNIFICANT  SIGNS 

The  American  nation  has  a  declining  birth  rate.  And  at  the  same 
time  an  increasing  death  rate  in  the  later  periods  of  life.  Moreover, 
the  chronic  diseases  of  old  age  are  reaching  dowTi  into  middle  life  and 
below  and  are  increasing  in  those  groups. 

Aside  from  all  other  evidences  of  degenerative  influences,  these 
alone  are  surely  of  sufficient  importance  to  command  the  thoughtful 
consideration  of  the  public. 

That  children  born  today  have  a  far  better  chance  of  reaching  the 
age  period  40-45  than  had  those  of  former  generations  is  most  gratify- 
ing. But  this  gain  should  not  be  permitted  to  obscure  the  fact  that  the 
chances  of  early  death  after  that  age  period  have  materially  increased 
in  recent  years — apparently  because  of  the  heavy  increase  in  mortality 
from  the  so-called  degenerative  diseases  of  the  heart,  arteries,  kidneys 
and  other  organs. 

IGNORING  A  PLAIN  DUTY 

It  is  claimed,  and  it  may  be  true,  that  these  adverse  tendencies 
are  of  a  temporary  character,  that  they  will  disappear  as  soon  as  we 
have  had  time  to  adjust  our  lives  to  modem  conditions.  But  even 
those  who  adhere  to  this  theory  must  concede  that  considerations  of 
common  humanity  demand  that  we  do  our  utmost  through  educational 
and  other  means  to  bring  about  the  readjustment  at  the  earliest 
possible  moment. 

This  being  our  duty,  why  should  we  longer  ignore  the  need  of  a 
definite  program  and  a  vigorous  campaign  to  reduce  the  excessive  mor- 
bidity and  mortality  from  these  chronic  afBictions  of  middle  life  and 
old  age  which  are  to  so  large  an  extent  preventable  or  postponable ! 

The  death  rate  from  diseases  of  the  kidneys,  liver,  heart  and  cir- 
culatory system,  as  indicated  by  our  most  dependable  statistics,  has 


108  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

nearly  doubled  during  the  past  three  deeack's.  Surely  the  signihcance 
of  this  trend  should  not  be  overlooked  in  considering  the  future  of  our 
race. 

A  life  lost  from  a  disease  of  the  kidneys  is  just  as  valuable  to  the 
family  and  to  the  state  as  a  life  lost  from  a  disease  of  the  lungs,  or 
from  typhoid  fever  or  accident.  Should  we  not  do  something  to  in- 
duce our  people  to  appreciate  and  act  upon  this  self-evident  fact  ? 

THE    UNGUARDED    CROSSING 

Let  us  consider  for  a  moment  the  example  of  the  railway  crossing. 

At  our  most  dangerous  railway  crossings  we  put  up  warning  signs : 
we  erect  gates  and  place  on  guard  a  man  in  a  tower  to  save  the 
thoughtless  from  their  own  negligence. 

At  the  crossing  where  run  such  destroyers  of  human  life  as  typhoid 
fever,  tuberculosis,  diphtheria  and  other  communicable  diseases,  we 
also  have  danger  signals  and  a  guard  in  a  watch  tower — the  health 
otSjcer  and  the  conservationist — to  protect  the  way-passer  by  educa- 
tional methods,  and  in  some  instances  by  force,  against  the  needless 
destruction  of  his  life.  The  result  is  that  the  life  waste  at  this  crossing 
has  been  steadily  reduced. 

Here  we  have  another  dangerous  crossing  w^here  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  lives  are  destroyed  annually  by  the  degenerative  diseases. 
But  we  have  no  warning  signs  here,  no  watch  tower,  no  guard  to  pro- 
tect the  ignorant  or  negligent  passer-by.  And  here  the  life  waste  has 
steadily  increased. 

WAITING  UNTIL  IT  HAPPENS 

Science  has  provided  the  knowledge  wherewith  to  save  a  very  large 
percentage  of  the  victims  of  this  crossing,  but  we  fail  to  use  it.  Society 
seems  concerned  in  these  people  only  after  they  are  maimed  or  killed. 
Doctors  and  ambulances  are  at  hand,  with  hospitals  hard  by  to  care  for 
the  injured,  and  there  are  hearses  in  abundance  and  acres  of  grave- 
yards provided  for  the  dead. 

"WTiat  effort,  for  instance,  does  Philadelphia  make  to  guard  the 
7.300  lives  that  are  lost  annually  in  that  city  from  these  diseases,  or 
Boston  for  its  3,000  or  Detroit  for  its  1,300? 

Is  there  any  sound  reason  why  our  communities  should  not  have  a 
watch  tower  of  education  to  inform  these  people  of  their  danger  and  to 
teach  them  how  to  detect  their  approach  to  this  deadly  crossing,  that 
they  may  at  least  have  a  fighting  chance  to  avoid  it? 

DISREGARDING  STATISTICS 

We  sometimes  hear  the  belief  expressed — usually  by  those  who 
have  not  given  very  deep  study  to  the  statistics — that  the  increase 


GENERAL    INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE 


109 


in  the  mortality  rate  from  the  degenerative  diseases,  and  in  the  death 
rate  at  the  ages  where  these  afflictions  are  most  prevalent,  has  been 
more  apparent  than  real.     And  the  interest  of  many  of  those  who  ad- 


1900  1901^902  1903  1904  1905  1906  1907  1908  1909  1910   191!    1912               | 

2    200 
g    ISO 
.       1    .80 
CC      170 
q!     I60 
5      .50 

'        °=      140 

JZ 

200      R         ^ 

>9o  i   : 

180    1 
,70     ^ 
I60     5       ^' 
,50     O         , 
140    O 

.3a  o    'f. 
.^o  S    ^^ 

no.     'rS: 

TllRpi 

'v 

^""^s 

^». 

'K^ 

.--'■ 

fOK'^ 

'^v 

1.0y 

S(AU 

^v. 

^^..^ 

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^ 



^ 

"^ 

^--^ 

^— " 

SSe" 

f'        '    no 

^^ 

rtd'^ 

XT- 

ORGAr 

"^ 

mit  the  increase,  has  been  diverted  from  this  subject  by  the  assump- 
tion that  the  increase,  whatever  it  may  have  been,  was  natural  and 
to  be  expected. 

AN  ERRONEOUS  THEORY 

Their  theory  is  that  the  increase  in  the  death  rate  above  age  40 
is  due  to  the  saving  of  lives  in  the  younger  ages  chiefly  from  cum- 
municable  disease ;  that  these  lives  passing  into  the  older  periods  have 
given  us  not  only  more  old  people  to  die  than  we  formerly  had,  but  an 
increased  proportion  of  weakened  lives. 

At  first  glance  this  is  perhaps  a  natural  conclusion,  but  the  records 
show  that  there  has  been  little  or  no  increase  in  the  proportion  of  the 
number  surviving  to  the  later  years  of  life.  Even  if  there  were  such  an 
increase,  it  would  merely  lead  to  a  correspondingly  increased  number 
of  deaths  at  the  later  ages,  and  not  to  an  increase  in  the  death  rate 
at  these  ages,  which  is  the  ratio  between  the  number  dying  and  the 
number  living. 

The  saving  of  infant  and  early  adult  lives  which  have  been  at- 
tacked by  the  communicable  diseases  has  been  so  recent  that  but  a 
small  proportion  of  them  have  passed  into  the  older  age  periods.  And 
it  must  also  be  remembered  that  they  were  not  all  left  impaired; 
that  the  same  influences  that  have  reduced  the  death  rate  in  the 
younger  ages  have  saved  a  large  number  of  strong  people  from  attack 
by  the  same  diseases,  and  also  strengthened  the  vitality  of  man,y  peo- 
ple, both  fit  and  unfit,  thus  permitting  an  increase  of  healthful,  un- 
impaired lives  also  to  pass  over  the  older  age  periods. 


THE  INCREASING  DEATH  RATE. 


During  the  past  33  years  the  mortality  rate  in  England  and  Wales 
from  diseases  of  the  kidneys,  heart,  arteries,  includiiig  apoplexy,  shows 


110 


FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 


but  a  slight  increase — from  272  to  273  per  100,000  population,  al- 
though the  Registrar-General's  report  shows  that  the  mortality  rate 
from  these  diseases  is  slightly  increasing  above  age  65. 


1890                            I900                            1912 

110— 
IOO_ 
90._ 

Increase 
DEATH  RATE 

8 

I03i^ 

_IIO 
_IOO 
_90 

80_ 

_80 

70_ 

Diseases  of 

_70 

60_ 

QO^^^^^ 

THE  KIDNEYS 

_60 

SO 

(REG.   AREA) 

50 

The  death  rate  from  the  same  diseases  in  ten  American  registration 
states  of  1900  and  in  the  same  states  in  1910  shows  an  increase  from 
308  to  365,  or  19  per  cent. 

In  Massachusetts  the  increase  from  these  diseases  has  been  %^  per 
cent  since  1880.  In  New  Jersey  in  the  classification  of  organic  heart, 
apoplexy  and  kidneys  the  increase  has  been  108  per  cent,  and  in  16 
American  cities  04  per  cent  during  the  same  period.  These  increases 
are  reflected  in  the  steady  advance  of  the  general  death  rate  above 
age  40  in  the  same  groups. 

We  may  make  all  necessary  allowances  for  the  incompleteness  and 
inaccuracy  of  our  vital  statistics,  and  yet  it  will  be  noted  that  wher- 
ever the  most  reliable  comparisons  can  be  had,  a  steady  and  abnormal 
upward  trend  is  found  in  the  death  rate  from  these  maladies. 

But  assuming  for  the  sake  of  argument  that  there  has  been  no 
increase,  is  there  any  sound  reason  why  we  should  ignore  the  present 
loss  of  400,000  lives  annually  from  these  preventable  or  deferable 
causes,  and  devote  all  of  our  time,  energy  and  money  to  checking  com- 
municable disease? 

THE  REMEDY 


Time  will  not  permit  speculation  in  this  paper  as  to  the  causes  of 
this  high  mortality.  In  the  broad  sense,  we  know  that  the  remedy  lies 
in  educating  our  people  to  adopt  more  healthful  living  habits  that  their 
power  of  resistance  to  the  chronic  diseases  may  be  raised  and  the  at- 
tacks prevented  or  postponed  to  the  older  age  periods. 


GENERAL    INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  111 

We  also  know  that  the  teaching  of  right  living  is  one  of  the 
primary  purposes  of  the  nation-wide  health  movement  now  in  prog- 
ress; but  we  have  no  direct,  no  specific  campaign  to  check  the  life 
waste  from  these  non-communicable  maladies.  This  task  is  a  large  one, 
but  it  must  be  undertaken  and  it  must  go  on  permanently  if  our 
standard  of  national  vitality  is  to  be  raised. 

HEALTH   EXAMINATIONS 

In  the  meantime,  while  this  work  in  the  field  of  prophylaxis  is  going 
on,  an  enormous  number  of  lives  are  being  needlessly  destroyed  be- 
cause of  failure  to  detect  these  preventable  or  postponable  chronic  dis- 
eases in  their  incipieney  when  they  may  be  checked  or  cured. 

Is  it  not  worth  while,  therefore,  that  we  should  also  make  an  espe- 
cial efi'ort  to  teach  our  people  the  wisdom  and  the  urgent  need  of 
going  to  their  doctors  for  periodical  health  examinations  for  the  pur- 
pose of  heading  off  these  and  other  affections? 

THE  RATIO  AMONG  POLICY-HOLDERS 

"When  we  consider  that  the  deaths  from  the  chronic  diseases  are 
estimated  to  be  from  60  to  70  per  cent  preventable  or  postponable,  and 
that  the  bulk  of  life  insurance  policy-holders  are  in  the  age  groups 
where  this  mortality  occurs,  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  life  insurance 
companies  are  becoming  interested  in  this  subject. 

The  record  for  all  the  companies  is  not  available,  but  out  of  8,211 
deaths  in  the  past  three  years  in  one  of  the  older  institutions,  3,426, 
or  42  per  cent,  were  caused  by  these  diseases. 

If,  by  adopting  right  living  habits  and  by  having  periodical  health 
examinations  to  give  the  physicians  a  chance  to  detect  and  arrest  or 
cure  these  troubles,  60  per  cent  of  these  deaths  could  have  been  post- 
poned on  an  average  of  but  one  month  each,  there  would  have  been 
a  saving  of  170  years  of  life. 

If  the  deaths  from  cancer,  which  are  largely  preventable  if  the  dis- 
ease is  discovered  and  treated  in  its  early  stages,  be  added  to  the  above. 
204  years  of  life  would  have  been  saved. 

UNA W^ ARE  OF  THEIR  DANGER 

During  the  same  period  the  same  company  rejected  20,336  applica- 
tions for  insurance.  Of  these  8,782,  or  43  per  cent,  were  declined  for 
physical  impairments  indicating  these  same  diseases. 

It  is  entirely  safe  to  assume  that  90  per  cent,  or  7,900  of  these  peo- 
ple were  not  aware  of  the  impairments  and  of  their  danger,  and  that 
a  vast  majority  of  them  could  have  been  cured  or  serious  results  post- 


112  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

poned  for  years  by  placing  themselves  under  the  guidance  of  their 
family  physicians.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  many  of  them  adopted  this 
course  and  were  later  able  to  secure  their  insurance. 

From  this  may  be  gathered  at  least  a  faint  idea  of  the  enormous 
number  of  people  in  our  population  who  think  they  are  well  but 
who  are  nevertheless  developing  these  insidious  chronic  diseases,  and 
whose  lives  could  be  saved  or  greatly  prolonged  by  adopting  the  sane 
and  simple  practice  of  having  periodical  health  examinations. 

This  very  day  throughout  the  civilized  world  thousands  of  doctors 
are  pronouncing  the  sad  sentence,  "No  hope.  Too  late.  If  I  had 
known  of  your  affliction  before  it  became  so  deeply  seated  I  could  have 
prolonged  your  life. ' '  And  this  has  been  going  on  since  the  dawn  of 
medicine. 

TO  GET  DEFINITE  RESULTS 

Surely  human  intelligence  has  now  reached  a  level  where  we  may 
be  justified  in  believing  that  a  campaign  to  bring  our  people  into 
closer  relations  with  the  medical  profession  for  the  purpose  of  pre- 
venting or  at  least  arresting  sickness  will  accomplish  definite  results. 

It  has  been  my  good  fortune  to  have  had  the  opportunity  to  preach 
the  need  of  adopting  this  very  simple  and  sensible  practice  to  a  large 
constituency  since  I  inaugurated  the  plan  of  giving  policy-holders  free 
medical  examinations  four  years  ago  in  a  company  of  which  I  was 
then  president. 

It  has  been  impossible  to  gather  statistics  showing  the  results  of 
these  efforts,  but  I  am  confident  that  many  people  have  been  thus  in- 
duced to  join  the  constantly  increasing  number  who  have  adopted  the 
practice  of  having  occasional  health  inspections.  The  group  of  lives 
actually  taking  these  examinations  shows  a  mortality  far  below  the 
expected,  as  has  been  demonstrated  by  Dr.  E.  L.  Fisk. 

A  PRACTICAL   SUGGESTION 

To  urge  upon  our  people  the  wisdom  of  this  course  and  of  using 
the  knowledge  and  skill  of  the  physicians  to  prevent  sickness  and  un- 
timely death,  rather  than  to  continue  the  deadly  habit  of  waiting  until 
the  case  is  hopeless  before  sending  for  them,  is  to  my  notion  a  thor- 
oughly practical  suggestion. 

Here  is  a  neglected  but  fruitful  field.  The  need  of  having  these 
inspections  should  be  firmly  fixed  in  the  minds  of  our  school  children 
and  of  our  people  generally.  Every  individual  and  journal  interested 
in  improving  the  vitality  of  our  race,  and  every  health  department 
should  adopt  the  policy  of  constantly  urging  this  inexpensive  pre- 
ventive measure.     It  can  be  done  almost  in  a  sentence.     And  such 


GENERAL    INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  113 

action  would  in  no  way  conflict  with  the  purposes  of  those  engaged  in 
any  field  of  effort  for  the  promotion  of  health  and  longevity. 

It  would  take  but  little  encouragement  from  those  who  are  leading 
in  the  campaign  for  race  betterment  to  set  in  motion  a  sentiment  that 
would  soon  establish  health  inspections  as  a  common  practice  among 
our  people. 

I  believe  this  will  ultimately  come  about  and  that  a  vast  amount 
of  sickness,  with  its  train  of  destitution,  moral  delinquency,  premature 
death,  and  economic  waste,  will  be  prevented. 

Discussion. 

Race  Degeneration 

Professor  Maynard  M.  IVIetcalf 

Just  two  points :  In  view  of  the  horrors  of  race  degeneration  held 
up  to  our  view,  I  wish  to  suggest  one  slight  gleam  of  comfort.  Few 
of  the  individuals  living  today  will  have  any  descendants  living  one 
thousand  years  from  now,  A  thousand  years  is  but  a  moment  to  the 
evolutionist  or  the  eugenist,  of  course.  Their  character  and  condition 
is,  therefore,  of  less  moment  in  the  question  of  the  permanent  future 
of  the  race.  The  implications  of  this  fact  are  not  so  simple  and  ob- 
vious as  they  may  seem  at  first  sight,  but  they  are  worth  thinking  over. 
The  conserving  of  those  destined  to  persist  if  possible,  would  be  the 
real  key  to  the  situation. 


SOME  SUGGESTIONS  FOE  A  MORE   RATIONAL  SOLUTION  OF   THE 
TUBERCULOSIS   PROBLEM    IN    THE   UNITED    STATES 

S.  Adolphus  Kkopp,  M.D.,  Professor  of  Medicine,  Department  of  Phthisio- 
therapy,  at  the  New  York  Post-Graduate  Medical  School  and  Hospital, 
New  York,  N.  Y. 

The  medical  aspect  of  tuberculosis  as  a  disease  of  the  masses  is  so 
closely  interwoven  with  the  social  aspect  that  it  demands  a  special 
consideration  for  every  country.  In  the  United  States  the  problem  is 
quite  unique  and  its  solution  unusually  difficult,  by  reason  of  the 
vastness  of  its  territory,  the  heterogeneous  population,  the  large  and 
constantly  increasing  immigration  from  all  parts  of  the  globe,  the 
large  colored  population,  the  increase  in  birth  rate  among  the  poor  and 
socially  handicapped,  and  the  decrease  among  the  well-to-do  and  those 
physically,  mentally,  and  morally  better  equipped;  its  manifold  in- 
dustries, the  greatly  diversified  housing  conditions  of  the  masses,  and 


114  FIKST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

— last  but  not  least — the  dift'ereiu'c  in  Uic  saiiilary  laws  of  tlie  various 
states  and  the  absence  of  a  Federal  Department  of  Health. 

The  subject,  as  you  must  see  at  a  glance,  is  so  vast  that  it  would 
be  folly  to  attempt  to  treat  it  in  the  short  space  of  time  allotted  to  me, 
or  even  in  a  single  paper.  All  I  can  do,  as  the  title  of  my  paper  in- 
dicates, is  merely  to  offer  soiiie  suggestions  tending  toward  a  more 
rational  solution  of  the  more  important  phases  of  the  tuberculosis 
problem,  and  thus  work  for  the  object  of  this  national  conference, 
i.  €.,  race  betterment. 

At  the  bottom  of  the  great  ravages  due  to  tuberculosis  lie  the  pre- 
disposing factors,  and  it  is  in  regard  to  these  that  we  must  begin  to 
act  more  rationally  than  we  have  ever  done  before,  if  we  wish  to  make 
any  impression  at  all  on  our  morbidity  and  mortality  statistics. 

A  body  of  scientific  men  and  women,  like  those  I  have  the  honor  to 
address  at  this  moment,  are  aware  that  it  would  be  inaccurate  to  deny 
the  possibility  of  direct  maternal  transmission  of  the  tubercle  bacillus, 
but  the  occurrence  is  relatively  rare  and  uncertain.  What  we  do  know 
is  that  nearly  every  child  born  of  tuberculous  parents,  father  or 
mother,  but  particularly  if  it  is  the  mother,  brings  to  this  world  as  a 
hereditary  gift  a  physiological  poverty  which  predisposes  the  child 
very  strongly  to  tuberculosis  and  other  infectious  diseases.  The 
reason  why  such  a  child  becomes  very  frequently  tuberculous  can  be 
explained  by  the  many  opportunities  for  post-natal  infection  from 
the  tuberculous  parents,  particularly  in  infancy  and  early  childhood. 

To  withhold  the  marriage  certificate  from  the  acutely  tuberculous 
individual  is  an  excellent  measure  and  of  incalculable  educational 
value,  but  alas  does  not  prevent  a  tuberculous  procreation.  I  know 
I  may  be  called  revolutionary,  but  I  state  right  at  the  beginning  of  my 
address  that  every  tuberculous  adult,  male  or  female,  married  or  at  a 
marriageable  age,  should  be  impressed  with  the  fact  that  it  is  well-nigh 
a  criminal  offense  to  bring  children  into  the  world  before  they  them- 
selves have  been  cured  of  the  disease.  I  have  said  before,  and  I 
am  willing  to  say  again,  that  I  for  one  am  willing  to  take  the  responsi- 
bility before  my  God  and  any  court  of  justice  for  every  time  that  I 
have  prevented  tuberculous  parents  from  bringing  children  into  the 
world.  I  believe  the  most  widespread  education  in  this  regard  cannot 
be  otherwise  than  productive  of  great  good  to  a  very  large  number  of 
people. 

By  this  widespread  education  I  mean  the  instruction  of  the  legis- 
lature, of  physicians,  and  the  people  at  large.  I  would  plead  with  the 
legislatures  to  legalize  the  operation  of  vasectomy  on  any  tuberculous 
male  patient  who  is  willing  to  undergo  this  operation.  I  would  make 
the  operation  obligatory  for  any  one  who  is  actuallv  tuberculous  and 


GENERAL,    INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  115 

who  insists  upon  marrying.  I  would  advise  the  ligation  of  the  Fallo- 
pian tubes  for  all  female  patients  in  the  same  situation,  or  similarly 
afflicted.  If  an  acutely  ill  tuberculous  individual  procreates  wilfully 
in  spite  of  the  physician's  warning,  I  would  advise  also  in  this  in- 
stance that  sterilization  be  required  by  law.  I  would  teach  even 
slightly  affected  tuberculous  parents  or  married  people,  not  only  all 
the  details  of  prophylaxis,  so  that  they  may  not  infect  each  other,  their 
children,  or  others,  but  I  should  make  it  a  sacred  duty  to  teach  them 
also  how  not  to  procreate  while  either  one  of  them  is  acutely  afflicted 
with  the  disease.  To  this  end  I  should  go  so  far  as  to  urge  parents, 
even  when  they  feel  themselves  apparently  well  and  strong  and  re- 
covered from  a  tuberculous  lesion,  not  to  decide  on  having  a  child 
without  both  of  them  submitting  themselves  to  a  careful  physical  ex- 
amination. Only  when  shown  to  be  in  really  good  health  by  a  careful 
examination  by  a  competent  practitioner  should  they  feel  that  they 
have  a  right  to  procreate  a  race. 

Tuberculous  parents  not  willing  to  listen  to  or  heed  this  warning 
should  be  told  of  the  great  danger  that  exists  of  a  tuberculous  mother 
losing  all  possible  chances  of  recovery,  because  pregnancy  is  sure  to 
make  her  tuberculous  condition  many  times  worse,  and  that  a  child 
of  a  tuberculous  issue  very  rarely  survives  any  length  of  time.  The 
majority  of  such  children  die  in  infancy,  but  usually  not  before  they 
have  caused  the  parents  a  great  deal  of  sorrow,  anxiety,  and  financial 
sacrifice. 

It  is  very  difficult  to  get  accurate  statistics  of  the  morbidity  and 
mortality  of  tuberculosis  in  the  pre-school  age,  but  we  can  get  some 
idea  of  it  by  referring  to  the  prevalence  of  tuberculosis  in  school  chil- 
dren. Estimating  the  proportion  of  tuberculosis  among  the  20,000,000 
children  attending  our  public  schools,  as  low  as  only  3  per  cent  would 
make  600,000  children  who  are  at  this  time  acutely  afflicted  with  tuber- 
culosis in  one  form  or  another. 

The  next  factor  which  in  my  humble  opinion  is  responsible  for  the 
acquisition  of  a  strong  predisposition  to  tuberculosis  in  many  children 
is  our  system  of  education.  Splendid  as  it  is  in  many  respects,  in 
numerous  instances  it  lacks  elements  which  should  tend  to  make  our 
children  mentally,  physically,  and  morally  strong.  I  treated  this  sub- 
ject quite  at  length  in  my  last  year's  address  before  the  International 
Congress  on  School  Hygiene  in  Buffalo,*  and  so  I  will  only  mention  a 
few  of  my  conclusions  here :  Our  school  buildings  should  be  ideal  as 
far  as  construction,  sanitation,  and  particularly  ventilation  are  con- 


*  "The  Physical,  Mental  and  Moral  Vigor  of  Our  School  Children."   New 
ork  Medical  Journal,  Dec.  6th  and  13th,  1913. 


116  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

cerned.  The  more  open  air  schools  we  eun  have,  the  more  outdoor 
instruction  in  kindergartens,  public  schools,  and  in  colleges,  fhe 
greater  will  be  the  physical  vigor  and  strength  of  the  pupils.  Incul- 
cate the  love  for  open  air  life  into  the  child  at  school  and  it  will  be- 
come a  fresh  air  apostle  at  home.  The  school  curriculum  should  be  so 
arranged  that  the  mental  strain  should  not  react  unfavorably  on  the 
physical  and  moral  constitution  of  the  child,  and  last  but  not  least,  if 
we  wish  to  prevent  tuberculosis  in  children  the  open  air  school,  or  at 
least  the  open  air  class  room,  must  become  the  rule,  the  indoor  school 
or  indoor  classroom  the  exception. 

The  next  predisposing  factor  which  we  have  to  consider  as  re- 
sponsible for  tuberculosis,  particularly  in  the  adolescent,  is  child  labor. 
There  is,  I  believe,  no  diversity  of  opinion  among  physicians,  sanita- 
rians, sociologists,  and  philanthropists  about  child  labor  being  one  of 
the  greatest  curses  which  can  befall  a  nation.  It  stunts  not  only  the 
physical  growth  of  the  future  generation  but  also  the  mental  and  soul 
development  of  the  child.  Personally  I  hold  child  labor  (not  useful, 
helpful,  and  wholesome  child  occupation,  but  labor)  such  as  is  car- 
ried on  today  in  factories,  workshops,  canneries,  fields,  mines,  and  alas 
also  in  not  a  few  instances  at  home,  responsible  for  the  so  frequent 
development  of  tuberculosis  in  our  young  men  and  women. 

The  mortality  from  tuberculosis  is  greatest  between  the  ages  of 
18  and  35,  and  in  many  instances  the  weakened  constitution  of  the 
adolescent  can  not  resist  the  very  prevalent  sources  of  tuberculous  in- 
fection in  factory  and  workshop,  and  the  result  is  the  invasion  of  the 
tubercle  bacillus.  The  most  rigorous  anti-child  labor  laws  most  strictly 
enforced  will  be  one  of  the  most  rational  means  to  help  us  in  the 
solution  of  the  tuberculosis  problem  in  this  country. 

What  is  the  next  most  important  factor  predisposing  to  tuber- 
culosis after  the  hereditary  tendency,  the  unsanitary  school  life,  and 
child  labor?  It  is  bad  housing  conditions,  and  by  this  I  mean  not 
only  unsanitary  tenements  where  the  masses  live  and  sleep,  but  also 
unsanitary  conditions  in  factories,  shops,  offices,  and  stores,  where  the 
masses  work. 

The  manner  in  which  many  of  the  well-to-do  families  house  their 
servants  in  large  cities  is,  I  believe,  often  responsible  for  the  frequency 
of  tuberculosis  among  this  class  of  workers,  and  in  passing  let  me  say 
that  the  predisposing  factors  of  tuberculosis  lurk  in  many  of  the  homes 
of  the  well-to-do  because  the  houses  in  which  they  live  are  not  con- 
structed with  a  view  to  giving  the  maximum  amount  of  air  and  light 
to  the  individual  by  day  and  by  night. 

In  my  own  city  of  Greater  New  York  we  have  still  thousands  of 
dark  bedrooms  where  direct  light  and  air  never  enter,  and  everv  tuber- 


GENERAL    INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  117 

culosis  worker  will  tell  you  that  it  is  in  houses  where  the  sleeping 
quarters  are  the  worst  that  tuberculosis  is  uppermost.  Good  tenement 
house  laws  when  well  enforced  have  done  a  great  deal  in  New  York  and 
other  cities,  but  not  by  any  means  enough.  A  much  more  rational  con- 
ception of  house  construction  so  as  to  give  opportunities  to  the  masses 
to  rent  a  well-lighted  and  well-aired  home  and  a  space  of  the  roof 
garden  which  should  exist  on  top  of  every  tenement  house,  will  be 
necessary  if  we  wish  to  combat  the  predisposition  to  tuberculosis  which 
comes  from  congestion  and  bad,  unsanitary  housing. 

It  has  always  been  a  mystery  to  me  why  the  thousands  of  acres 
of  roofs  of  tenement  houses,  apartment  houses,  and  public  buildings 
are  not  utilized  for  the  purpose  of  giving  the  inhabitants  of  such 
houses  more  outdoor  life  during  the  day,  and  where  feasible,  even 
sleeping  accommodations  at  night.  Those  of  us  who  have  made  tuber- 
culosis a  study  know  what  an  important  preventive  factor  outdoor 
sleeping  is,  and  it  has  been  sufficiently  demonstrated  that  with  proper 
precautions  this  can  be  done  in  all  climes  and  all  kinds  of  weather. 
Our  federal  an d*  municipal  authorities  should  set  an  example  by  the 
utilization  of  the  roofs  at  their  disposal  for  places  where  the  workers  in 
the  offices  may  spend  their  time  allowed  them  for  rest  or  recreation 
between  the  hours  of  labor. 

Not  only  wise  state  and  city  legislation  but  philanthropy  also  must 
come  to  the  rescue  by  building  houses  for  the  masses  such  as  will  de- 
serve the  name  of  human  habitations,  giving  the  occupants  an  abun- 
dance of  light,  air,  and  sunshine. 

Before  I  speak  of  factories  and  workshops  for  the  adult,  let  me 
return  once  more  to  the  children  and  remind  you  here  that  our  orphan 
asylums  and  often  even  our  private  boarding  schools  need  the  greatest 
and  most  careful  supervision  to  assure  sanitary  sleeping  and  living 
quarters  to  the  inmates. 

We  next  come  to  the  cheap  hotels  and  lodging  houses.  Only  those 
who  have  made  a  study  of  the  cheap  lodging  houses  in  large  cities  can 
possibly  have  an  idea  of  what  a  fruitful  source  these  so-called  habita- 
tions are  for  acquiring  tuberculosis,  and  when  not  the  disease  itself, 
surely  a  very  strong  predisposition  thereto.  Those  who  desire  more 
complete  information  on  this  subject  I  would  like  to  refer  to  a  paper 
recently  read  by  Mr.  Chas.  B.  Barnes,  of  the  Russell  Sage  Foundation, 
before  our  Tuberculosis  Clinics  Association,  entitled  "Tuberculosis 
among  Homeless  Men."* 

We  should  do  away  with  the  cheap  lodging  houses  and  cheap 
hotels  by  substituting  for  them  a  gradual  development  of  sanitarily 
constructed  municipal  hotels  and  lodging  houses.    Our  Mills  hotels  in 

*  Journal  of  the  Outdoor  Life,  April,  1914. 


118  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

New  York  City  give  au  example  of  how  practical  pliilanthropy  can 
also  aid  in  the  solution  of  this  problem.  In  the  meantime  the  owners 
of  the  cheap  lodging  houses  should  be  forced  to  make  these  houses 
sanitarily  safe,  and  any  individual  who  is  discovered  coughing  and 
expectorating  should  not  be  admitted  or  readmitted  as  a  guest,  but 
should  be  referred  to  a  tuberculosis  dispensary  or  hospital  for  diag- 
nosis, proper  care,  and  treatment. 

The  proper  ventilating  and  lighting  and  the  necessity  of  excluding 
the  actively  ill  tuberculous  patient  who  constitutes  a  menace  to  his 
fellow-men  and  to  himself  by  remaining  in  the  overcrowded  factory, 
workshop,  store,  or  office  have  been  so  often  discussed  that  I  hardly 
think  they  need  reiterating.  All  I  would  wish  to  say  is  that  a  little 
propaganda  for  better  ventilation,  ample  wash  and  toilet  facilities  in 
every  place  where  the  masses  work,  would  perhaps  be  more  effective 
when  coming  from  within  than  coming  from  without.  The  workers 
should  claim  their  just  right  concerning  this  and  the  employer  should 
realize  that  efficiency  is  increased  by  better  air,  more  light,  more 
cleanliness, and  sufficient  rest  and  recreation.  An  examination  for  tu- 
berculosis prior  to  admitting  an  individual  into  a  workroom  or  faetoi'y 
where  he  comes  in  close  contact  with  others  would  seem  to  be  the 
best  safeguard  to  others  and  perhaps  the  surest  way  to  prevent  the 
individual  himself  from  becoming  seriously  ill.  It  would  be  well  if  our 
municipal  and  federal  governments  would  take  the  lead  in  this  matter 
and  ha;ve  every  municipal  employee  and  every  employee  in  post- 
offices  or  other  federal  departments  examined  for  tuberculosis.  The 
offices  where  these  men  and  women  work  should  be  models  of  sanitation 
and  proper  ventilation  so  that  the  dangers  of  contracting  a  predispo- 
sition to  tuberculosis  should  be  reduced  to  a  minimum. 

Bad  housing,  overcrowding,  and  congestion,  which  ■  predispose  to 
tuberculosis  and  facilitate  the  spread  of  the  disease  if  a  center  of  in- 
fection is  present,  while  most  frequent  in  congested  cities,  are,  however, 
not  confined  to  the  city  alone.  Although  our  farmers  and  people  liv- 
ing in  the  country  and  in  small  towns  and  villages  usually  have  an 
abundance  of  good  air  outside  their  habitations,  they  very  rarely  make 
good  use  of  it.  The  sleeping  quarters  in  many  farmers'  families  are  as 
bad  as  those  in  large  cities,  and  to  see  the  windows  nailed  dovm  and 
the  shutters  fast  closed  is  not  an  unusual  sight  in  many  a  farmer's 
house.  The  best  room  is  used  for  parlor  and  the  worst  for  sitting  and 
bedrooms. 

In  speaking  of  rural  hygiene,  I  must  return  once  more  to  the  chil- 
dren and  make  a  plea  for  better  and  more  sanitary  school  houses  in  our 
country  districts.  In  some  sections  of  the  country,  almost  any  old 
bam  or  dilapidated  building  is  considered  good  enough  for  a  school 


GENERAL    INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  119 

house.  Some  pretty  energetic  propaganda  for  reform  is  needed  in 
these  districts.  Rural  hygiene  is  as  essential  as  city  hygiene  if  we 
wish  to  combat  tuberculosis  with  any  degree  of  success. 

Millions  of  people  in  this  country  spend  hours  and  even  days  in 
travel;  hence  the  sanitary  condition  of  our  public  conveyances,  rail- 
roads, street  cars,  steamers,  river  boats,  and  ferries  must  be  considered 
when  we  speak  of  the  housing  conditions  of  the  masses.  I  have  dwelt 
at  length  on  this  subject  in  a  contribution  on  "The  Hygiene  of  Public 
Conveyances, '  '*  which  I  read  at  the  New  York  Academy  of  Medicine 
at  the  request  of  the  Public  Health  Educational  Committee  a  few 
years  ago,  so  I  will  give  it  only  a  mention  here.  Anti-spitting  ordi- 
nances with  the  request  to  hold  the  hand  before  one's  mouth  when 
coughing,  the  avoidance  of  overcrowding,  proper  ventilation  and  with- 
out overheating,  a  frequent  disinfection  of  all  street-,  railroad-,  and 
Pullman  cars,  cabins,  steamboats,  etc.,  are  the  only  way  to  minimize 
the  dangers  from  tuberculosis  and  other  infectious  diseases  of  the 
i-espiratory  organs  for  the  traveling  public. 

Our  colored  population  and  the  districts  where  many  Chinese  and 
Japanese  live  must  receive  special  consideration  under  the  subject  of 
housing.  It  is  well  known  that  our  colored  population  is  much  more 
prone  to  contract  tuberculosis  and  that  the  morbidity  and  mortality  is 
much  greater  than  it  was  before  their  liberation  from  slavery.  Edu- 
cation and  hygiene  is  essential  for  the  colored  masses  and  perhaps  more 
so  than  for  our  white  population.  The  housing  conditions  of  the 
colored  people  are  as  a  rule  a  great  deal  worse  than  those  of  the  whites 
with  similar  earning  capacity. 

I  do  not  think  that  the  colored  race  is  really  more  predisposed  to 
tuberculosis  from  any  other  reason  than  their  mode  of  living.  As  a 
rule  they  sleep  in  overcrowded  quarters ;  their  home  hygiene  is  deplor- 
able, their  love  for  pleasure  and  recreation  makes  them  irregular  in 
their  meals  and  hours  of  sleep,  and  last  but  not  least,  very  often  hav- 
ing no  thought  of  tomorrow,  they  live  in  abject  poverty.  Education 
by  lectures,  distribution  of  literature,  and  tuberculosis  exhibitions  in  the 
districts  of  colored  people  will  doubtlessly  do  a  great  deal  of  good,  but 
social  service,  personal  visits  by  volunteer  or  paid  workers  in  behalf  of 
the  anti-tuberculosis  cause  mil  alone  be  able  to  make  much  impression 
on  the  fearful  prevalence  of  tuberculosis  among  the  colored  race. 

In  view  of  the  existing  race  prejudice  or  antipathy  it  would  be 
better  for  colored  people  to  unite  and  by  cooperation  with  philan- 
thropically  inclined  people  of  their  own  and  the  white  race  to  build 
sanitary  tenement  houses  in  segregated  districts,  than  to  try  to  crowd 


*  Medical  Itecord,  New  York,  March  18,  1911. 


120  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

iuto  tlie  already  over  congested  districts  inhabited  by  the  poorer 
chisses  of  the  white  population. 

Much  could  be  said  here  of  the  deplorable  condition  in  which  our 
Asiatic  friends,  the  Chinese  and  Japanese,  live,  as  for  example  on  the 
Pacific  Coast.  I  have  visited  the  lodging  houses  of  nearly  all  nations 
but  never  have  I  seen  the  equal  in  regard  to  congestion  and  unclean- 
liness  to  the  so-called  Japanese  boarding  houses  and  Chinese  dens. 
This  becomes  a  matter  for  the  serious  consideration  of  the  local  sani- 
tary authorities  when  one  considers  the  frequency  of  tuberculosis 
among  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  and  how  many  of  them  act  as 
servants  in  the  households  of  American  families. 

Our  American  Indians,  particularly  those  living  on  reservations, 
are  becoming  more  and  more  frequently  subject  to  tuberculosis.  This 
alarming  prevalence  of  tuberculosis  among  the  unfortunate  Indians 
has  resulted  in  the  appointment  of  a  federal  commission,  composed  of 
Senator  Robinson,  of  Arkansas,  Senator  Charles  E.  Townsend,  Rep- 
resentatives J.  H.  Stephens,  of  Mississippi,  and  Charles  H.  Burke,  of 
South  Dakota,  which  has  recently  completed  an  investigation.  I 
quote  from  this  report : 

''For  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30th,  1912,  out  of  190,791  In- 
dians reported  on,  approximately  26,500  were  estimated  to  have  tuber- 
culosis. Thirty-two  per  cent  of  the  whole  number  of  deaths  reported 
from  the  various  reservations  was  alleged  to  be  due  to  tuberculosis. 
A  comparison  of  the  death  rate  between  Indians  and  whites  from 
tuberculosis  discloses  that  thirty-two  per  cent  of  the  whole  number  of 
deaths  reported  from  the  various  reservations  was  due  to  tubercu- 
losis. ' ' 

The  explanation  for  this  fearful  situation  is  to  be  found  in  the 
habits  and  manners  of  living  of  these  "civilized"  Indians  as  com- 
pared with  their  inode  of  life  prior  to  their  being  placed  on  the 
reservations.  Thus,  very  .justly,  the  report  states:  "Formerly  the 
Indians  lived  in  tepees,  engaged  in  out-of-door  sports  and  earned  their 
living  by  fishing,  hunting,  and  trading.  Contact  with  the  white  man 
has  worked  a  radical  change  in  them.  They  have  been  collected  on 
reservations,  their  hunting  grounds  converted  into  farms  and  pastures, 
and  every  energy  exhausted  to  change  a  naturally  nomadic  race  into 
an  agricultural  people.  The  substitution  of  insanitary  houses  for 
tepees  has  resulted  in  the  adoption  of  habits  of  living  peculiarly  con- 
ducive to  the  spread  of  tuberculosis.  In  many  Indians'  homes  sani- 
tary' conditions  are  frightful. 

"A  comprehensive  remedy  can  be  afforded  by  the  establishment  of 
camp  hospitals,"  says  the  report,  "in  the  nature  of  temporary  sana- 
toria for  the  treatment  of  tuberculous  Indians  on  the  reservations 


GENERAL   INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  121 

where  the  disease  is  knoM^n  to  be  common.  These  hospitals  should  be 
temporary  and  inexpensive  and  provided  with  necessary  apparatus 
and  experienced  nurses  and  physicians." 

The  report  recommends  a  vigorous  campaign  throughout  the  In- 
dian country  of  systematic  instruction  in  sanitary  habits  and  methods 
of  living  looking  toward  the  making  and  enforcement  of  reasonable 
sanitary  regulations. 

I  have  only  a  few  suggestions  to  add  to  those  of  the  Commission, 
namely,  first,  that  whenever  possible  a  doctor  of  their  own  race  (not 
a  "medicine  man"),  educated  and  licensed  as  a  regular  physician, 
should  be  put  in  charge  of  anti-tuberculosis  work  among  the  Indians, 
or  at  least  be  an  assistant  to  the  government  physician.  Thus,  early 
diagnosis  and  timely  treatment  in  those  afflicted  would  be  secured.  As 
the  best  possible  prophylactic  measure  I  would  recommend  outdoor 
sleeping  with  the  aid  of  cheaply  constructed  lean-tos  of  the  King- 
Loomis  type.  To  all  this  should  of  course  be  added  proper  nutrition 
and  the  prohibition  of  the  sale  of  alcohol  on  reservations  or  anywhere 
else  to  our  Indian  fellow-citizens.  It  goes  without  saying  that  the 
schools  for  the  Indian  children  should  be  open-air  schools,  that  clean- 
liness and  the  elementaries  of  general  hygiene  with  the  view  to  pre- 
venting tuberculosis  and  other  infectious  preventable  diseases  should 
be  taught  to  all  children  according  to  their  age  and  understanding. 

The  mortality  of  tuberculosis  in  prisons  and  reformatories  is 
about  three  times  as  high  as  that  of  the  population  outside  of  our 
penal  or  reform  institutions.  What  are  the  factors  responsible  for 
this  condition?  First  of  all,  I  believe  that  many  a  young  man  or 
Woman  who  is  convicted  of  crime  comes  to  the  prison  with  a  strong 
predisposition  if  not  already  in  a  stage  of  incipient  tuberculosis. 
They  have  been  raised  in  an  atmosphere  of  darkness  with  bad  personal 
or  general  hygiene,  underfeeding  and  unsanitary  housing,  not  in- 
frequently combined  with  intemperance  and  other  evil,  demoralizing 
influences.  When  such  an  individual  enters  a  prison  of  the  kind 
Avhich  is  alas  now  in  the  majority,  a  five-year  sentence  or  more  is 
equivalent  to  a  death  sentence.  I  hardly  need  to  say  that  society 
has  no  right  to  punish  as  severely  as  that. 

Segregation  of  the  tuberculous  prisoners  from  the  non-tuberculous 
should  be  established  and  outdoor  or  at  least  healthful  indoor  occupa- 
tion provided  under  proper  sanitary  conditions.  If  cell  life  must  be 
led,  let  it  be  in  cells  well  aired  and  properly  heated  in  winter,  with  the 
removal  as  far  as  possible  of  all  the  depressing  psychical  influences, 
which  are  so  helpful  in  the  development  of  tuberculosis. 

This  is  not  a  paper  on  prison  reform  and  still  if  we  wish  to  eradi- 
cate tuberculosis  our  prison  system  must  be  reformed.    In  view  of  the 


122  FIKST    NATIONAL    CONFERKNCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

possibilities  of  training  and  supervision  in  a  prison,  the  tuberculosis 
death  rate  should  be  loss  there  than  anywhere  else.  I  treated  this  par- 
ticular phase  of  the  tuberculosis  situation  in  full  in  an  address  before 
the  National  Prison  Association  some  years  ago.*  My  conclusions 
today  are  the  same  as  then.  To  discharge  a  tuberculous  prisoner  with- 
out his  being  cured  or  without  being  assured  that  he  will  not  consti- 
tute a  center  of  infection  in  his  family  or  among  his  friends  or  fellow- 
workers  is  criminal  and  the  pardon  of  a  tuberculous  prisoner  without 
the  assurance  of  his  being  well  taken  care  of  under  sanitary  condi- 
tions is  equally  criminal.  The  tuberculous  prisoner  should  be  treated 
like  any  other  tuberculous  patient,  and  the  more  outdoor,  that  is  to 
say  agricultural  or  horticultural,  work  that  all  prisoners  can  do  under 
proper  supervision,  the  fewer  will  develop  tuberculosis,  and  the  greater 
will  be  the  number  of  those  restored  to  happy  and  useful  membership 
in  society. 

There  is  one  more  source  of  predisposition  which  I  believe  has 
been  greatly  underestimated.  I  refer  to  the  susceptibility  to  tuber- 
culosis which  arises  so  frequently  in  patients,  and  particularly  in 
poor  patients  when  discharged  from  a  general  hospital.  Although 
cured  from  the  acute  non-tuberculous  disease  or  affliction  for  which 
they  have  had  to  submit  to  a  surgical  operation,  their  general  constitu- 
tion is,  as  a  rule,  so  much  below  par  and  their  vitality  so  lowered  at 
the  time  when  they  are  obliged  to  leave  the  general  hospital  in  order 
to  make  room  for  new  acute  cases,  that  the  unfortunate  convalescents 
not  infrequently  fall  a  prey  to  the  multiple  sources  of  infection  which 
they  encounter  in  their  daily  lives.  To  have  a  sufficient  number  of 
convalescent  homes  where  the  patients  discharged  from  general  hos- 
pitals, including  also  the  mothers  discharged  from  the  maternity 
hospitals,  can  remain  long  enough  for  their  physiological  vigor  and 
earning  capacity  to  be  re-established,  is  the  only  way  to  overcome  this 
source  of  predisposition  to  tubercul'osis. 

We  will  next  consider  the  predisposition  caused  by  malnutrition 
during  infancy,  childhood,  adolescence,  and  in  adult  life.  I  am  not 
going  to  enter  here  into  the  subject  of  the  high  cost  of  living,  for  that 
is  a  matter  for  statesmen  to  regulate.  All  I  wish  to  say  is  that  person- 
ally I  do  not  believe  there  is  any  necessity  for  the  cost  of  living  being 
so  high,  because  we  should  not  have  a  multitude  of  men  who  must 
idle  away  their  years  in  military  service  at  a  cost  of  billions  of  dollars 
to  the  producers  while  they  themselves  produce  nothing. 

To  return  to  my  calling  of  a  physician,  I  claim  that  underfeeding 


*  "The  Tuberculosis  Problem  in  Prisons  and  Reformatories,"  New  York 
Medical  Journal,  Nov.  17,  1906. 


GENERAL   INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  123 

of  infants  is  due  to  three  sources.  First  of  all,  there  are  not  enough 
true  mothers,  that  is  to  say  mothers  willing  to  give  their  own  breasts 
to  the  child  for  its  principal  source  of  food  during  early  life.  It  is 
well  known  that  if  a  mother  is  so  unfortunate  as  not  to  have  enough 
milk  for  the  child,  partial  breast  feeding  is  better  than  no  breast  feed- 
ing at  all.  Again,  it  has  been  shown  that  the  disuse  of  the  mammary 
glands  has  a  tendency  to  manifest  itself  in  the  inability  to  nurse  when 
the  female  offspring  becomes  in  turn  a  mother;  and  the  reverse  is 
equally  true — the  baby  girl  raised  on  mother  milk,  or  even  only  par- 
tially breast-fed  will  be  able  to  nurse  her  child  in  turn.  The  breast-fed 
baby  will  nearly  always  be  stronger  and  better  able  to  resist  the  in- 
vasion of  tuberculosis  than  the  artificially  fed  baby. 

The  next  cause  of  malnutrition  in  infancy  and  early  childhood  is 
ignorance.  Llany  mothers  do  not  know  how  to  feed  the  child  and 
it  is  not  always  poverty  or  the  lack  of  sufficient  food,  but  the  igno- 
rance of  how  to  feed  the  child  properly  which  results  in  malnutrition. 
Education,  best  accomplished  by  the  personal  visits  of  competent 
nurses  under  the  direction  of  a  bureau  of  child  hygiene,  which  should 
be  a  part  of  every  modern  health  board,  will  alone  combat  this  fruitful 
source  of  malnutrition.  With  the  underfed  child  at  school  the  cause 
may  in  some  instances  be  due  to  ignorance,  but  here  in  most  cases  it 
is  poverty  that  we  find  as  the  real  cause.  When  the  predisposition 
to  tuberculosis  caused  by  the  physical  reasons  of  malnutrition  and 
lack  of  development,  due  to  bad  teeth,  adenoids,  large  tonsils,  and 
nasal  obstruction,  is  removed,  we  still  find  some  of  these  children 
not  improving  because  they  are  underfed. 

I  am  willing  to  say  that  I  am  a  strong  advocate  of  school  lunches, 
and  this  by  reason  of  a  careful  investigation  carried  on  in  New  York 
where  over  15  per  cent  of  children  attending  the  public  schools  were 
found  to  be  suffering  from  malnutrition.  In  10  per  cent  of  cases  in- 
vestigated the  mother  was  a  wage-earner  and  not  at  home  to  prepare 
the  noon  meal,  and  of  children  taking  school  lunches  last  year  75  per 
cent  were  from  families  having  incomes  below  the  living  v/age.  The 
children  are  given  for  the  small  amount  of  three  cents,  rice  and  tomato 
soup  and  bread,  or  pea  soup  and  bread,  or  lentils  and  rice  and  bread,  or 
for  one  more  cent  the  child  may  buy  either  cocoa,  sandAviches  or  cooked 
fruit.  And  what  was  the  result?  It  was  found  that  the  children  tak- 
ing the  lunches  had  gained  in  weight  three  times  as  much  as  those  not 
taking  them  and  an  immediate  marked  improvement  in  school  work 
resulted  in  those  who  were  formerly  underfed.  Here  is  a  work  for 
the  municipalities  and  philanthropists  who  wish  to  help  in  the  eradi- 
cation of  this  source  of  strong  predisposition  to  tuberculosis. 

The  malnutrition  in  the  adults,  or  may  I  ,use  the  expression,  the 


124  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

underfeeding  of  the  masses  due  to  increased  cost  of  living  which,  as 
already  stated,  is  a  matter  for  governments  and  statesmen,  can  never- 
theless be  ameliorated  even  before  disarmament  and  regulating  supply 
and  demand  of  labor  and  the  legislative  control  of  prices  of  agri- 
cultural products,  i.  e.,  the  prevention  of  trusts  in  foodstuffs. 

A  great  step  in  advance  can,  I  believe,  be  made  and  the  condition 
of  the  masses  considerably  bettered,  first,  by  a  more  widespread  educa- 
tion of  the  principles  of  scientific  and  economic  housekeeping  and 
cooking.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  valuable  foodstuffs  wasted  in  the 
houses  of  the  poor  by  mere  ignorance.  Cooking  should  become  a 
popular  science,  and  the  mimicipality  or  the  philanthropist  who  will 
establish  a  cooking  school  where  practical,  economic,  yet  tasteful  cook- 
ing will  be  taught,  will  bestow  one  of  the  greatest  benefits  on  humanity. 

An  equally  interesting  and  beneficent  institution  for  municipali- 
ties or  philanthropists  to  establish  in  view  of  combating  the  effects  of 
underfeeding  or  bad  feeding,  which  paves  the  way  to  tuberculosis, 
is  what  is  knowni  in  Germany  under  the  name  of  Volkskilchen,  "a 
people's  kitchen,"  where  good  and  substantial  food  is  prepared  and 
sold  at  cost  to  the  masses.  I  have  tasted  meals  thus  prepared  and 
can  vouch  for  their  wholesomeness,  tastefulness,  nutritious  quality, 
and  last,  but  not  least,  their  cheapness.  A  few  of  such  kitchens  in 
every  one  of  our  large  cities  will  be  of  incalculable  benefit  to  the 
physical  and  moral  well-being  of  the  masses. 

Alcoholism,  that  is  to  say,  the  excessive  and  injudicious  use  of 
alcoholic  beverages,  is  to  my  mind  one  of  the  strongest  predisposing 
factors  in  the  adult.  It  not  only  renders  the  individual  more  sus- 
ceptible to  the  invasion  of  the  tubercle  bacilli,  but  also  makes  the  cure 
much  more  difficult.  In  mj^  service  at  the  Riverside  Hospital-Sana- 
torium on  North  Brother  Island  a  large  number  of  patients  are 
alcoholics  and  the  prognosis  in  such  cases  is  almost  invariably  un- 
favorable. I  regret  to  state  here  that  I  have  had  in  my  service  as 
many  as  70  per  cent  of  tuberculous  patients  who  confessed  the  exces- 
sive use  of  alcohol  prior  to  contracting  tuberculosis.  I  cannot,  of 
course,  enter  here  into  the  discussion  of  the  alcoholic  problem.  All  I 
can  say  is  that  education,  wise  legislation,  rational  temperance  move- 
ments, better  food  and  better  cooking,  and  popular  healthful  en- 
gagements for  the  masses,  are  to  my  mind  the  most  rational  means 
to  combat  the  alcoholic  evil. 

Venereal  disease  also  predisposes  to  tuberculosis  in  a  measure. 
My  own  conception  of  how  to  combat  this  evil  I  expressed  in  the  ora- 
tion on  medicine  which  I  had  the  honor  to  deliver  before  the  Illinois 
State  Medical  Society  two  years  ago.  I  must  refer  my  readers  to  this 
article,  ' '  Some  Modem  Medico-Sociologic  Conceptions  of  the  Alcohol, 


GENERAL    INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  125 

Venereal  Diseases,  and  Tuberculosis  Problems."*  All  I  can  do  here 
is  to  include  syphilis  and  gonorrhea  into  the  three  great  afflictions  of 
the  masses — alcohol,  venereal  diseases,  and  tuberculosis — which  are 
more  prevalent  in  cities  than  in  the  country,  and  all  of  which  are  in 
no  small  degree  th^  result  of  congestion  and  the  many  unwholesome 
features  of  city  life.  I  venture  to  say  that  all  these  diseases,  and  par- 
ticularly tuberculosis,  will  be  decreased  by  a  return  to  the  farm.  If 
our  statesmen  can  help  to  make  farming  more  attractive  and  profit- 
able, country  life,  particularly  for  young  people,  less  monotonous  and 
more  enjoyable,  a  great  step  toward  the  decrease  in  the  morbidity  and 
mortality  of  the  above  mentioned  diseases  and  a  consequent  betterment 
of  the  race  will  surely  be  attained. 

We  come  now  to  the  direct  causes  of  tuberculosis.  First,  contami- 
nated food  substances,  i.  e.,  contaminated  by  the  tubercle  bacillus. 
We  have  tuberculous  meat  derived  from  tuberculous  cattle  and  hogs, 
and  have  tuberculous  milk  derived  from  tuberculous  cows.  There 
would  be  no  difficulty  in  combating  bovine  tuberculosis  and  tubercu- 
losis in  hogs  if  we  had  uniform  laws  for  dealing  with  this  disease  and 
could  prevent  the  sale  of  beef  or  pork  derived  from  tuberculous 
animals.  As  it  is,  one  state  in  the  Union  has  excellent  bovine  laws, 
has  all  cattle  tested  by  tuberculin,  destroys  the  tuberculous  cattle,  and 
compensates  the  farmers.  A  neighboring  state  has  poor  or  no  bovine 
laws  at  all,  or  they  are  not  enforced.  The  result  is  of  course  danger 
not  only  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  states  with  poor  bovine  laws,  but 
to  all  those  who  may  sojourn  temporarily  therein.  The  same  holds 
good  of  pork  and  still  more  of  milk.  Testing  all  cattle  with  tuber- 
culin and  weeding  out  the  tuberculous  ones,  the  most  careful  in- 
spection of  all  meat  at  the  abattoirs  no  matter  from  what  source,  the 
prohibition  of  the  sale  of  milk  except  from  tuberculin  tested  cows, 
or  the  universal  careful  scientific  and  not  merely  commercial  steriliza- 
tion of  all  milk,  are  up  to  date  our  only  means  to  avoid  contracting 
tuberculosis  from  the  ingestion  of  food  substances. 

When  one  considers  that  nearly  10  per  cent  of  all  tuberculosis  in 
children  is  due  to  the  bovine  type  of  the  tubercle  bacillus,  it  would 
seem  that  the  time  for  the  federal  authorities  to  take  up  this  question 
has  come. 

The  most  important  source  of  infection  of  tuberculosis  is  that 
from  man  to  man  through  the  process  of  inhalation  and  close  personal 
contact.  As  most  frequent  .of  all  phases  we  must  consider  what  is 
known  as  family  infection.  The  bacillus,  being  found  in  abundance  in 
the  secretion  of  the  tuberculous  individual,  may  be  inhaled  with  the 


*  American  Practitioner,  Februaiy,  March,  and  April,  1913. 


126  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

(lust  laden  with  diy  pulvorizod  tiibci-culous  sputum.  It  may  be  trans- 
mitted Avith  the  kiss  of  the  mother  to  the  child,  from  husband  to  wife, 
or  wife  to  husband,  or  from  a  tuberculous  child  to  a  healthy  child, 
Not  infrequently  children  in  private  homes  or  institutions  become  in- 
fected by  tuberculous  nurses  or  maids.  The  greatest  vigilance  on  the 
part  of  family  or  institution  physician  is  necessary  to  overcome  this 
danger  of  infection  to  the  children  under  their  care. 

In  close  and  congested  quarters  there  arises  in  addition  the  danger 
from  droplet  infection.  Small  particles  of  saliva  containing  the  tuber- 
culous germs  are  expelled  during  the  cough  or  during  loud  and  ex- 
cited speaking.  Constant  exposure  to  the  contact  of  these  droplets 
may  lead  to  infection. 

The  general  and  principal  remedy  for  this,  the  greatest  of  all 
sources  of  infection  (sputum  and  droplet  infection)  from  man  to 
man.  can  be  expressed  in  one  little  sentence :  there  should  not  be  any 
uncared-for  tuberculous  individual.  Being  cared  for  means  of  course 
that  the  patient  is  submitted  to  the  hygienic  and  dietetic  treatment, 
and  constantly  watched  and  supervised  so  that  infecting  others  be- 
comes virtually  an  impossibility.  If  every  tuberculous  ease  of  today 
could  be  treated  and  watched,  he  could  not  infect  anybody  else  nor 
conld  the  room  he  occupies  or  the  house  he  lives  in  become  a  source 
of  danger  to  others  who  inhabit  it  after  him.  Thorough  disinfection 
of  rooms  and  house  would  follow  his  removal  and  tul^erculosis  would 
no  longer  be  a  house  disease. 

An  annual,  or  better  yet  semi-annual,  examination  of  every  indi- 
vidual in  every  community  would  lead  to  the  early  discovery  of  tuber- 
culosis in  any  member  of  the  community ;  his  being  taken  care  of  at 
the  right  time  and  in  the  right  place  would  eliminate  him  as  a  danger 
to  the  family,  and  tuberculosis  would  no  longer  be  a  family  disease. 

What  must  be  done  in  order  to  attain  this  goal  is  self-evident. 
Clinical  facilities  for  the  recognition  of  tuberculosis  in  every  com- 
munity arranged  by  physicians  in  cooperation  with  the  municipal 
authorities;  a  multiplication  of  such  institutions  as  dispensaries, 
serving  as  centers  or  clearing  houses  to  distribute  the  cases ;  pre- 
ventoria  to  which  to  send  suspected  cases ;  sanatoria  for  the  curable 
cases,  and  hospital-sanatoria  for  the  seemingly  hopeless  ones  for 
isolation ;  and  where  it  is  possible  sanatorium  treatment  at  home — 
these  are  our  most  efficacious  weapons,  up  to  this  date,  for  solving  this 
phase  of  the  tuberculosis  problem. 

But  to  send  the  tuberculous  patient,  particularly  a  laborer  or  a 
working  girl  or  woman,  for  a  six  months'  or  even  a  year's  sojourn  to 
a  sanatorium  is  not  enough  to  make  the  cure  lasting;  it  will  often 
demand  more  time.     Hence,  agricultural,  horticultural,  and  general 


GENERAL    INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  127 

industrial  colonies  should  be  attached  to  our  public  sanatoria.  It  is 
here  where  the  patient  has  the  best  possible  chance,  by  graded  labor 
still  under  medical  supervision,  to  make  his  cure  a  lasting  one. 

The  United  States  of  America  offers  a  welcome  to  all  the  people  of 
the  Avorld  and  an  opportunity  to  become  citizens  of  this  Republic. 
As  a  result,  this  country  stands  unique  as  the  land  with  the  greatest 
number  of  immigrants  arriving  annually  in  its  ports.  That  among 
these  many  are  tuberculous  and  many  more  are  strongly  predisposed 
to  the  disease  is  evident  and  well  known.  The  medical  problems  of 
immigration  are  so  important  a  subject  to  this  country  that  a  year 
ago  it  was  made  the  subject  of  discussion  at  the  annual  meeting  of 
the  American  Academy  of  Medicine  in  Atlantic  City.*  The  difficulty 
of  diagnosing  at  a  glance  a  tuberculous  invalid  in  the  first  or  second 
stage  was  there  brought  out.  It  often  takes  an  expert  a  half  or  three- 
quarters  of  an  hour  before  he  can  arrive  at  a  definite  conclusion,  and 
that  after  a  careful  examination  in  the  quiet  of  his  office.  The  rela- 
tively small  number  of  examining  physicians  at  Ellis  Island,  for  ex- 
ample, can  devote  but  very  few  minutes  to  each  of  the  thousands  of 
immigrants  who  pass  before  them  weekly  for  inspection.  The  ex- 
cellent appearance  of  some  tuberculous  immigrants,  because  of  a  ten 
days'  voyage,  invigorating  sea  air.  good  food  and  rest,  has  been  to  my 
mind  in  many  instances  the  reason  of  the  non-discovery  of  invalids  in 
quite  advanced  stages.  When  they  have  been  admitted  to  this  coun- 
try, a  few  weeks  of  hard  work  in  the  ditches  or  in  the  sweat  shops,  with 
nights  spent  in  overcrowded  tenements  or  unclean  or  crowded  lodging 
houses,  usually  suffice  to  bring  about  an  exacerbation  of  the  disease. 
The  strain,  the  struggle  for  life,  the  new  environments,  the  unac- 
customed food,  and  perhaps  also  some  nostalgia  and  disappointment, 
likewise  help  to  turn,  in  a  very  short  time,  an  incipient  case  into  an 
invalid  with  open  tuberculosis,  and  thus  a  new  center  of  infection  is 
formed.  All  this  accounts  for  the  great  prevalence  of  tuberculosis 
among  the  laboring  classes  who  have  come  to  us  from  foreign  shores 
only  relatively  recently.  A  goodly  number  of  them  return  to  their 
native  land,  particularly  the  Italians,  when  they  realize  that  their  dis- 
ease does  not  permit  them  to  struggle  as  they  must  if  they  wish  to  re- 
main here.  I  have  been  told  that  there  are  villages  in  Italy  where 
tuberculosis  has  become  most  prevalent  because  of  the  return  of 
those  emigrants  and  because  their  methods  of  life  result  in  infection 
of  others. 


*"Medieal  Problems  of  Immigration,"  being-  the  papers  and  their  dis- 
cussion presented  at  the  XXXVII  Annual  Meeting  of  the  American  Academy 
of  Medicine,  held  at  Atlantic  City,  Jime  1.  1912.  Easton,  Pa.,  American 
Acad,  of  Med.  Press,  1913. 


128  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

Some  rotiini  volimtarily  to  their  native  homes,  but  you  perhaps 
are  not  aware  that  we  have  a  deportation  law*  which,  as  a  good 
American  I  am  sorry  to  admit,  seems  unnecessarily  harsh  and  un- 
justified, founded  as  it  is  on  an  unscientific  basis.  It  is  to  the  effect 
that  any  iimnigrant  who  has  become  a  public  charge  in  a  hospital  or 
other  institution  and  is  found  to  be  tuberculous,  can  be  deported  even 
after  a  residence  of  three  years  if  in  the  opinion. of  the  examining 
physician  he  had  contracted  the  disease  prior  to  his  landing  on  these 
shores.  During  the  year  of  1911,  about  1,500  of  such  tuberculous 
aliens  were  referred  to  the  State  Board  of  Charities  for  deportation. 
On  the  strength  of  this  law  the  deportation  is  done  at  state  expense. 

With  all  due  respect  to  the  framers  of  this  law,  I  believe  it  abso- 
lutely impossible  for  the  most  skilled  diagnostician,  upon  examination 
of  a  tuberculous  chest,  to  state  the  duration  of  the  disease  with  even 
approximate  certainty.  A  declaration  that  an  individual  had  tuber- 
culosis for  a  definite  period  of  time,  based  on  a  physical  examination 
or  even  on  the  history  given  by  the  patient,  must  necessarily  be  guess- 
work. I  know  of  a  case  of  deportation  v^hich  v^as  declared  legal  upon 
the  statement  of  a  young  physician  to  whom  a  tuberculous  patient  had 
admitted  that  he  had  a  cough  a  little  less  than  three  years  ago,  prior 
to  his  coming  to  this  country. 

How  many  thousands  of  us  have  a  latent  tuberculosis  which  has 
never  been  discovered  and  which  may  never  cause  us  any  trouble  if 
we  continue  to  live  carefully  and  hygieuically !  Should  w^e,  however, 
be  submitted  suddenly  to  a  life  of  hard  physical  struggle,  be  trans- 
ported into  unhygienic  environments,  be  underfed  and  badly  housed, 
the  development  of  the  tuberculous  trouble  would  be  almost  certain 
to  take  place,  and  in  a  much  shorter  time  than  three  years.  One  must 
have  witnessed  such  a  deportation  in  order  to  comprehend  its  mean- 
ing, particularly  when  one  is  not  at  all  certain  that  the  case  might 
not  be  one  which  developed  right  here  because  of  hard  w^ork  and  pri- 
vation. 

And  now.  to  the  most  important  question  of  all :  what  can  be  done 
to  prevent  tuberculous  invalids,  likely  to  become  a  burden  to  the 
community,  from  entering  the  United  States,  only  perhaps  to  be  de- 
ported after  a  sojourn  of  one,  two,  or  three  years?  Tuberculosis  must 
be  considered  a  world  problem,  a  problem  for  every  civilized  nation. 
Let  European  governments  understand  that  they  must  take  care  of 
their  own  tuberculous  people  as  we  take  care  of  ours,  and  that  in  the 
end,  by  united  efforts,  it  may  be  possible  to  conquer  the  white  plague 
in  all  countries. 


*  Immigration  Act  of  Feb.  20,  1907. 


GENERAL   INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  129 

To  ascertain  his  freedom  from  tuberculosis  every  prospective  emi- 
grant should  be  examined  by  two  competent  medical  men,  one  ap- 
pointed by  his  home  government  and  one  by  the  steamship  company 
which  is  to  transport  him  to  this  country.  A  certificate  showing  free- 
dom from  tuberculosis,  signed  by  these  two  medical  men,  should  be  in 
the  possession  of  every  emigrant  allowed  to  come  to  these  shores.  An 
individual  discovered  to  be  afflicted  with  this  disease  should  be  re- 
turned to  the  care  of  the  authorities  of  the  city  or  village  from  which 
he  came  with  the  diagnosis  and  recommendation  for  treatment.  Ex- 
ceptions can  and  should  be  made  in  the  case  of  an  individual  with 
ample  means  who  is  simply  visiting,  or  seeking  to  recuperate  his 
health  by  a  change  of  climate,  or  desirous  of  entering  an  American 
sanatorium  for  treatment.  To  avoid  misuse  or  fraudulent  use  of  the 
physician's  certificate,  a  photograph  should  be  taken  at  the  time  of  the 
examination  in  the  home  port  and  attached  to  the  certificate.  Or, 
since  a  photograph  could  be  removed  and  another  one  substituted 
on  the  certificate,  I  even  go  so  far  as  to  suggest  that  it  would  be  well 
to  have  the  finger-print  taken  for  identification.  This  is  the  most  ac- 
curate and  scientific  method  known  for  such  purposes. 

The  laws  relating  to  deportation  should  be  changed  to  the  effect 
that  if  the  holder  of  any  such  certificate,  or  any  immigrant  develops 
tuberculosis  within  six  months  to  one  year  from  the  date  of  his  ar- 
rival here  and  becomes  a  charge  to  the  community,  he  shall  be  deported 
to  the  port  w^hence  he  came.  The  expenses  for  this  deportation  should 
be  borne  by  the  steamship  company  who  brought  the  immigrant  to 
our  shores  and  not  by  the  State  Board  of  Charities.  Whether  Euro- 
pean governments  should  desire  to  keep  doubtful  cases  under 'ob- 
servation a  few  weeks  in  cooperation  with  the  steamship  companies  in 
order  to  avoid  possible  mistakes  in  diagnosis,  or  increase  the  ex- 
amining boards  by  one  or  two  more  experienced  diagnosticians,  is  a 
matter  for  the  foreign  governments  to  decide.  There  is  no  question 
but  that  the  more  careful  these  examinations  are  at  the  foreign  ports, 
the  fewer  the  cases  of  deportation  that  wall  ensue. 

The  suggestion  has  been  made  that  physicians  of  the  United  States 
Public  Health  Service  should  be  stationed  at  the  important  points  of 
departure  in  Europe  so  that  each  e'migrant  can  be  thoroughly  ex- 
amined, and  those  entitled  to  a  clean  bill  of  health  be  allowed  to  take 
passage.  I  question  whether  the  international  law  w^ould  sanction 
such  procedure.  Secondly,  there  are  too  many  minor  points  from 
which  emigrants  could  take  passage  and  escape  the  United  States  gov- 
ernment physician's  examination.  It  would  be  of  greater  value  for 
foreign  governments  and  steamship  companies  to  make  it  known  that 
if  a  man  expects  to  stay  in  the  United  States,  he  must  not  become  a 

(6) 


130  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

public  charge;  that  he  must  be  physically,  mentally,  and  morally 
sound.  With  such  a  policy  and  the  additional  examination  in  the 
manner  above  outlined,  the  United  States  government  will  be  less 
burdened  with  the  care  of  tuberculous  aliens  who,  uncared-for,  are  a 
constant  menace  to  the  communit3^ 

An  interesting  suggestion  in  relation  to  this  subject  was  made 
at  the  recent  International  Tuberculosis  Congress  in  Rome  by  Dr. 
Antonio  Stella,  of  New  York.  It  was  to  the  effect  that  every  emigrant 
should  be  insured  against  tuberculosis,  the  cost  of  insurance  to  be  ad- 
ded to  the  price  of  the  steamship  ticket,  the  policy  entitling  the  bearer 
to  return  transportation  and  free  treatment  in  a  sanatorium,  in  the 
event  of  his  contracting  tuberculosis  within  a  specified  time.  This 
suggestion  was  presented  in  the  form  of  a  resolution,  which  was 
unanimously  adopted,  but  whether  or  not  it  will  result  in  any  imme- 
diate or  definite  action  I  am  not  prepared  to  say.    . 

The  suggestion  of  Doctor  Stella  leads  me  to  the  conclusion  of  my 
paper,  namely,  that  it  is  my  firm  conviction  that  unless  we  have  a 
general  insurance  against  accidents,  old  age,  and  disease,  including 
tuberculosis,  for  every  individual  earning  less  than  $1,200  a  year,  the 
tuberculosis  problem  will  never  be  solved.  I  realize,  of  course,  that 
there  are  other  factors  which  must  be  considered  as  contributory  to- 
ward the  solution  of  »the  tuberculosis  problem.  I  refer,  of  course,  to  the 
betterment  of  the  social  conditions  of  the  masses  in  general.  That 
this  may  occur  soon  is  our  devout  prayer,  but  for  the  present  let  us 
bear  in  mind  that  we  still  lose  annually  in  the  United  States  well-nigh 
200,000  lives  from  tuberculosis  and  that  we  have  among  us  eight  times 
as  inany  tuberculous  individuals  in  the  various  stages  of  invalidism. 
I  venture  to  say  that  not  one-tenth  of  these  1,600,000  are  under  proper 
care  in  institutions  or  at  home. 

Yet  to  prevent  infection  and  to  assure  a  cure,  the  tuberculous  in- 
dividual must  be  under  careful  medical  supervision.  Because  of  the 
widespread  propaganda  of  enlightenment  during  recent  years  regard- 
ing general  hygiene,  prevention  of  tuberculosis,  and  the  importance  of 
the  early  discovery  of  the  disease,  a  great  deal  of  good  has  been  ac- 
complished and  I  urge  continuation  and  increase  of  proper  propa- 
ganda. Education  has  done  a  great  deal  already,  and  the  well-to-do 
classes  particularly  now  frequently  seek  timely  aid;  but  not  so  the 
poor  man  who  knows  that  very  often '  the  discovery  of  his  disease 
means  the  loss  of  his  job.  The  result  is  that  he  will  hide  his  condition 
as  long  as  possible,  infecting  in  the  meantime  a  goodly  number  of  his 
fellow-beings.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  he  could  Imow  that  by  reason  of 
his  insurance  he  could  enter  a  sanatorium  the  moment  that  his  dis- 
ease was  discovered  and  receive  the  best  possible  chance  of  being 


GENERAL   INDIVIDUAL,    HYGIENE  131 

cured,  he  would  not  hesitate  to  be  examined.  Of  course,  provision  for 
the  maintenance  of  his  family  in  the  event  of  his  being  the  only  bread 
winner,  should  be  a  part  of  his  insurance  policy. 

In  summarizing,  let  me  repeat  then  that  in  spite  of  all  our  efforts 
we  are,  as  just  stated,  still  losing  about  200,000  people  annually 
from  tuberculosis  in  the  United  States.  Of  these,  I  venture  to  say, 
50,000  are  tuberculous  children.  Estimating  the  average  duration  of 
life  of  the  50,000  children  who  die  annually  from  tuberculosis  in  the 
United  States  at  about  seven  and  one-half  years,  and  figuring  the  cost 
to  parents  and  the  community  for  each  life  as  only  $200  per  annum, 
the  financial  loss  thus  represented  is  $75,000,000.  These  children  have 
died  before  they  have  been  able  to  give  any  return  to  their  parents 
and  the  community.  What  a  useless  sacrifice  of  life  and  of  money! 
How  much  needless  sorrow  and  heartaches  caused  to  parents! 

Besides  all  this,  many  a  tuberculous  mother  has  had  her  life  short- 
ened because  she  bore  one  of  these  children.  According  to  the  report 
of  the  Commissioner  of  Education,  there  are  at  this  time  about 
20,000,000  children  attending  public  schools  in  the  United  States. 
Placing  the  proportion  of  tuberculosis  among  them  as  low  as  only 
three  per  cent,  would  make  600,000  children  afflicted  with  tuberculosis 
who  are  at  this  time  in  urgent  need  of  open-air  instruction  or  sana- 
torium treatment.  According  to  available  statistics,  we  can  at  present 
provide  instruction  in  open-air  classes  for  about  2,000  tuberculous 
children.  The  anemic,  the  nervous,  and  the  children  suffering  from 
cardiac  diseases,  who  are  in  equally  great  need  of  outdoor  instruction, 
are  not  included  in  the  three  per  cent. 

The  150,000  adults  who  die  annually  of  tuberculosis  have  at  th'e 
average  been  ill  and  incapacitated  for  work  for  at  least  two  years,  and 
figuring  their  cost  to  the  commonwealth  (either  to  municipality  or  in- 
dividual family)  at  only  $1,000  per  year,  would  mean  $300,000,000 
uselessly  spent  in  caring  for  people  afflicted  with  a  disease  that  might 
have  been  prevented  and  cured.  Of  these  150,000  adults,  a  large  num- 
ber have  been  married  and  in  many  instances  leave  either  widows  or 
orphans  depending  upon  public  support.  The  annual  maintenance  of 
these  widows  and  orphans  must,  of  course,  also  run  into  the  millions. 
"We  have  thus  an  annual  expenditure  of  well-nigh  $400,000,000.  Yet 
this  by  no  means  represents  all  the  actual  loss  to  the  community  from 
tuberculosis.  Our  social  economists  tell  us  that  between  the  ages  of 
16  and  45  every  adult  life  ^\dth  an  average  earning  capacity  repre- 
sents an  asset  of  $5,000  to  the  community.  Now,  as  two-thirds  of  all 
deaths  from  tuberculosis  in  adults  occur  between  these  ages,  we  have 
an  additional  loss  of  $500,000,000  to  the  community.  Thus,  the  actual 
direct  and  indirect  loss  caused  bv  death  from  tuberculosis  in  the 


132  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

United. States  amounts  annually  to  something  like  $900,000,000,  and 
this  amount  we  spend  on  a  preventable  and  curable  disease! 

We  nnist  also  bear  in  mind  the  fact  that  we  have  at  least  eight 
times  150,000  tuberculous  adults,  for  it  is  well  known  that  for  every 
individual  who  dies  of  tuberculosis  there  are  eight  living  with  the  dis- 
ease, still  up  and  about,  and  the  majority  of  them  with  an  oppor- 
tunity of  spreading  infection.  Besides  these,  there  are  about  400,000 
tuberculous  children.  By  reason  of  lack  of  open-air  schools,  preven- 
toria,  sanatoria,  special  hospitals,  and  horticultural,  agricultural  and 
industrial  colonies,  the  vast  majority  of  these  1,200,000  tuberculous 
individuals  continue  the  chain  of  infection  and  keep  up  our  fearful 
morbidity  and  mortality  at  an  expense  of  $900,000,000  per  annum. 

Surely,  the  time  has  come  for  dealing  more  rationally  with. at  least 
some  phases  of  the  tuberculosis  problem  in  this  country.  And  what 
are  we  to  do  first?  We  must  at  once,  throughout  this  vast  country, 
strive  to  have  no  uncared-for  tuberculous  patients.  To  this  end,  in- 
stitutions for  the  treatment  and  care  of  the  tuberculous  who  cannot  be 
cared  for  at  home  without  endangering  others,  should  be  multiplied 
by  state  and  municipal  appropriations  and  private  philanthropy. 

We  must  not  be  content  with  merely  sending  the  tuberculous  indi- 
vidual to  a  sanatorium  for  6  or  even  12  months  until  the  disease  is  ar- 
rested or  his  condition  improved  and  then  allow  him  to  return  to  his 
former  deplorable  unhygienic  home  environments  or  to  resume  his 
former  occupation  under  the  equally  deplorable  unsanitary  conditions, 
which  were  probably  responsible  for  his  contracting  the  disease  origi- 
nally. Agricultural,  horticultural,  and  industrial  colonies,  where  the 
sanatorium  graduate  may  have  an  opportunity  to  go  for  a  year  or 
more  to  earn  a  fair  wage  and  at  the  same  time  be  given  a  chance  to 
make  himself  stronger  and  more  resistant  against  a  new  outbreak  or 
invasion  of  the  disease  are  as  essential  as  sanatoria  or  special  hospi- 
tals. Without  making  the  arrest  or  the  cure  of  the  disease  lasting  by 
such  judicious  after-care,  the  millions  of  dollars  spent  for  sanatorium 
maintenance  are  a  sheer  waste  of  money. 

Even  the  smallest  children,  if  foimd  tuberculous,  should  receive 
institutional  treatment  when  the  parents  are  poor,  and  whenever  pos- 
sible the  mother  should  be  allowed  to  remain  with  the  child.  For 
larger  children  afflicted  with  pulmonary  tuberculosis  we  should  have 
inland  sanatoria  with  schools  attached  to  them.  For  children  afflicted 
with  glandular,  joint  and  bone  tuberculosis,  we  should  have  seaside 
sanatoria.  Some  of  our  discarded  battleships  or  cruisers  may  be  util- 
ized for  this  purpose,  instead  of  being  sold  as  junk  or  made  to  serve 
as  targets. 

Open-air  schools,  and  as  much  open-air  instruction  as  possible  in 


GENERAL   INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  133 

kindergarten,  school  and  college,  should  be  the  rule;  indoor  instruc- 
tion should  be  the  exception.  There  should  be  no  home  lessons  for  the 
younger  children.  Love  for  life  in  the  open  air  should  be  inculcated 
in  young  and  old  throughout  the  country. 

There  should  be  a  sufficient  number  of  public  parks  and  play- 
grounds in  our  great  cities  to  counteract  congestion  and  reduce  it  to  a 
minimum.  .The  roofs  of  all  city  houses  should  be  utilized  to  give  more 
open-air  life  to  the  inhabitants  by  makin»  them  into  roof  gardens, 
recreation  centers,  or  playgrounds.  Outdoor  sleeping  should  be  en- 
couraged whenever  feasible. 

Medical  under-  and  post-graduate  schools  should  give  special 
courses  in  early  diagnosis  of  tuberculosis,  and  instruction  in  how  to  in- 
augurate efficient  social  service  for  hospital  cases  afflicted  with  tuber- 
culosis. 

Early  recognition  of  the  disease  should  be  facilitated  for  all  classes 
by  universal  semi-annual  examinations,  by  private  physicians  for  the 
well-to-do,  and  by  publicly  appointed  diagnosticians  for  the  poor. 
The  federal  and  municipal  authorities  and  the  employers  of  large 
bodies  of  men  and  women  should  set  the  example  by  enforcing  these 
semi-annual  examinations  and  should  further  what  is  commonly  known 
as  welfare  work. 

Besides  popular  anti-tuberculosis  and  general  hygienic  educa- 
tion, demonstrations  by  permanent  exhibits,  distribution  of  literature, 
lectures  in  schools,  colleges,  workshops,  mills,  factories,  mines,  stores 
and  offices,  the  examination  of  every  tuberculous  adult  should  be  ac- 
companied by  personal  instruction  in  how  to  prevent  infecting  others. 
Anti-spitting  ordinances  should  be  enforced,  but  receptacles  in  public 
places  for  those  who  must  spit  should  also  be  provided.  The  man 
advertising  fake  cures  for  consumption  should  be  treated  as  a  mur- 
derous criminal,  for  such  he  is. 

There  should  be  state  insurance  against  tuberculosis,  so  that  the 
man  without  means  may  be  assured  that  even  if  he  is  found  to  be 
tuberculous  he  or  his  family  will  not  be  in  want.  Until,  as  in  Ger- 
many, state  insurance  companies  have  their  own  sanatoria,  our  private 
insurance  companies  should  be  permitted  to  establish  and  maintain 
sanatoria  and  special  hospitals  for  their  tuberculous  employees  and 
policy  holders. 

Other  sources  of  tuberculous  infection,  as  for  example  from  cattle 
or  hogs,  should  be  dealt  with  by  federal  laws  since  state  laws,  by 
reason  of  their  diversity  and  often  inadequacy,  have  proved  inefficient. 
All  milk,  if  not  coming  from  tuberculin-tested  cattle,  should  be  thor- 
oughly and  scientifically,  and  not  merely  commercially,  sterilized. 

The  influx  of  tuberculous  immigrants  likely  to  become  a  burden  to 


KU  FIKST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    KACE    BETTERMENT 

till'  coiiiimniity  should  be  i^revcntt'd  by  conipclliiiy-  all  slt'aiiishij)  eoni- 
])aiii('s  to  assure  a  clean  bill  of  health  for  every  immigrant  they  bring 
to  these  shores  and  to  insure  ever}^  immigrant  against  tuberculosis'. 
The  policy  should  entitle  the  bearer  to  return  transportation  and  free 
treatment  in  a  sanatorium  in  the  event  of  his  contracting  tuberculosis 
within  a  specified  time.  The  cost  of  the  insurance  could  be  added  to 
the  price  of  the  steamship  ticket. 

Procreation  of  the  tuberculous  sliouUI  be  prohibited  by  law  and  the 
prevention  of  it  taught  to  every  tuberculous  adult.  The  individual 
wilfully  violating  this  law  should  be  punished  in  a  way  to  make  the 
repetition  of  the  offense  impossible. 

The  predisposing  factors,  such  as  child  labor,  sweatshop  labor,  too 
long  working  hours  for  men  and  women,  bad  housing  in  tenements, 
apartments,  lodging  houses  arid  hotels  in  city  and  country,  including 
farm  houses,  boarding  schools,  orphan  asylums,  and  other  institu- 
tions housing  many  people,  must  be  combated  by  rational  laws  and 
their  strictest  enforcement.  The  same  rigor  should  be  applied  to  laws 
concerning  proper  ventilation  and  sanitation  in  workshops,  factories, 
stores,  federal,  municipal  and  private  offices,  and  in  public  convey- 
ances. 

Wherever  and  whenever  practical,  the  home  of  the  married  Ameri- 
can workman  should  be  a  detached  single  family  house. 

Maternity  and  convalescent  homes  should  be  provided  in  every  city 
and  town  so  that  the  laboring  woman,  arising  from  childbirth  or  the 
laboring  man  or  woman  recovering  from  a  surgical  or  a  general  medi- 
cal disease,  can  recuperate,  regain  strength,  and  thus  not  be  susceptible 
to  tuberculosis  on  returning  to  their  daily  vocations. 

Tuberculosis  among  the  Indians,  Negroes,  Chinese  and  Japanese 
must  receive  special  attention  on  the  part  of  our  federal  government 
with  the  view  to  combating  the  morbidity  and  mortality  from  tuber- 
culosis in  these  races  (particularly  in  the  Negroes  and  Indians)  in  this 
country,  which  is  three  times  higher  than  that  from  tuberculosis  in 
the  white  race.  Nearlj^  all  our  reformatories,  prisons  and  other  penal 
institutions,  including  detention  prisons,  must  be  reconstructed  or  re- 
modeled, cells  and  workrooms  made  sanitary  and  more  outdoor  life 
and  better  food  given  to  the  prisoners  if  a  few  years  of  penal  ser- 
vitude is  not  to  be  equivalent  to  a  death  sentence  by  tuberculosis.  No 
tuberculous  prisoner  should  be  discharged,  unless  he  is  sent  to  a  sana- 
toriuni  so  that  when  free  he  may  also  be  well. 

Malnutrition  and  the  underfeeding  of  the  masses,  which  is  so  great 
a  predisposing  factor  to  tuberculosis,  should  be  combated  by  beginning 
with  having  few^er  artificially  and  more  breast-fed;  by  instructing 
ignorant  mothers  how  to  feed  infants  and  little  children ;   by  provid- 


GENERxVL   INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  135 

ing  simple  but  substantial  school  luncheons  for  all  school  children  at 
cost ;  by  education  of  the  mothers  in  economic  housekeeping,  cooking, 
and  food  values ;  and  by  having  eating  places  for  the  great  army  of 
unmarried  laborers  after  the  example  of  the  German  Volkskiichen 
where  people  can  receive  good,  wholesome  food  at  reasonable  prices; 
by  legislative  and  philanthropic  endeavors  to  make  farming  more 
profitable  and  more  attractive,  and  by  a  wiser  statesmanship  whereby 
the  cost  of  living  may  be  reduced  for  the  entire  people. 

Alcoholism  and  other  excesses  predisposing  to  tuberculosis  should 
be  prevented  by  education  along  rational  temperance  lines  and  wise 
and  judicious  legislation. 

The  eradication  of  tuberculosis  as  a  disease  of  the  masses — with  all 
the  physical,  mental,  and  moral  suffering,  and  the  millions  in  money 
now  sacrificed  largely  in  vain — is  nevertheless  possible ;  but  I  em- 
phasize once  more,  that  it  is  not  possible  unless  every  tuberculous  in- 
dividual, in  no  matter  what  stage  of  the  disease,  is  properly  cared  for 
at  home  or  in  an  institution  and  all  the  predisposing  causes  removed. 
All  the  measures  to  attain  this  end  must  of  course  be  inspired,  neither 
by  a  blind  phthisiophobia  (an  exaggerated  fear  of  tuberculosis)  nor 
by  an  hysterical  phthisiophilia  (allowing  the  tuberculous  person  to  do 
as  he  pleases  because  of  our  sympathy  or  love  for  him).  The  intelli- 
gent cooperation  of  the  tuberculous  patient  is  as  much  needed  in  the 
solution  of  these  various  problems  as  that  of  the  statesman,  physician, 
philanthropist,  and  the  people  at  large. 

The  various  measures  which  I  have  ventured  to  suggest  and  which 
are  described  in  detail  in  my  paper,  must  never  be  allowed  to  become 
a  crusade  against  the  tuberculous  individual,  who  is  our  friend  and 
brother,  but  for  his  sake  and  our  sakes  we  must  make  henceforth  a 
more  rational  and  determined  fight  against  the  disease  ''tuberculosis," 
which  is  our  most  costly  enemy  and  the  most  deadly  foe  of  mankind. 

Of  course,  there  are  certain  social  reasons  for  the  prevalence  of 
tuberculosis  which  are  also  responsible  for  some  of  our  other  social  and 
physical  ills.  Among  them  I  must  mention  first  the  utter  ignorance 
of  the  vast  majority  of  people  who  enter  into  matrimony  of  the  re- 
sponsibilities they  assume  as  fathers  and  mothers  of  the  coming  gener- 
ation. Some  great  philanthropist  or  some  wise  government  should 
take  the  initiative  and  establish  schools  where  the  responsibilities  and 
obligation  of  father-  and  motherhood  would  be  taught.  To  these 
schools  all  candidates  for  marriage  should  be  admitted  gratuitous^.  A 
course  of  one  or  two  months  would  suffice  and  there  should  be  night 
lessons  as  well  as  day  instructions  so  that  those  occupied  during  the' 
day  may  also  have  an  opportunity  to  learn.  These  courses  should  in- 
clude family  hygiene,  home  hygiene,  eugenics,  the  science  of  raising 


L36  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BKTTERMENT 

('liiMrcii  [)hysic;ill\-.  iiiciitally  nnd  iiiorjilly  licallliy,  jsiul  surli  iiulividiial 
instructions  for  man  and  wonuin  as  the  case  may  demand,  all  the  work 
beino'  directed  towards  enabling  the  future  family  to  live  a  normal  and 
happy  lift\ 

Next,  1  nuist  refer  to  many  of  llu'  abnonnal  industrial  conditions 
of  our  day  and  the  soeial  injustice  arising  therefrom — our  strikes,  the 
lack  of  employment  in  some  districts  and  the  lack  of  workers  in  others, 
(>tc.  These  conditions  must  be  readjusted,  our  deserted  farms  must 
be  repopulated  from  the  congested  cities,  the  lives  of  the  masses  must 
be  made  happier,  larger  and  fuller.  When  all  this  is  realized,  it  will 
not  only  help  in  the  solution  of  the  tuberculosis  problem,  but  will  be  a 
mighty  factor  in  bringing  about  what  this  Conference  has  been  called 
to  consider — a  genuine  race  betterment.  But  let  us  not  think  that 
this  will  come  about  unless  we  all  believe  in  and  work  for  a  larger  love 
of  humanity  and  for  more  social  justice  and  personal  service  to  our 
less  fortunate  brothers  and  sisters.  Someone  has  said  that  service  to 
man  is  the  highest  service  to  God.    I  believe  in  this  with  all  my  heart. 

Discussion. 

Women's  Work  in  the  Open  Air 

Professor  Robert  Ja^ies  Sprague,  Massachusetts  Agineultural  College,  Am- 
herst, Mass. 

I  have  listened  to  a  good  many  remedies  for  race  suicide  and  race 
decline,  etc.  Some  of  them  I  believe  in  and  some  I  do  not,  but  it  seems 
to  me  that  the  most  vital  thing  that  has  to  do  with  race  degeneracy  in 
the  age  in  which  we  live  has  not  been  put  forth.  That  sounds  like  a  re- 
former, doesn  't  it  ?  The  Almighty  somehow  made  us  so  that  we  needed 
to  breathe  air  and  he  has  not  yet  made  any  substitute  that  we  have 
found,  and  the  most  of  our  racial  decline,  physical  decline,  is  due 
largely  to  shutting  off  of  air  in  one  form  and  another.  There  is  one 
other  great  fallacy  that  our  race  has  adopted.  Our  race  does  not 
permit  any  woman  of  high  class  to  do  a  stroke  of  economic  work  in 
the  open  air,  and  any  race  that  adopts  that  policy,  in  my  opinion,  in 
the  end  perishes.  A  woman  may  work  herself  into  indigestion,  con- 
sumption and  everything  else  in  the  house.  She  may  pull  pansies  in 
the  yard,  she  may  play  golf,  she  may  motor,  but  she  must  not  labor  in 
the  open  air.  Go  to  the  great  dynamic  races  that  are  multiplying  so 
that  the  rest  of  the  world  does  not  know  what  to  do  with  them,  and 
w^hat  is  the  great  dynamic  point  of  those  races?  It  is  free  work  in 
the  open  air  for  both  men  and  women,  and  when  we  get  that,  we  will 
get  such  wholesome,  strong  bodies  that  many  of  these  great  problems 
we  have  been  discussing  will  simply  disappear  because  they  won't 
exist.    I  just  wished  to  bring  out  that  one  idea.    It  seems  to  me  that 


GENERxVL   INDIVIDU.VL    HYGIENE  137 

both  men  and  women  of  our  race  have  got  to  get  to  work  in  the  open 
air  and  the  extent  to  which  we  can  do  that  will  help  to  solve  every  one 
of  these  great  problems  we  have  before  us. 


THE  PREVEINTTION  OE  AUTERIOSCLEROSIS 

Louis  Faugeres  Bishop,  M.D.,  Clinical  Professor  of  Heart  and  Circulatory 
Diseases,  Fordham  University  School  of  Medicine,  New  York  City ;  Physi- 
cian to  the  Lincoln  Hospital;  Consultant  in  Cardiovascular  Diseases, 
Mercy  Hospital,  Hempstead. 

Nothing  can  help  race  betterment  more  than  the  prolongation  of 
the  efficiency  and  life  of  men  and  women  over  middle  age,  who,  having 
satisfied  the  personal  ambition  of  youth,  can  devote  themselves  to  the 
public  good. 

Never  in  the  history  of  the  world  has  the  study  of  arteriosclerosis 
assumed  so  great  importance  as  at  the  present  time,  because  never 
before  has  this  disease  played  so  important  a  part  in  insidiously  under- 
mining efficiency  and  shortening  the  lives  of  the  most  valuable  workers. 

I  am  not  in  a  position  to  make  a  comparative  survey  of  the  fre- 
quency of  this  disease,  because,  with  heart  troubles,  it  covers  the 
entire  field  of  my  practice,  but  ijisurance  men  tell  me  that  the  mor- 
tality from  the  group  of  disorders  that  is  covered  by  this  name  claims 
a  number  of  victims  that  is  more  than  double  what  it  was  thirty 
years  ago.  In  1910,  one  hundred  thousand  persons  died  of  circulatory 
disease  in  this  country,  and  I  will  venture  the  statement  that  there 
is  not  one  of  my  hearers  that  has  not  lost  a  friend  around  sixty  years 
of  age  during  the  past  year  from  heart  trouble,  due,  primarily,  to 
arteriosclerosis.  "While  this  has  been  recognized,  but  little  has  been 
done  in  the  way  of  prevention. 

There  are  several  things  that  need  to  be  done:  We  need  a  clear 
definition  of  the  disease.  We  need  to  become  dissatisfied  with  the 
enumeration  of  indefinite  causes,  and  we  need  an  educated  public 
opinion  that  will  shield  the  earnest  worker  in  the  field  of  hygiene  and 
dietetics  from  the  thoughtlessly  applied  epithets  of  those  who,  seeking 
a  refuge  behind  a  bad  prognosis,  have  no  etficient  regimen  of  their 
own  to  suggest. 

As  to  definition,  arteriosclerosis  is  the  most  improperly  named  of 
all  diseases,  and  yet  no  one  has  suggested  a  better  designation  up  to 
the  present  time.  While  it  receives  its  name  from  the  blood-vessels, 
which  are  often  conspicuously  involved,  it  is  in  fact  a  disease  of  the 
whole  body,  characterized  by  irritation,  and  finally,  destruction  of 


138  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

cells  in  all  parts  of  the  body,  the  destroyed  cells  being  replaced,  ac- 
cording to  the  law  of  pathology,  by  connective  tissue. 

For  many  years,  there  was  discussion  as  to  whether  this  disease 
began  in  the  blood-vessels,  in  the  heart  or  in  the  kidneys,  and  the 
Coincident  involvement  of  the  lungs,  liver  and  digestive  organs  was 
noted.  According  to  the  point  of  view,  it  was  called  "heart  disease," 
" Bright 's  disease"  and  "autointoxication." 

In  this  instance,  everyone  was  right,  and  everyone  was  wrong,  for 
all  the  orgxms  mentioned  were  indeed  involved,  and  the  disease  might 
be  named  as  well  for  one  as  the  other. 

That  it  is  not  primarily  disease  of  the  arteries  is  sho\^^i  by  the 
now  familiar  fact  that  the  disease  may  run  its  course  with  only  slight 
changes  in  the  blood-vessels ;  or,  the  changes  in  the  blood-vessels  may 
be  very  marked  and  the  disease  itself  have  but  little  effect  on  the  life 
of  the  sufferer. 

The  arteries,  being  of  universal  distribution  and  bearing  much 
of  the  functional  stress  of  the  disease,  may  be  granted  the  honor  of 
giving  it  a  name,  and,  from  henceforth,  the  disease  will  be  known  as 
"arteriosclerosis"  until  such  time  as  its  fundamental  nature  is  thor- 
oughly understood  and  the  underlying  error  of  metabolism  clearly 
designated. 

It  would  seem  that  the  disease  originates  somewhat  in  this  man- 
ner: A  person  pursuing  the  even  tenor  of  his  way,  being  fed  and 
nourished  on  the  usual  mixed  diet  and  resisting  successfully  the  usual 
slight  accidental  infections,  is  some  day  overtaken  by  some  event  that 
alters  the  chemical  functions  of  his  cells.  This  event  may  be  a  great 
nervous  strain ;  it  may  be  an  infectious  disease  or  surgical  infection  ; 
or,  it  may  be  some  form  of  acute  food  poisoning. 

From  that  time  on,  the  cells  of  this  person's  body  are  sensitive 
to  particular  proteins  that  reach  these  cells  from  the  alimentary  tract 
or  from  the  bodies  of  bacteria  originating  in  some  focus  of  infection. 
So  long  as  the  supply  of  the  offending  protein  continues,  the  irritation 
of  the  cells  is  kept  up,  leading  to  destruction  and  progressive  sclerosis. 
Impairment  of  function  follows  and  a  greater  and  greater  demand 
upon  the  circulatory  organs,  and  eventually,  the  development  of  the 
picture  of  chronic  Bright 's  disease,  heart  disease,  apoplexy  or  pre- 
senility. 

If,  however,  at  any  time  it  is  possible  to  remove  from  the  body 
the  offending  protein,  the  irritation  ceases,  compensation  is  developed, 
and  the  man  is  capable  of  being  well. 

The  prevention  of  arteriosclerosis  on  these  premises  must  depend, 
primarily,  upon  the  avoidance  of  sensitizing  events,  such  as  periods 
of  great  stress  and  worry,  infections,  acute  food  poisoning,  and  the 


GENERAL    INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  139 

neglect  of  foci  of  infection.  Secondarily,  upon  the  study  of  food  re- 
lations of  individuals  from  time  to  time,  and  the  institution  of  a 
strict  regimen  when,  on  account  of  changes  in  blood-pressure,  pain  in 
the  region  of  the  heart  on  exertion,  or  because  of  nervous  depression 
and  loss  of  efficiency,  arteriosclerosis  is  suspected. 

The  great  fact  that  must  always  be  faced  by  the  student  of  arterio- 
sclerosis is,  that  it  is  a  disease  without  symptoms.  In  actual  practice, 
sufferers  from  this  condition  seldom  come  under  treatment  until  it 
has  lasted  for  from  three  to  fifteen  years,  and,  even  then,  they  usually 
come  because  a  life  insurance  man  who  has  examined  them  or  a  physi- 
cian who  has  treated  them  for  some  other  disease,  has  discovered 
arteriosclerosis. 

Arteriosclerosis  is  seldom  the  result  of  a  single  cause,  though  most 
investigations  reveal  a  sensitizing  event.  The  effect  of  this  sensitizing 
event  might  have  been  averted,  had  not  the  individual  previously 
been  a  victim  of  too  great  ambition,  of  too  long  hours  of  labor,  under 
too  great  strain,  of  the  neglect  of  outdoor  exercise,  or  the  over-ingestion 
of  food,  with  perhaps  the  immoderate  use  of  alcohol  and  tobacco. 

Another  element  in  the  prevention  of  arteriosclerosis  is  the  educa- 
tion of  all  persons  in  the  habit  of  taking  "cures,"  if  this  name  may  be 
used  for  periods  of  time  set  apart  for  the  putting  of  the  body  in  the 
best  possible  order. 

We  should  adopt  the  motto,  "Attend  to  the  health  while  healthy," 
and  encourage  the  European  custom  of  the  combination  of  a  vaca- 
tion and  a  visit  to  a  cure  resort. 

We  must  learn  the  secret  of  right  living,  and  avoid  apoplexy,  heart 
failure,  paralysis  and  sundry  diseases  of  the  liver  and  kidneys  that 
follow  in  the  train  of  errors  of  diet  and  work. 

Race  betterment  must  always  be  a  matter  of  the  improvement  of 
the  individual.  Arteriosclerosis  is  not  your  neighbor's  enemy;  it  is 
your  enemy.  It  is  the  greatest  though  most  insidious  danger  to  a  group 
such  as  is  gathered  here  to  consider  the  welfare  of  the  race  in  general. 
I  trust  that  no  one  of  you  will  neglect  to  study  the  solutions  of  this 
problem  of  health  through  right  living  that  are  offered  by  this  mag- 
nificent institution,  the  Battle  Creek  Sanitarium,  whose  guests  we  are. 


HOOKWORM    DISEASE 

Lillian   South,  M.D..  Kentucky   State  Bacteriologist,  Bowling  Green,  Ky. 

Hookworm  disease  is  international,  being  found  in  every  countrv' 
in  the  world  36°  north  and  30°  south,  according  to  the  recent  survey 
of  the  Rockefeller  Commission.     I  shall  not  discuss  this  phase  of  it. 


140 


FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 


but  nieroly  tell  you  how  ^\■(■  Iuinc  iiicl  tliis  coiKJilioii  in  Kculucky  and 
its   elt'ec't   wyiou   our   ]H'opl('.      irookwoi-in    has   been    found    in    every 


HOOKWORM  IN  ITS  VARIOUS  STAGES  OF  DEVELOPMENT 


county  in  the  state,  the  intensity  of  the  infection  varying  in  different 
localities.     Of  the  156,000  specimens  examined  during  the  last  three 


6-    # 


>#/*■ 


Kishty-fiv..    per    rent    of    tlir    .■liildn... 


A    (lispriisii 


till'    ddctdr    :iii<l    micrdscoiiist 


A    schoolhouse.       Cliildi 


ilv    inrcctcd    witli    hookwi 


Dr.   Mullen,   of  the  P.   H.   S.,  treiitiiig  trachoma   in  the  Mountain   Hospital. 


GENERAL   INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  141 

years,  thirty-five  per  cent  showed  hookworm  and  fifty  per  cent  showed 
other  intestinal  parasites.  Hookworm  disease  is  caused  by  a  small 
worm  about  an  inch  long  and  about  as  thick  as  an  ordinary  pin.  The 
male  hookworm  is  smaller  than  the  female  and  is  distinguished  from 
the  latter  by  its  fan-shaped  tail.  The  female  lays  from  one  to  three 
thousand  eggs  a  day ;  these  pass  out  with  the  normal  bowel  movement. 
These  eggs,  under  favorable  conditions  of  temperature,  moisture  and 
shade,  hatch  out  the  young  worms,  called  larvae,  in  the  course  of  eigh- 
teen to  twenty-four  hours. 

Within  a  week  the  tiny  worm  has  shed  its  skin  twice,  much  as  does 
a  snake.  It  lives  in  a  sheath,  but  takes  no  food  after  the  first  few 
days  following  its  escape  from  the  egg.  Only  in  the  encysted  or  larva 
stage  is  it  capable  of  entering  the  body.  The  larva  or  microscopic 
worm  enters  the  body  by  boring  through  the  skin.  In  penetrating  the 
skin  the  embryos  produce  the  condition  Imo-v^Ti  as  dew  poison,  ground 
itch  or  toe  itch.  After  gaining  entrance  to  the  body  the  worm  enters 
the  bloodstream,  passes  the  heart  and  finally  the  capillaries  in  the 
lung,  these  blood-vessels  being  too  small  for  further  navigation,  the 
larv£e  make  their  way  up  the  windpipe,  or  are  coughed  up  and 
swallowed  into  the  stomach,  and  finally  enter  the  small  intestine. 
This  method  has  been  demonstrated  by  actual  experiment  upon 
human  beings  by  Dr.  Claude  A.  Smith,  of  Atlanta,  Ga. 

After  a  short  residence  in  the  small  intestine  they  grow  to  be  an 
inch  long  and  become  blood  suckers. 

SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

While  it  is  true  that  it  is  chiefly  among  persons  of  poorer  financial 
conditions  living  in  unsanitary  surroundings  that  the  most  marked 
cases  are  found,  because  the  opportunity  for  infection  is  so  much 
greater,  cases  are  frequently  found  among  those  who  are  more  fortu- 
nate financially  and  the  better  educated  classes.  The  hookworm  is  no 
respecter  of  persons  and  will  attach  itself  to  anyone.  The  accompany- 
ing pictures  will  graphically  illustrate  the  effect  of  the  disease. 

TREATMENT 

The  treatment  of  the  ordinary  case  of  hookworm  disease  is  a  com- 
paratively simple  matter,  usually  very  effective  and  can  be  taken 
without  loss  of  time  from  business.  The  treatment  should  always  be 
given  under  the  direction  of  a  physician.  The  thymol  comes  in  direct 
contact  with  the  worms  and  kills  them,  and  is  given  in  capsules,  the 
size  of  the  dose  depending  on  the  age. 

Hookworm  disease  is  preventable.  It  is  more  easily  prevented 
than  are  most  diseases.     Not  only  can  it  be  prevented,  but  the  very 


14l'  first  national  conference  on  race  betterment 

methods  to  be  used  in  its  prevention  will  also  prevent  all  other  diseases 
whose  poisonous  elements  or  germs  are  carried  in  the  bowels  and  urine. 
AVhenever  hookworm  disease  is  diminished,  typhoid  fever  and  other 
diarrheal  diseases  are  reduced  in  the  same  proportion. 

The  contamination  of  the  ground  with  disease-producing  germs  or 
parasites  is  called  "soil  pollution."  "When  we  recall  the  fact  that  the 
worms  do  not  multiply  in  the  body,  but  that  the  eggs  are  discharged 
with  the  movements  from  the  bowel  and  hatch  out  after  being  de- 
posited upon  the  ground,  it  must  be  apparent  that  if  we  can  prevent 
soil  pollution  we  will  prevent  hookworm  disease.  It  is  spread  as  a 
result  of  the  careless  disposal  of  bowel  matter  by  infected  persons,  and 
is  almost  purely  a  question  of  privies,  and  if  the  people  will  consent 
to  construct  and  use  sanitary  closets,  hookworm  disease  will  be  stamped 
out. 

'The  State  Board  of  Health  of  Kentucky  has  devised  a  sanitary 
toilet,  made  of  concrete,  which  is  very  inexpensive  to  build,  is  fly-proof, 
odorless,  and  does  not  have  to  be  cleaned  out.  A  copy  of  the  bulletin 
of  the  Kentucky  sanitary  privy  will  be  mailed  to  anyone  upon  request. 
The  general  use  of  these  privies  will  not  only  eradicate  hookw^orm 
disease  but  will  solve  the  problem  of  rural  sanitation  and  wall  be  a 
great  step  in  preventing  typhoid  fever. 


DISEASE  AND  ITS  PREVENTION 

Guilford  H.   Sumner,  M.D.,  Seeretaiy  Iowa  State  Board  of  Health,  Des 
Moines,  Iowa. 

I.  Introduction. 

II.  Preventive  Medicine. 

III.  Scientific  Doctor  of  Today. 

IV.  No  Better  Investment. 

Y.  A  Newer  and  Greater  Enthusiasm, 

YI.  People  Not  So  Particular  Formerly. 

YII.  The  Neglected  Member. 

YIII.  Certain  Uprisings. 

IX.  Hunting  through  Microscopes. 

X.  The  Consumptive. 

XI.  Another  Yirulent  Communicable  Disease. 

XII.  Improper  Things. 

XIII.  Manfredi's  Discoveries. 

XIY.  Conclusion,  (a)   God's  Motherhood,     fb)   The  Charm  of  Life. 
(a)   Transmission  of  Disease.      (b)   The  Remedy — Education 


A    iH.lhi-i-i 


'  MPs  fl^^H 

lil ' 

Same  i)atieiit  six   nuipths  later.      Gained   23   ijoiinds. 
Xo   pellagra   symptoms. 


SwIliDL'    of    th.'    frit    and    fare       •■Ban:i 
;lb<lonicn.' 


GENERAL   INDIVIDUAL,    HYGIENE  143 


DISEASE    AND    ITS    PREVENTION 


In  these  days  of  advanced  enlightenment,  people  are  seeking 
knowledge  in  all  departments  of  life.  I  see  a  growing  sentiment  com- 
ing which  will  require  that  knowledge,  relating  to  the  prevention  of 
diseases,  shall  be  disseminated  among  the  inhabitants  of  every  well- 
regulated  municipality. 

We  are  just  beginning  to  live  in  an  era  of  Preventive  Medicine. 
Formerly  the  physician  was  trained  in  curative  processes — instructed 
in  methods  of  healing  ills.  By  this  procedure,  communities  are  deal- 
ing with  results  of  existing  insanitary  conditions.  There  are  journals 
and  journals  which  publish  regularly  many  reports  of  clinical  cases  or 
discussions  of  the  etiology  (causes)  of  diphtheria,  scarlet  fever,  ty- 
phoid fever  and  all  transmissible  diseases,  but  broader  and  more  effec- 
tive methods  are  beginning  to  be  employed. 

Curative  processes,  while  very  necessary,  are  not  the  most  essential 
to  the  public  in  general.  As  we  are  to  merge  from  the  old  lines  of 
procedure  into  the  new  and  more  progressive  methods,  we  must  not 
only  study  the  clinic,  but  the  street,  the  alley,  the  back  yard,  the  in- 
sanitary privy,  the  pollution  of  streams  and  all  kindred  subjects  which 
are  disease  producers.  These  very  important  subjects  are  the  doctor's 
domain,  and  numerous  new  topics  must  be  discussed,  which  deal  with 
the  relationship  of  medicine  to  society,  and  bear  on  the  economic  basis 
of  disease. 

Dr.  Rudolph  Virchow,  one  of  Europe's  foremost  medical  experts, 
and  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Homes.  America's  poet  physician,  were  among 
the  very  first  to  advance  the  theories  of  transmission  of  disease.  It 
was  Doctor  Holmes  who  first  called  attention  to  the  contagiousness  of 
puerperal  fever.  He  was  suspicious  that  his  comments  on  this  de- 
structive disease,  though  his  subject  was  an  unusual  one,  would  not 
be  well  received  by  the  staid  representatives  of  the  medical  profes- 
sion. The  article  was  published  in  an  obscure  medical  journal  of  New 
England,  but  who  can  say  that  Doctor  Holmes  was  not  right?  The 
idea  advanced  at  the  writing  of  Doctor  Holmes'  article  is  now  taught 
and  advocated  by  every  progressive,  modem  physician  in  the  world. 
Doctor  Holmes  is  dead,  but  his  precept  lives.  It  was  Doctor  Virchow 
who  was  employed  by  the  German  Government  to  investigate  an 
epidemic  of  typhus  fever  in  Upper  Silesia.  This  was  when  Doctor 
Virchow  was  a  young  practitioner  of  medicine,  and  it  is  related  that 
the  government,  in  employing  Doctor  Virchow,  made  a  mistake  in 
securing  the  services  of  so  progressive  a  medical  expert,  for  in  his  re- 
port of  existing  conditions,  he  did  not  deal  in  technical  terminology, 
but  delved  into  the  very  causes  which  produced  and  promulgated  this 
disease. 


144  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

Tills  iil)k-  ami  young  iiiedical  man  studied  well  all  the  conditions  of 
the  country  where  typhus  fever  was  raging,  and  in  his  report,  he 
spoke  of  the  extreme  poverty  and  ignorance  of  the  inhabitants.  He 
loUl  liow  the  people  were  enslaved  mentally,  and  how  the  Prussian 
bureaucracy  loaded  them  with  physical  burdens.  Strange  as  it  may 
seem  to  us  now,  this  wonderful  young  physician  said:  "The  remedy 
lies  not  in  medicine,  Imt  in  education."  He  wrote  that  "the  great  era 
of  social  progress  in  progressive,  preventive  medicine  is  upon  us,  and 
it  behooves  us  to  meet  conditions  and  educate  the  people." 

The  German  government  awoke  to  the  fact  that  it  found  itself 
reading  treatises  on  sociological  cpestions  which  related  purely  and 
solely  to  preventive  medicine.  Young  Virchow  w^as  relieved  from  the 
government  service,  and  with  his  dismissal,  was  a  request  that  he  take 
a  vacation  and  leave  the  country. 

This  most  important  era  of  preventive  medicine  which  Doctor  Vir- 
chow helped  to  install  has  come  to  stay.  The  cure-all  doctor,  the  ex- 
clusively pill-and-potion  doctor,  the  advertising  quack,  the  so-called 
drugless  healer  of  human  ills,  the  so-called  faith  healer,  the  patent 
medicine  man,  the  medical  liberty  league  man  or  the  teacher  who 
claims  that  human  ills  are  only  imaginary  is  not  the  modern,  scientific 
doctor  of  today. 

The  sphere  of  the  medical  man  has  been  enlarged,  and  he  has  dis- 
covered that  tuberculosis,  typhoid  fever,  diphtheria,  scarlet  fever, 
smallpox  and  many  of  the  diseases  are  economic  maladies,  and  that 
trade  and  occupational  diseases  will  not  disappear  until  social  condi- 
tions are  made  better.  It  will  soon  become  a  self-evident  truth  that  no 
man  can  become  a  good  physician  unless  he  is  thoroughly  versed  in 
preventive  medicine,  and  is  willing  to  lend  his  personal  influence  for 
the  betterment  of  all  social  conditions.  A  good  physician  will  be  a 
true  medical  sociologist. 

I  do  not  intend  to  decry  the  medical  profession — far  from  it — but 
to  bring  before  an  enlightened  public  the  plain  truth  that  medical 
men  are  giving  to  the  world  the  results  of  their  scientific  investiga- 
tions, all  of  which  is  intended  to  keep  the  people  w^ell  and  thereby 
prevent  sickness  and  untimely  deaths.  The  real  physicians  of  today 
are  now  trying  to  make  health  conditions  better  all  over  the  world, 
and  for  this  reason  Boards  of  Health  are  being  formed,  both  State  and 
Local  Boards  of  Health,  in  order  to  disseminate  a  knowledge  of 
preventive  measures  which  will  give  to  us,  as  a  result,  a  strong, 
long-lived,  healthy  people.  It  is  not  economy  to  keep  knowledge  from 
the  people.  Ignorance  goes  hand  in  hand  with  poverty,  and  poverty 
w^alks  with  disease,  and  disease  destroys. 

The  government  or  the  municipality  can  make  no  better  invest- 


GENERAL   INDIVIDU.AL    HYGIENE  145 

ment  than  to  make  provision  to  keep  the  people  well.  This  can  be  ac- 
complished only  through  Boards  of  Health,  hence  the  National  and 
State  governments,  as  well  as  municipalities,  should  formulate  uni- 
form plans  whereby  the  people  may  be  regularly  informed  in  regard 
to  the  prevention  of  disease.  There  are  those  who  oppose  the  forma- 
tion of  public  health  boards,  for  no  other  reason  than  that  the  restric- 
tive measures,  adopted  by  such  Boards,  prohibit  the  imposition  of 
quacks  and  humbugs  upon  the  innocent  and  defenseless.  It  is  a  note- 
worthy fact  that  whenever  a  state  practices  economy  in  public  health 
measures,  efficiency  is  not  attained,  but  if  we  place  efficiency  first, 
economy  is  the  essential  result. 

The  control  of  communicable  diseases  should  be  the  prime  motive 
of  all  municipalities  through  their  health  boards,  and  this  can  be 
accomplished  by  stopping  their  spread  at  the  source,  which  is  the 
person  having  the  disease  or  existing  unhealthful  conditions.  We  must 
depend  upon  the  medical  profession  to  formulate  all  plans  for  pre- 
ventive medicine  work,  but  as  yet  the  medical  man  has  not  been  of- 
fered a  sufficient  remuneration — too  small  a  financial  incentive — to 
abandon  his  private  practice  for  public  service.  The  people  should 
understand  that  health  boards  are  trying  to  arouse  the  people  to  the 
general  problems  of  clean  living.  I  wish  to  impress  upon  you  that 
real  clean  living  should  begin  with  the  basic  principle  embodied  in  the 
very  first  verse  of  the  Bible:  "In  the  'beginning  God."  Real  right 
living  is  based  upon  a  clean  life.  It  has  been  said  that  learning  and 
education  are  synonymous  terms.  This  is  not  true.  Learning  is 
knowledge  stored  up  in  the  mind,  but  education  is  a  bundle  of  habits, 
and  in  so  far  as  our  habits  are  good  and  pure,  our  lives  will  be  made 
cleaner  and  better.  All  citizens  of  any  community  should  unite  in  a 
campaign  for  clean  lives  and  good  health,  and  when  this  is  done,  a 
long  step  has  been  taken  towards  the  breaking  up  of  political  partisan- 
ship, which  should  never  exist  in  public  health  work. 

No  community  should  stop  short  of  a  most  rigid  understanding 
that  all  diseases  which  are  preventable  should  not  be  allowed  to  exist, 
and  special  emphasis  should  be  placed  on  preventive  rather  than  cura- 
tive processes.  Control  transmissible  diseases  by  stopping  their 
spread  at  the  source,  and  in  trying  to  abolish  insanitary  conditions, 
remember  that  the  strength  of  inspection  lies  in  frequent  reinspection. 

Local  interest  in  health  work  should  be  stirred  up  by  practical,  con- 
vincing literature  and  lectures  that  will  appeal  to  the  average  citizen. 
Let  the  business  man  be  shown  that  efficient  health  work  pays  large 
dividends,  and  all  workers  for  civic  improvement  should  see  that  a 
clean  city  offers  a  poor  breeding  place  for  municipal  corruption. 

Let  us  hope  that  better  things  are  in  store,  in  public  health  matters. 


146  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

for  the  people  of  all  cities  in  every  state  in  this  country,  and  trust 
that  future  legislative  bodies  will  make  ample  provision  for  executing 
health  laws  and  that  each  city  will  fall  in  line  and  work  for  more  and 
bettor  health  regulations  in  the  future  than  in  the  past. 

I  was  veiy  much  impressed  by  reading  an  illustration  recorded  in 
the  congressional  record,  wherein  a  congressman  said  in  his  speech 
before  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  Congress, 
that  we  as  a  nation  and  a  people  need  a  newer  and  a  greater  enthusi- 
asm in  the  managing  of  the  business  affairs  of  this  great  country.  He 
said:  "We  need  an  enthusiasm  like  that  which  the  old  colored^  deacon 
prayed  might  be  given  to  Sam  Jones  from  Heaven."  The  incident 
was  related,  wherein  it  was  said  that  Sam  Jones  was  invited  to  preach 
to  a  colored  congregation  down  in  the  state  of  Georgia,  and  if  any  of 
you  here  in  this  audience  have  ever  been  present  in  a  colored  congre- 
gation where  religious  services  w-ere  being  held  and  listened  to  the 
vociferous  hallelujahs  and  typical  amens  of  an  Ethiopian  congrega- 
tion, you  w^ill  appreciate  the  old  black  man's  prayer.  It  is  related 
that,  prior  to  the  preaching  service,  this  old  colored  deacon  w^as  called 
upon  to  open  the  services  with  prayer,  and  with  the  congregation  on 
bended  knees,  this  old  black  man,  in  the  fervor  of  his  soul  and  with  his 
face  turned  upward  to  the  skies,  prayed  for  Sam  Jones  on  this 
wise:  "0,  Lawd!  Gib  Brudder  Jones  de  eye  ob  de  eagle  dat  he  may 
see  sin  from  afur.  Gloo  hiz  ear  to  de  gospel  teV phone  and  connect  him 
wid  de  central  skies.  Nail  hiz  hands  to  de  gospel  plow.  'Lwmioiate 
hiz  brow  wid  a  brightness  dat  will  make  de  fires  ob  hell  look  like  a 
tallar  candle.  Bow  hiz  head  in  some  lonesome  valley  ivhere  prayer 
is  much  wanted  to  be  made.  'Noint  his  body  all  ober  wid  de  ker-sene 
oil  ob  dy  salvation  and  sot  him  on  fire.    Amen!" 

I  am  impressed  when  I  recall  the  fervor  manifested  in  the  earnest- 
ness of  this  old  black  man's  prayer  and  msh  that  this  land  of  en- 
thusiasm in  public  health  work  might  be  manifested  in  the  minds  of 
the  people  of  every  state  and  municipality.  One  needs  but  to  examine 
the  conditions  of  any  city  or  community  in  any  locality  to  be  convinced 
that  gross  insanitary  problems  are  waiting  for  solution  and  correction. 

You  have  often  heard  the  common  expression:  "People  were  not 
so  particular  in  former  times  in  regard  to  matters  relating  to  public 
health."  This  is  undoubtedly  true,  but  we  have  progressed.  People 
were  not  taught  methods  of  disease  prevention  in  former  times  as  they 
are  today.  It  is  definitely  known  by  all  physicians  that  in  former 
times  curative  measures  were  employed  alone,  and  all  the  world  was 
educated  to  employ  measures  to  correct  results,  when  the  proper  and 
most  economical  plan  would  have  been  to  have  prevented  the  results. 


GENERAL   INDIVIDU^yi,    HYGIENE  14  ( 

Disease,  sickness  and  death  are  results  of  causes,  and  the  purposes  of 
health  measures  are  to  prevent  rather  than  cure. 

Two  poems,  significant  of  conditions  in  the  past  and  in  the  present, 
have  come  into  my  possession,  and  I  am  pleased  to  repeat  them  for  you 
because  they  contain  so  much  truth  that  is  applicable  at  this  time. 

Dr.  W.  C.  Rucker,  Assistant  Surgeon-General  of  the  United  States 
Public  Health  Service,  writes: 

'^The  happy  days  of  childhood 

I  often  call  to  mind, 
I   love   to   live  them  o'er  again 

By  memory's  light  refined — 
The  orchard  and  the  meadow, 

And  the  loft  of  fragrant  hay. 
The  garden  and  the  pl■i^w, 

And  the  well  not  far  away. 

"The  farmyard  with  its  litter 

Of  mannre  romid  about, 
The  milking  shed  where  flies  galore 

Flew  buzzing  in  and  out. 
The  pig-sty  and  the  chicken  house, 

The  hens  that  scratched  all  day 
In  the  ground  beneath  the  privy, 

With  the  well  not  far  away. 

"We  took  our  joys  and  sorrows 
As  they  chanced  to  come  along. 

My   brother   had    the    ground-itch 
And  he  didn't  grow  up  strong. 

And  Maiy  died  of  fever- 
It   was   mighty   sad   that   day— 

But  we  didn't  blame  the  privy 
Nor  the  well  not  far  away. 

"In  the  suimner  time,  mosquitoes 

Used  to  sing  the  whole  long  night. 
But  we  would  keep  the  windows  closed 

And  thus  avoid  the  bite. 
But  Billy  got  the  ague 

And  Lizzie  pined  away— 
Mosquitoes— foul  air— privy. 

And  the  well  not  far  away. 

"We  used  to  think  that  death  was  just 

A  punishment  for  sin^ 
The  sin   of  ignorance  I   say!  — 

So  let  us  now  begin 
To  try  and  get  the  windows  screened 

But  open  night  and  day, 
And  a  sanitary  privy 

With  the  well  quite  far  away. 


1-1:8  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

"Let's  clean   the   cows  at    niilkiii.e;-  time, 

Let's  clean  the  barnyard  too, 
.  Let's  rid  ourselves  of  fevers 

And  the  chills  and  ague  crew, 
Let  in  the  air  and  sunshine 
But  drive  the  fly  away, 
With  the  ancient  typhoid  privy. 
With  the  well  not  far  away." 

Henry  Malins  of  Indiana,  in  speaking  of  prevention,  makes  a  com- 
parison between  the  fence  and  the  ambulance,  and  says : 

[This  poem  appears  elsewhere  in  this  volume,  Ijiit  is  so  excellent  it  will  hear  re- 
peating.— Editor.] 

"  'Twas  a  dangerou.s  cliff,  as  they  freely  confessed, 
Though  to  walk  near  its  crest  was  so  pleasant; 
But  over  its  terrible  edge  there  had  slipjoed 

A  duke,  and  full  many  a  peasant; 
So  the  people  said  something  would  have  to  be  done. 

But  their  projects  did  not  at  all  tally. 
Some  said.  Tut  a  fence  'round  the  edge  of  the  cliff' ; 
Some,  'An  ambulance  down  in  the  valley.' 

"But  the  cry  for  the  ambulance  canned  the  day. 

For  it  spread  through  the  neighboring  city, 
A  fence  may  be  useful  or  not,  it  is  true. 

But  each  heart  became  brimful  of  pity 
For  those  who  slipped  over  that  dangerous  cliff; 

And  the  dwellers  in  highway  and  alley 
Gave  pounds  or  gave  pence,  not  to  put  up  a  fence. 

But  an  ambulance  down  in  the  valley. 

"Then  an  old  sage  remarked,  'It's  a  marvel  to  me 

That  people  give  far  more  attention 
To  repairing  the  results  than  to  stopping  the  cause, 

When  they'd  much  better  aim  at  prevention. 
Let  us  stop  at  its  source  all  this  mischief,'  cried  he. 

'Come,  neighbors  and  friends,  let  us  rally : 
If  the  cliff  w&  will  fence  we  might  almost  dispense 

With  the  ambulance  down  in  the  valley.' 

"Better  guide  well  the  young  than  reclaim  them  when  old. 

For  the  voice  of  true  wisdom  is  calling: 
'To  rescue  the  fallen  is  good,  but  'tis  best 

To  prevent  other  people  from  falling.' 
Better  close  up  the  source  of  temptation  and  crime 

Than  to  deliver  from  dungeon  or  galley; 
Better  put  a  strong  fence  'round  the  top  of  the  cliff. 

Than  an  ambulance  down  in  the  valley !" 

The  sentiment  expressed  in  these  poems  is  characteristic  of  an 
age  of  great  progress,  and  the  time  has  been  when  Hygeia,  the  poor, 
neglected  member  of  our  medical  family,  sneaked  away  into  oblivious 


GENERAL   INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  149 

places ;  but  now  more  brave,  she  has  come  forward  to  claim  her  right- 
ful place  in  the  medical  home.  Her  sisters  welcome  her,  and  her 
suitors  seek  her  hand.  Ever  since  I  first  entered  an  office  as  a  medical 
student,  I  have  been  a  lover  of  this  fair  mistress,  whose  banner  I  have 
unfurled  and  carried,  holding  that  the  advancement  of  hygiene  has 
enlarged  and  beautified  the  medical  profession,  without  lessening  the 
value  of  any  other  branch.  Though  she  is  here  to  stay,  her  errand  is 
not  completed  by  giving  her  proper  recognition  in  medicine.  She  now 
turns  to  the  people,  the  government  and  the  municipalities —  the 
Owen  bill  and  the  Mann  bill,  both  of  which  have  been  considered  by 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  for  the  express  ptirpose  of  creating 
a  National  Health  Department — the  forces  apart  from  the  medical 
profession,  and  demands  her  place  in  the  councils  that  rightfully  be- 
long to  her.  A  temporary  expedient  has  been  reluctantty  permitted 
a  place  in  the  councils  of  the  hygienic  interests  of  the  land ;  but  the 
relentless  demands  of  our  present  civilization  cannot  be  fulfilled  until 
the  protector  of  our  public  health  interests  shall  have  a  permanent 
place  in  the  councils  of  our  government  at  Washington,  the  same  as 
are  the  other  departments.  "We  may  construct  a  mighty  navy  for  de- 
struction and  defense  and  call  out  vast  armies ;  but  disease  wipes 
out  with  a  tiny  weapon  so  minute  that  the  eye  cannot  discern  it  and 
no  military  force  can  arrest.  We  may  fill  our  storehouse  with  gold 
and  store  up  wealth  in  other  forms,  thereby  enabling  us  to  purchase 
the  labors  of  human  beings  for  profit,  distinction,  lands,  everything 
but  God's  great  and  free  gift,  health,  the  thing  that  makes  man  con- 
form to  Deity.  All  the  great  activities  of  life,  together  with  all  the  in- 
dustrial pursuits  of  mankind,  which  are  now  paramount  in  the  minds 
of  the  cabinet  officials,  who  are  masters  and  possessors  in  their  line, 
having  a  knowledge  of  political  economy  and  civics,  cannot  flourish 
without  strong,  vigorous  bodies,  the  proper  vessels  for  healthy  brains — 
vigor  of  human  blood,  brains  and  brawn  are  the  mechanism  of  all 
successful  achievements;  yet  not  until  the  present  time  has  it  been 
thought  that  the  skilled  supervision  of  a  thorough  medical  man  was 
necessary  to  maintain  and  protect  the  health  of  the  community,  with- 
out which  the  functionaries  themselves  could  not  perform  their  duties 
perfectly. 

How  clearly  it  comes  to  me  now  and  how  well  do  I  remember,  after 
completing  a  four  years '  medical  course,  when  I  was  about  to  begin  my 
profession  with  a  minimum  of  experience  and  maximum  of  enthusi- 
asm and  an  exalted  opinion  of  the  dignity  and  responsibility  of  my 
charge  which  the  years  that  followed  have  only  intensified,  I  was 
astonished  at  my  own  ignorance  of  the  real  causes  of  disease,  and  my 
lack  of  Imowledge  of  sanitation !    I  had  been  taught  how  to  cure  dis- 


15()  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

ease — great  stress  being  placed  upon  the  giving  of  proper  medicines. 
All  of  this  is  quite  essential  to  the  work  of  a  successful  physician ;  but 
would  you  not  prefer  to  pay  your  physician  to  keep  you  from  becoming 
sick '?  The  results,  therefore,  to  be  attained  by  the  health  board  of  the 
municipality  and  its  health  officer  are  that  all  communicable  diseases 
may  not  only  be  prevented  but  eliminated.  "We  have  certain  upris- 
ings of  a  spasmodic  nature  whenever  a  pestilential  disease  comes,  and 
we  grope  our  way  under  the  flashlight  of  death  in  our  midst ;  then  it 
is  that  we  begin  to  look  around  for  the  cause  of  all  our  trouble.  There 
is  no  better  time  to  prepare  for  war  than  in  time  of  peace,  and  this 
holds  true  in  public  health  work — preventive  methods  should  begin 
before  the  disease  appears,  and  here  is  the  opportunity  for  sanitary 
work. 

I  remember  reading  of  conditions  which  exist  at  times  in  cities 
and  towns,  related  in  an  old  leading  medical  journal,  and  I  recall  them 
here : 

' '  Whether  cholera  has  or  has  not  made  its  appearance  at , 

which  is  practically  one  of  the  suburbs  of ,  it  is  certain 

that  the  conditions  reported  to  exist  there  are  in  the  highest  degree 
favorable  for  the  introduction  and  spread  of  that  disease.  All  ac- 
counts represent  the  neighborhood  in  which  the  alleged  cases  occurred 
as  filthy  beyond  description  and  occupied  by  a  class  of  persons  who 
pay  no  attention  whatever  to  the  laws  of  health  or  personal  cleanli- 
ness. Of  course,  the  country  now  has  the  pleasant  assurance  that  the 
place  is  to  be  thoroughly  cleaned  and  effectively  quarantined;  but 
why  were  not  the  steps  necessary  for  the  protection  of  the  public 
health  taken  before  the  resulting  disease,  whether  cholera  or  not,  had 
gained  such  a  footing  that  already  five  persons  have  died  from  it? 
The  time  to  lock  the  stable  door  is  before  the  horses  housed  therein 
are  stolen,  and  the  way  to  treat  contagious  diseases  is  to  prevent  their 
appearance  and  not  to  wait  for  them  to  gain  a  foothold  and  then  try 
to  stamp  them  out. ' ' 

As  health  officer  of  the  city  of  Waterloo,  Iowa,  my  home  state,  a 
number  of  years  ago,  when  smallpox  first  made  its  appearance  in 
Iowa,  I  had  a  rich  experience  which  taught  me  that  we  should  never 
temporize  in  public  health  matters.  A  stranger  came  to  the  city  with 
smallpox  and  it  was  a  puzzle  to  the  local  Board  of  Health  as  well  as 
myself  to  know  what  to  do  with  him.  The  city  at  that  time  had  no 
place  to  build  a  detention  hospital — ^and  here  let  me  say  that  ample 
pro\dsion  should  be  made  by  all  communities  for  all  such  emergencies 
— and  to  force  anyone  to  take  care  of  this  case  of  smallpox  was  out 
of  the  question.  After  a  great  deal  of  trouble  and  anxiety,  a  place 
was  obtained  and  a  small  detention  hospital  was  erected.    We  learned 


GENERAL   INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  151 

a  lesson,  and  the  result  was  that  the  city  at  once  erected  a  suitable  de- 
tention hospital,  isolated  from  the  city,  where  all  such  cases  could  be 
properly  cared  for;  but  what  we  most  need  is  perfectly  clean  cities, 
towns  and  villages — so  free  from  all  forms  of  filth  that  no  contagious 
disease  dare  enter.  We  were  forced  to  temporize  in  the  above  case, 
but  temporizing  under  the  spur  of  emergencies  does  not  bring  perma- 
nent benefit. 

As  the  enlightened  physician  seeks  to  prevent  his  people  from  be- 
coming ill,  so  should  the  guardians  of  the  public  health  be  able  to  fore- 
stall these  emergencies,  whose  pecuniary  expense  in  money  expended 
and  wasted,  in  trade  paralyzed  and  diverted,  in  labor  and  its  wages 
lost  by  the  sick,  terrified  and  dead,  in  a  single  epidemic,  exceeds  that 
of  maintaining  an  efficient  sanitary  service  for  the  whole  country  for 
a  whole  year.  May  I  pause  here  and  ask,  "What  are  you  doing  to  help 
the  medical  men  who  are  trying  to  bring  about  better  methods  of 
sanitation  and  to  adopt  better,  purer,  and  nobler  plans  of  living  in 
order  that  sickness  and  untimely  deaths  may  be  averted?  The  fault 
of  the  medical  profession  has  always  been  its  lack  of  bold  assertions 
of  its  rights;  but  it  can  no  longer  hesitate  to  declare  to  the  trade, 
commerce,  agriculture,  and  manufacture  that  the  health  and  vigor 
which  are  essential  to  the  prosperity  of  our  people  cannot  be  secured 
by  their  ovm  unskilled,  uninformed  efforts.  They  must  learn,  as  the 
military  departments  have  learned,  that  the  powerful  armies  and 
navies  are  the  results  of  able  and  untrammeled  medical  departments. 
It  is  as  unwise  to  confide  the  care  of  the  health  of  a  community  to  a 
financier,  however  shrewd,  as  to  expect  a  fishery  commissioner  to  best 
administer  the  affairs  of  the  public  school.  The  general  health  of  our 
country  is  a  national  consideration  involving  international  coopera- 
tion. No  priority  or  clash  of  sectional  interests  should  exist.  Lines 
are  not  drawn  by  epidemic  intruders.  No  state  barriers  can  be  so 
defensive  and  impenetrable  that  the  toxiferous  germ  cannot  pass 
through. 

I  have  spoken  of  uprisings  of  a  spasmodic  nature,  which  are  only 
tentative  provisions  in  emergencies  and  bring  no  permanent  good.  The 
scientific  tendency  of  today  is  the  hunting  through  microscopes  instead 
of  using  our  human  eyes  upon  visible  abominations.  The  sanitarian, 
official  or  amateur,  needs  only  to  look  about  him  to  be  appalled  at  the 
spectacle  of  indifference  of  rich  and  poor,  high  and  low,  to  dangers  far 
greater  than  from  any  cholera  microbes  which  confront  them  every 
hour  and  it  may  be  worth  our  while  to  consider  some  of  these  things, 
which  we  complacently  refuse  to  see,  while  w^e  are  looking  through  our 
microscopes.  The  preventable  disease  which  kills  more  of  the  human 
race  than  cholera  and  yellow  fever  combined — and  in  its  ordinarily 


]52  FIRST    NATIONAL;    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

slow  process  of  killing  lessens  the  productive  power  of  a  coimniuiity, 
directly  by  the  enfeeblement  of  its  victims,  and  indirectly  by  its  de- 
mands upon  members  of  households  and  charitable  institutions  for 
the  care  of  these  chronic  invalids — tuberculosis,  is  tolerated  with  as 
little  concern  as  that  which  the  Creole  exhibits  for  yellow  fever  and 
malaria. 

The  consumptive,  whose  traits  no  professional  acumen  is  required 
to  recognize,  frequents  our  thoroughfares,  sits  beside  us  in  unventi- 
lated  street  cars  and  at  hotel  tables,  occupies  Pullman  sleeping  berths, 
shares  the  steamship  stateroom,  wholly  unrestrained  and  innocently 
ignorant  that  he  or  she  may  be  sowing  the  seeds  of  disease  among  deli- 
cate women  and  children.  Anyone  may  verify  these  statements  who 
uses  his  eyes  for  the  purpose  along  the  railway  and  coastwise  steamer 
routes  to  our  invalid  resorts.  It  is  related  by  a  traveler,  a  physician, 
of  repute,  that  while  he  was  journeying  he  had  observed  and  he  said : 

"While  traveling  by  rail  I  was  fellow-passenger  with  two  invalids 
in  the  advanced  stage  of  consumption,  enroute  South,  one  of  whom 
occupied  the  opposite  berth  and  the  other  one  diagonally  across  the 
car,  so  that  I  could  see  and  hear  them  coughing  and  expectorating 
with  only  such  attention  as  well-intending,  but  unskilled  relatives 
could  render.  They  had  no  vessels  for  receiving  their  sputa,  which 
w^ere  discharged  in  their  pocket  handkerchiefs  to  be  scattered  over 
pillows,  coverlets  and  blankets.  They  left  the  car  in  the  morning  and 
I  saw  those  same  berths — it  is  true,  with  change  of  linen,  sheets  and 
pillow  cases,  but  with  no  change  of  blankets,  mattresses  or  pillows — 
occupied  that  very  night  by  other  travelers,  who  were  thus  subject 
to  contact  with  a  pathogenic  microbe  far  more  tenacious  of  life  and 
power  of  evil  doing  than  the  dreaded  cholera  spirillum." 

One  has  only  to  sit  in  a  crowded  street  car  on  a  winter  day  and 
watch  the  clouds  of  respiratory  steam  circling  from  the  mouths 
and  nostrils  of  the  unclean  and  diseased  into  the  mouths  and  nostrils 
of  the  clean  and  healthy,  as  the  expiratory  effort  of  the  one  corre- 
sponds with  the  inspiratory  act  of  the  other.  The  road  is  short  but 
straight  and  sure  from  vomica  and  mucous  patch  to  the  receptive 
nidus  in  another's  body.  Who  that  has  had  forced  upon  him  an 
aerial  feast  of  cabbage,  onions,  garlic,  tobacco,  alcohol  and  gastric 
effluvia  of  an  old  debauchee  can  doubt  that  aqueous  vapor  can  trans- 
port microscopic  germs  by  the  same  route.  I  am  here  reminded  of 
the  vastness  of  my  subject  and  these  graphic  descriptions  will  furnish 
you  wdth  ideas  of  what  you  may  see  if  you  will  only  use  your  powers 
of  observation,  but  all  this  will  avail  nothing  unless  it  leads  you  to 
advocate  and  adopt  measures  of  prevention.  You  are  being  brought 
into  contact  with  the  monster  w^hich  is  eating  away  the  human  race, 


GENERAL   INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  153 

and  you,  as  a  people,  must  know  how  to  care  for  yourselves  and  give 
that  timely  advice  to  others  which  a  waiting  public  ought  to  know. 
You  are  reminded  that  we  are  being  constantly  exposed  to  diseased 
conditions,  and  were  we  to  care  for  our  bodies  as  cities  care  for  their 
streets,  alleys  and  the  construction  of  buildings,  imagine  our  appear- 
ance. 

I  feel  so  profoundly  impressed  in  regard  to  the  spread  of  tuber- 
culosis that  I  cannot  refrain  from  further  bringing  before  your  minds 
an  imaginary  picture  for  the  purpose  of  further  illustrating  condi- 
tions which  are  not  of  infrequent  occurrence. 

Suppose  one  is  on  a  coast  steamer,  journeying  to  some  southern 
resort.  The  air  is  chilly  and  a  dozen  or  more  consumptives  are  hud- 
dled together,  trying  to  keep  warm,  and  all  doors  and  windows  are 
closed  until  the  atmosphere  has  become  so  stifling  and  surcharged 
with  their  emanations  and  the  dried  sputa,  which  they  eject  on  every 
side,  that  good  breathing  air  is  as  scarce  as  diamonds  in  the  fertile  soil 
of  any  productive  state.  One  can  easily  escape  during  the  day  by 
staying  on  deck  and  by  sleeping  in  his  stateroom  with  windows  wide 
open,  but  the  curtains,  carpets,  pillows  and  mattresses  are  still  all 
saturated  by  you  know  not  how  many  expectorating  predecessors. 
Smallpox,  yellow  fever  and  cholera  are  not  to  be  compared  to  the  dread 
disease  tuberculosis,  which  is  fast  becoming  the  absorbing  topic  of  our 
leading  medical  lights.  The  Iowa  death  report  for  the  month  of 
December,  1912,  states  that  there  were  for  that  month  167  deaths 
from  pneumonia,  and  117  deaths  from  tuberculosis.  It  is  believed  thnt 
there  are  more  deaths  from  these  two  causes  than  any  other.  Tuber- 
culosis is  on  the  increase.  Our  cattle  are  becoming  infected  and  the 
question  of  conveying  this  disease  through  milk  is  being  most  seriously 
considered.  Milk  inspection  should  be  in  force  in  every  place  where 
milk  is  dispensed.  Many  physicians  can  recall  their  several  experi- 
ences where  members  of  a  family  have  occupied  the  same  chamber  and 
bed  with  a  gentle  and  beloved  one,  also  those  of  tuberculous  husbands 
and  wives,  who  have  become  ill  like  them  with  consumption  attributed 
to  everything  but  the  manifest  cause. 

Shall  I  now  introduce  to  your  notice  another  virulent  communi- 
cable disease,  in  the  interest  of  helpless  and  innocent  women  and  chil- 
dren ?  Shall  I  labor  to  convince  you  as  husbands  and  those  who  expect 
to  be  such,  that  there  are  numerous  indisputable  instances  of  innocent 
infection  of  syphilis?  This  disease  may  be  and  has  been  contracted 
from  combs  and  brushes  and  rough-edged  drinking  vessels  in  hotels, 
sleeping  cars  and  boarding  houses,  from  pens,  pencils  and  paint 
brushes  that  had  been  held  between  diseased  lips,  from  dirty  old  bank 
notes,  from  street  venders'  toys,  from  a  lover's  kiss,  a  stranger's  caress, 


154  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

or  a  nurse's  ministrations.  A  case  of  a  young  lady  in  a  not  distant  city 
demonstrates  the  fact  that  syphilis  can  be  conveyed  by  a  lover's  kiss. 
The  young  man  when  told  of  the  cause  was  confronted  with  the 
aphorism:  ''The  way  of  the  transgressor  is  hard."  Supported  by 
an  array  of  cases  of  infected  children,  young  girls  and  elderly  men 
and  women,  the  committee  of  the  American  Public  Health  Association 
advocated  the  enactment  of  a  law  placing  venereal  diseases  in  the 
category  of  other  communicable  affections  and  punishing  its  trans- 
mission as  a  misdemeanor;  but  in  this  instance,  as  in  many  others, 
it  was  thought  by  the  self-righteous  ones  that  it  was  best  to  seek 
to  exterminate  this  disease  by  ignoring  its  existence  and  never 
uttering  its  name — the  disease  that  has  done  more  harm  to  mankind 
than  all  the  diphtheria,  typhoid,  smallpox,  measles  and  scarlet  fever 
combined,  which  are  so  carefully  isolated,  and  their  statistics  so  regu- 
larly collected  and  promulgated;  a  disease  which  travels  with  the 
missionary  to  Asia,  Africa  and  the  Pacific  and  decimates  bodies  faster 
than  he  can  whiten  souls.  I  think  your  eyes  are  becoming  opened  to 
the  fact  that  preventive  measures  should  be  speedilj^  adopted  in  order 
that  we  may  become  a  better  people,  mentally,  morally  and  physically. 
It  is  not  expected  that  all  who  have  eyes  will  see  these  things,  or 
those  having  ears  will  listen  to  w^hat  is  said.  The  idle,  perverse 
generation  of  the  first  century  will  have  its  following  in  this  present 
time  and  men  and  women  will  continue  to  do  improper  things  that  they 
ought  not  to  do,  and  leave  undone  the  proper  precautions  they  ought 
to  take,  despite  our  w^arning,  our  imploring,  our  advice,  or  denuncia- 
tion. However  benevolent  and  beneficent  the  good  physician's  aim, 
his  unappreciated,  unrequited  and  often  unprofitable  labor  is  enough 
to  deter  him  from  w^hat  has  been  derisively  described  as  only  an 
effort  to  procure  the  survival  of  the  unfit,  and  thus  thwart  Na- 
ture's own  attempt  to  rid  the  world  of  them.  He  encounters 
another  obstacle  to  success  as  aggravating  as  the  disbelief  in 
the  necessity  for  his  work.  The  authorities  listen  to  his  warnings  and 
then  employ  their  perfunctory  and  superficial  methods  of  protection. 
The  medical  profession  has  stated  that  absolute  cleanliness  is  the 
fundamental  fact  of  sanitation,  and  in  order  to  keep  clean  streets, 
cleaners  are  set  to  work  brushing  the  surface  dirt  into  little  heaps, 
as  seen  in  many  cities  on  almost  any  day  after  a  heavy  rain  or  in  the 
spring,  which  passing  vehicles  again  distribute  or  the  winds  carry  into 
open  windows  of  adjacent  residences.  The  refuse  of  the  household  is 
deposited  in  old  barrels,  boxes,  or  vessels  of  some  kind  on  the  sidewalks 
of  crowded  thoroughfares  to  be  emptied  after  a  time  into  collecting 
carts  or  wagons,  from  which  clouds  of  dust  envelop  passers  and  cir- 
culate back  into  the  house,  living  dust,  for  Manfredi  found  millions 


GENERAL   INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  155 

of  microbes  to  the  gram  of  the  street  dust  of  Naples,  from  which  he 
cultivated  pus,  malignant  edema,  tetanus,  tubercle  and  septicemia. 
Visit  any  alley  and  there  find  the  offal  of  the  kitchen,  there  observe 
the  swarm  of  flies  feed  upon  the  decomposing  contents  of  exposed 
garbage  cans  and  buckets,  and  carry  their  tiny  germ-laden  booty  into 
the  butcher-shop  of  the  poor  and  the  kitchen  of  the  millionaire.  "Who 
can  dispute  the  fact,  for  it  has  been  demonstrated  by  bacteriologists 
that  dogs  can  transport  diseases  in  their  hair,  and  newspapers  and 
letters  have  carried  smallpox  from  places  where  the  disease  was  rag- 
ing to  distant  lands,  that  a  cloud  of  dust,  a  swarm  of  flies  or  a  single 
fly  can  disseminate  cholera  and  become  a  focus  of  infection,  which 
would  have  been  impossible  had  ordinary  care  been  exercised  in  pre- 
venting the  exposure  and  properly  destroying  the  discharges  and  ex- 
creta of  those  already  sick  ? 

In  conclusion  permit  me  to  say  that  every  city  should  undergo  a 
cleaning  often,  and  here  let  me  say  that  I  am  a  firm  believer  in  cre- 
mation for  all  refuse  matter  in  any  city.  Dumping  grounds  are  only 
pest-houses  for  the  hatching  of  germs.  Here  flies  congregate  and  are 
the  disseminators  of  disease.  No  city  can  be  accounted  clean  until  its 
ordinances  require  every  cellar  door  to  be  widely  opened  to  the  sun 
and  air,  that  royal  pair  of  germicides ;  every  cellar  to  be  emptied  of 
its  refuse,  every  cellar  wall  and  ceiling  to  be  scraped  and  whitewashed, 
every  cellar  floor  to  be  taken  up  if  rotten,  and  sprinkled  with  lime  if 
uncovered — a  tedious  and  expensive  process,  but  effective  prevention, 
costly  as  it  must  be,  is  cheap  beside  the  outlay  of  a  single  epidemic.  I 
have  noticed  fruit  stands  uncovered  on  street  corners,  bakers'  wagons 
with  their  contents  unprotected  from  the  dust  and  filth  of  the  streets, 
and  waiting  stations  whose  filth  was  so  gross  that  it  beggars  descrip- 
tion. 

At  this  point  I  desire  to  digress  for  the  purpose  of  speaking  briefly 
upon  a  subject  that  is  very  closely  allied  to  "Disease  and  Its  Preven- 
tion." There  is  a  name  closely  connected  with  the  life  and  work  of 
every  individual,  and  that  name  is  "Mother."  Because  of  this  inti- 
mate relation  I  desire  to  speak  briefly  upon  the  subject : 

god's  motherhood 

When  we  think  of  the  mystery  of  life,  and  how  the  young  are 
blinded  by  ignorance,  is  it  surprising  that  the  innocent  stumble  into 
the  pitfalls  of  sin  and  dishonor?  "We  should  be  impressed  with  the 
sacredness  which  comes  with  the  life  of  the  young  girl.  Her  eyes 
should  be  opened  and  she  should  be  taught  that  God  has  destined  her 
to  honored  motherhood,  and  that  any  condition  of  life  short  of  this  is 
out  of  harmony  with  the  Di\ane  plan.     Motherliood,  the  sweetest  of 


156  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

God's  gifts  to  humanity!  The  Creator  nuulc  no  mistake  when  lie  gave 
this  power  to  woman,  and  every  sacred  and  Divine  instinct  should  be 
brought  into  congregated  activity  to  preserve  this  God-given  grace, 
which  is  the  right  of  every  woman  to  keep  inviolate.  The  young  girl 
should  have  the  light,  and  as  the  morning  sun  begins  to  light  the  new 
day,  so  should  knowledge  be  imparted  to  the  young  girl  as  she  merges 
from  her  childhood  into  a  sacred  and  newer  relation — that  of  mother- 
hood. 

The  time  is  now  rife  with  splendid  opportunities  to  begin  a  cam- 
paign of  education  that  will  extend  into  the  heart  life  of  the  on-coming 
generation  of  young  womanhood,  in  order  that  every  young  girl  may 
be  early  taught  to  have  an  exalted  idea  of  the  sacredness  of  her  calling 
and  to  preserve  the  sanctity  of  her  own  body.  To  this  end  a  loiowledge 
of  the  dangers  which  may  surround  her,  through  which  she  may  fail  of 
a  life  in  keeping  with  that  high  sense  of  appreciation  of  her  individual 
or  personal  purity,  should  be  instilled  into  her  forming  mind.  The 
motherhood  instirvct,  beautiful  and  sublime  in  its  extremest  sense,  is 
but  a  perfect  type  of  Deity  and  a  co-partner  with  God  for  no  other 
purpose  than  to  carry  into  the  world  in  the  generation  of  new  beings, 
the  joys  and  pleasures  of  Eden.  Perversity  partakes  of  degradation 
and  a  departure  from  the  plan  which  God  ordained  in  the  beginning. 
]May  the  lost  joys  of  Eden  be  restored,  and  may  we  retrace  our  steps  to 
the  Creator's  original  plan,  and  in  the  language  of  Milton: 

"The  chariot  of  paternal  deity, 
Flashing  thick  flames,  wheel  within  wheel;    undrawn, 
Itself  instinct  with  spirit." 

The  w^omanhood  of  the  w-orld  must  be  protected,  and  all  godly  men 
must  come  to  the  rescue.  Christianity  is  the  one  plan  ordained  of 
God  that  will  save,  hence  the  inner  life,  the  life  we  live,  must  be  under 
the  control  of  the  teachings  of  the  lowdy  Nazarene.  The  girls  must 
be  taught  the  sacredness  of  their  bodies,  and  men  should  learn  that  the 
honor  of  women  is  a  God-given  grace  and  not  to  be  violated.  Let  us 
get  back  to  the  sacred  side  of  life  and  to  the  teachings  of  former  days, 
living  the  life  that  will  be  void  of  offense.  Teach  the  girls  the  things 
that  will  save  them  from  stumbling  into  the  pitfalls  of  wicked  men. 
If  the  manhood  of  this  country  will  not  respond  to  the  call  of  this 
great  reformation,  then  let  the  women  take  the  reins  of  government 
into  their  own  hands  and  rid  the  world  of  the  destructive  agencies  that 
are  destroying  the  motherhood,  womanhood  and  morals  of  the  home. 
I  mean  by  this  that,  should  men  not  see  the  necessity  of  taking  this 
advanced  step,  then  it  is  time  for  women  to  take  matters  into  their  own 
hands  and  protect  that  which  men  refuse  to  do.  Again,  educate  the 
girls. 


GENERAL   INDIVIDUiUlj    HYGIENE  157 

I  now  close  with  a  quotation  from  John  W.  Alvord :  ' '  The  charm 
of  life,  that  which  gives  it  its  zest  and  meaning,  is  to  do  useful  work 
for  our  time,  our  place  and  our  generation;  to  realize  that  we  are 
needed  in  the  progress  of  things,  and  even  at  times  appreciated ;  to 
give  more  than  we  receive ;  to  place  usefulness  ahead  of  emolument ; 
to  push  the  world  a  little  inch  up-hill,  to  plant  a  flower  in  everybody's 
garden  but  our  own. ' ' 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  DENTIST  IN  RACE  BETTERMENT 

C.  N.  Johnson,  D.D.S.,  Editor,  The  Dental  Review,  Chicago,  111. 

A  consideration  of  this  subject  calls  for  a  study  of  the  significance 
of  the  teeth  and  mouth  as  factors  in  individual  and  community  health. 
We  are  rapidly  learning  the  lesson  that  to  better  the  race  we  must 
better  the'  individual,  and  if  w^e  are  to  better  the  individual,  we  must 
add  to  his  physical,  mental  and  moral  efficiency.  It  has  long  been 
recognized,  in  a  general  way,  that  the  condition  of  the  teeth  has  much 
to  do  with  the  health  of  the  individual,  but  not  till  recently  has  the 
direct  relationship  between  oral  hygiene  and  bodily  health  been  defi- 
nitely and  undeniably  traced.  We  all  acknowledge  that  a  poorly 
nourished  body  must  result  in  inefficiency,  but  we  have  not  always 
studied  with  sufficient  care  all  of  the  causes  or  all  of  the  results  of 
faulty  nourishment.  This  question  concerns  us  most  in  growing  chil- 
dren— ^not  in  the  growing  children  of  the  well-to-do  perhaps,  so  much 
as  those  of  the  great  mass  of  humanity  who  today  are  everywhere — 
particularly  in  our  large  cities — being  gradually  assimilated  into  our 
future  citizenship. 

Let  one  of  these  growing  children  be  afflicted  with  decayed  and 
neglected  teeth,  what  is  the  result?  To  say  nothing  of  the  suffering 
which  frequently  follows  with  its  long  train  of  perverted  function  and 
incapacity,  we  have  the  immediate  result  of  inefficient  mastication. 
Without  mastication  we  cannot  have  good  digestion,  without  digestion 
we  cannot  have  assimilation  and  without  assimilation  we  cannot  have 
nourishment.  Many  a  child  is  starving  for  lack  of  the  necessary  ap- 
paratus with  which  to  properly  prepare  the  food  which  is  placed  before 
him.  And  the  damage  is  not  merely  negative — it  may  become  very 
positive.  The  child  who  is  illy  nourished  intuitively  develops  a  crav- 
ing for  stimulants.  Observation  has  demonstrated  the  fact  that  these 
poor  children  who  are  suffering  from  defective  teeth  and  cannot  masti- 
cate will  consume  enormous  quantities  of  coffee  or  tea  if  they  can  get 
it.    And  it  is  not  fanciful  to  go  one  step  further.    It  may  seem  a  far 


158  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCK    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

cry  from  doi'eetive  teeth  to  drimkeiitiess,  and  yet  it  is  a  possible  and  a 
perfectly  logical  sequence.  We  are  not  giving  these  children  a  fair 
chance  in  the  M'orld  for  place,  preferment  or  race  betterment  if  we 
permit  them  to  grow  up  with  faulty  mouth  conditions. 

Not  only  this  but  there  is  a  quite  unsuspected  and  a  very  real 
danger  to  the  individual  and  to  the  community  as  the  result  of  defec- 
tive teeth  and  broken  down  roots  left  in  the  jaws.  The  inevitable 
abscesses  from  these  roots  discharge  large  quantities  of  pus  to  be 
taken  up  in  the  circulation  or  carried  into  the  stomach  or  lungs,  creat- 
ing a  constant  poison  which  should  no  longer  be  ignored.  A  general 
infection  of  the  system  sometimes  results  from  an  abscess  on  a  single 
tooth,  and  it  is  not  unusual  to  have  a  life  lost  from  this  cause.  These 
decayed  cavities  in  teeth  also  form  an  ideal  culture  place  for  patho- 
genic micro-organisms,  which  are  a  constant  menace  to  the  individual 
as  well  as  to  others  with  whom  the  individual  comes  in  contact.  Cook, 
of  Chicago,  demonstrated  the  tuberculosis  bacillus  in  the  roots  of 
pulpless  teeth  and  traced  it  down  through  the  jaws  to  the  glands  of 
the  neck.  There  is  no  question  that  there  have  been  direct  tuberculosis 
infections  from  this  source.  One  writer  has  gone  so  far  as  to  say  that 
95  per  cent  of  tuberculosis  is  due  directly  or  indirectly  to  faulty  mouth 
conditions,  that  aside  from  the  cases  of  direct  infection  from  the  roots 
of  teeth  there  are  the  numberless  other  cases  where  the  system  is 
rendered  susceptible  to  tuberculosis  through  inefficient  mastication 
and  its  consequent  train  of  evils.  We  all  know  that  the  significant 
thing  in  tuberculosis  is  the  factor  of  susceptibility — that  practically 
every  individual  is  exposed  to  the  tubercle  bacillus  at  one  time  or 
another  on  account  of  its  almost  universal  existence,  and  that  the  rea- 
son some  people  escape  its  ravages  is  because  of  their  resistance  to  its 
encroachment.  Let  an  individual  be  illy  nourished  or  ''run  down,"  as 
the  phrase  is,  let  the  system  be  impoverished  through  faulty  assimila- 
tion so  as  to  develop  a  lack  of  tonicity,  and  the  inevitable  result  is  an 
increased  susceptibility  to  an  attack  of  tuberculosis.  The  tubercle 
bacillus  seeks  a  field  where  the  tissues  are  lowered  in  tone,  and  its  in- 
vasion is  usually  the  result  of  a  lessened  resistance  through  bad  air  and 
lack  of  proper  nourishment.  Reasoning  from  this  it  is  not  difficult 
to  connect  this  disease  in  its  incipiency  with  defective  and  diseased 
teeth. 

In  the  public  schools  of  Chicago  there  was  at  one  time  an  epidemic 
of  scarlet  fever.  The  health  department  quarantined  every  child 
afflicted  with  the  disease  the  regulation  time,  and  yet  scarlet  fever  kept 
spreading.  It  was  noticed  that  immediately  following  the  return  of 
the  quarantined  children  to  school  new  cases  developed  among  their 
associates  and  it  was  clear  that  in  some  manner  these  children  were 


GENERAL   INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  159 

spreading  the  disease  even  after  they  themselves  had  long  since  passed 
the  infective  stage.  It  occurred  to  the  then  Commissioner  of  Health, 
Dr..W.  A.  Evans,  that  there  could  be  only  two  ways  in  which  this 
might  happen — the  child  might  carry  the  germs  of  scarlet  fever  in- 
definitely in  the  tonsils  or  in  the  cavities  of  decayed  teeth.  His  first 
order  was  that  no  child  who  had  suffered  from  scarlet  fever  should 
be  permitted  to  return  to  school  till  all  decayed  teeth  were  filled 
and  the  mouth  made  hygienic.  Immediately  scarlet  fever  was  stamped 
out  of  the  Chicago  schools.  Precisely  the  same  thing  happened  in 
the  public  schools  of  Valparaiso,  Ind.  Doctor  Nesbit,  the  health 
commissioner,  succeeded  through  a  similar  regulation  in  arresting  an 
epidemic  of  scarlet  fever  which  had  persisted  for  so  long  a  period  that 
it  had  practically  paralyzed  the  school  system  of  that  city. 

These  instances  are  only  the  merest  hint  of  what  might  be  written 
on  the  relationship  of  defective  teeth  to  the  community  health,  but 
they  must  suffice  for  the  present  occasion,  with  the  passing  statement 
that  nowhere  in  all  the  realm  of  medicine  is  there  a  more  important 
question  than  this  of  oral  hygiene  or  oral  sepsis. 

If,  then,  defective  teeth  are  such  a  prime  factor  in  physical  in- 
efficiency it  may  be  well  for  us  to  consider  briefly  the  prevalence  of  this 
affection.  Few  people  have  any  conception  of  the  relative  number  of 
children  who  are  growing  up  with  bad  mouth  conditions  which  prove  a 
handicap  to  themselves  and  a  menace  to  the  community.  In  an  exami- 
nation of  the  teeth  of  school  children  in  various  communities  it  has 
been  found  that  at  least  90  per  cent  of  them  have  decayed  teeth.  In 
the  public  schools  of  Chicago,  where  nearly  70,000  children  have  been 
examined,  the  percentage  runs  much  higher  than  this.  During  the 
month  of  November,  1913,  there  were  examined  2,231  children,  of 
whom  2,224  were  found  with  defective  teeth.  When  only  seven  chil- 
dren out  of  2,231  in  a  given  community  are  found  with  perfect  teeth 
it  is  surely  time  that  our  civic  authorities  and  our  boards  of  health 
•  give  some  heed  to  this  important  matter. 

In  conducting  ten  free  dental  infirmaries  in  the  public  school  build- 
ings of  Chicago  where  the  teeth  of  poor  children  are  cared  for  we 
are  brought  face  to  face  with  the  appalling  enormity  of  the  need 
of  this  service.  The  waiting  lists  of  children  seeking  relief,  and  the 
verdict  of  the  school  principals  where  the  infirmaries  are  in  operation 
are  sufficiently  striking  to  impress  even  the  casual  observer  with  the 
significance  of  the  work.  One  principal  writes:  "We  are  very  en- 
thusiastic over  the  benefits  derived  from  the  work  done  by  the  dental 
dispensary  in  this  school.  So  far  this  year,  emergency  cases  and  very 
badly  neglected  eases  have  kept  the  dentist  busy  every  minute  of  the 


IGO  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

school  clay.  Xccdlcss  lo  say  llic  improved  physical  condition  of  these 
children  has  helped  Ihciu  accoiiiijlish  more  in  the  school  room." 

Another  one  says:  "I  think  there  is  no  (piestion  about  the  need 
of  tliis  dental  work  in  the  schools  and  the  good  that  the  service  is 
doing.  "We  find  that  ])i'aetically  all  of  the  children  need  attention, 
and  that  very  few  of  them  have  received  any.  Formerly  I  had  to  send 
many  children  home  with  toothache.     Now  I  send  none." 

This  gives  me  the  opportunity  of  remarking  parenthetically  that 
if  our  school  boards  would  spend  one-half  the  amount  in  a  campaign 
for  the  amelioration  and  prevention  of  disease  that  they  now  spend 
annually  for  teaching  the  "repeaters"  who  are  made  such  by  reason  of 
disease,  it  would  not  only  be  more  humanitarian  but  it  would  be  an 
immense  saving  financially. 

Another  consideration  in  this  connection  having  a  direct  bearing 
on  race  betterment  relates  to  the  handicap  to  the  boy  or  girl  who  is 
allowed  to  grow  up  with  deformities  of  the  mouth  and  face  due  to 
irregular  teeth.  In  this  age  of  keen  competition  for  place  and  prefer- 
ment the  appearance  of  the  individual  so  far  as  physiognomy  is  con- 
cerned has  much  to  do  with  his  prospects  for  advancement.  One  strik- 
ing case  came  under  the  writer's  observation,  and  it  seems  worth  re- 
lating as  illustrative  of  the  point  under  consideration.  In  one  of  the 
eastern  schools  for  girls  there  is  a  most  estimable  woman  endowed  by 
Nature  with  the  mentality  and  executive  ability  to  be  principal  of  the 
school,  and  to  wield  a  large  influence  in  the  educational  world.  Only 
one  thing  has  prevented  her  advancement  and  kept  her  in  a  subordi- 
nate position.  "When  she  was  a  growing  girl  some  one  who  had  charge 
of  her — let  us  hope  it  was  not  her  parents— permitted  her  to  come  to 
womanhood  mth  such  an  irregularity  of  her  teeth  that  it  was  im- 
possible for  her  to  cover  her  upper  anterior  teeth  with  her  lip  on 
account  of  the  undue  protrusion  of  the  upper  incisors.  This  caused 
such  a  deformity  of  her  jaws  and  face  that  it  detracted  immeasurably 
from  the  force  of  character  of  her  countenance,  and  as  one  young  lady 
pupil  expressed  it.  ""Without  quite  knowing  the  reason,  somehow  you 
could  never  imagine  her  as  a  principal  of  a  school." 

These  things  give  us  pause  and  make  us  wonder  if  we  have  any 
right  to  bring  children  into  the  world  and  allow  them  to  grow  up  with 
such  physical  handicaps  as  shall  prevent  them  from  having  a  fair 
chance  to  make  their  way  advantageously  in  life. 

It  is  to  the  prevention  of  disease,  the  relief  of  suffering,  and  the 
correction  of  deformities — thus  adding  to  the  efficiency  and  happiness 
of  the  individual  and  the  community — that  the  dentist  is  committed  in 
his  function  for  the  betterment  of  the  race. 


GENERAL   INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  161 

UNBIOLOGICAL    HABITS 

William   W.   Hastings,   Ph.D.,   Dean   of  the  Normal   School   of  Physical 
Education,  Battle  Creek,  Miehig-an. 

Even  a  fish  feels  the  downward  pull  of  civilization  and  contracts 
its  diseases.  In  pure  fresh  water  in  a  state  of  nature  fish  are  healthy, 
—in  private  fish  ponds  often  affected  with  a  sort  of  goitre.  In  the 
hatcheries  of  Long  Island  the  spread  of  disease  among  trout  has 
occasioned  much  alarm.  Dr.  Henry  B.  Ward,  Head  of  the  Biological 
Department  of  the  University  of  Illinois,  and  United  States  fisheries 
expert  for  many  summers  on  Lake  Michigan  and  in  Alaska,  said  to 
me  recently  that  the  disease  of  trout  in  the  Long  Island  hatcheries  is 
a  sort  of  goitre,  a  proliferation  of  the  thyroid,  a  condition  of  mal- 
nutrition, either  hyper-nutrition  or  ab-nutrition  due  to  the  lack  of 
adaptation  of  the  food  in  quantity  or  quality.  The  trout  are  fed  on 
chopped  liver. 

He  stated  also  that  the  salmon  in  a  free  state  in  Alaska  are  free 
from  cancer  or  any  other  abnormal  growths  under  the  normal  condi- 
tions which  prevail  in  summer  at  least.  During  one  summer  with  the 
aid  of  eight  Chinese  butchers  he  inspected  a  half  million  fish,  10,000  of 
them  himself.  The  Chinese  were  paid  so  much  for  all  specimens  re- 
ported and  a  higher  rate  for  small  defects.  There  were  deformed  fins, 
evidently  due  to  some  mechanical  injury,  but  only  two  cases  of  abnor- 
mal groM^ths  out  of  a  half  million,  one  an  esophageal  tumor,  a  benign 
growth,  and  the  other  a  tumor  of  the  viscera  not  of  a  malign  character, 
a  dropsical  mass,  a  cell  proliferation  but  not  cancerous. 

The  general  effect  of  the  domestication  of  wild  animals  is  to  reduce 
the  vital  energy  and  the  tonicity  of  the  neuro-muscular  system — to 
subtract  spirit,  strength,  endurance.  In  case  of  most  diseases  of  ani- 
mals no  attempt  is  made  to  trace  them  to  mankind  and  to  claim 
immediate  human  infection.  It  is  an  established  fact,  however,  that 
tuberculosis  is  transmissible  from  man  to  animals  and  conversely. 
Cats  are  a  very  common  carrier  of  diphtheria  and  are  especially  sub- 
ject to  throat  troubles.  Whatever  the  inter-relationship  of  human  and 
animal  diseases,  it  is  clear  that  the  same  conditions  which  tend  to  in- 
duce diseases  in  animals  give  rise  to  similar  diseases  in  men ;  namely, 
uncleanliness,  ill  adapted  food,  undue  confinement,  and  inactivity  due 
to  segregation  and  lack  of  necessity  to  seek  food. 

The  first  effect  of  such  confinement  upon  an  eagle,  a  leopard  or  any 
other  animal  of  very  active  habits  is  to  provoke  an  apathetic,  dis- 
couraged or  sullen  attitude  which  may  result  in  a  state  of  malnutrition 
and  ultimate  physical  decline  or  death. 

These  first  ill  effects  of  the  captivity  of  very  wild  things  are  patent 

(7) 


162  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

to  all,  but  not  the  permanent  racial  efit'eets  on  domestieated  animals 
for  the  reason  that  Ave  have  become  so  accustomed  to  these  as  not  to 
observe  such  points.  The  popular  view  in  fact  assumes  that  contact 
with  man  is  beneficial,  that  without  his  over-lordship  the  poor  things 
would  starve,  ^^■ould  revert  in  type,  the  fat  sleek  Jersey  and  Holstein 
become  wiry,  lean,  wild  cattle,  the  dog  regain  his  wolfishness,  the  race 
horse  become  a  nnistang.  Usually,  however,  the  loss  would  be  one  of 
size  and  adaptation  of  use  but  would  be  in  the  nature  of  a  distinct  gain 
in  strength  and  vitality.  The  bear  or  wolf  dog  is  not  permitted  by 
the  experienced  hunter  to  lie  by  the  fire  and  fatten,  but  is  exposed  to 
the  same  battle  with  Nature  as  the  w^olf  with  which  he  is  to  fight  and 
is  kept  lean  and  hungry  on  a  m.oderate  diet  and  by  training. 

Only  in  rare  cases  have  men  understood  the  nature  of  animals  suffi- 
ciently well  to  conserve  their  finest  qualities,  speed,  strength,  etc. 
The  intelligent  trainer  of  race  horses  for  example  not  only  feeds  but 
bathes  and  exercises  his  horses.  All  this  the  wild  horse  does  for  himself. 
Even  a  cow  or  a  cat  keeps  the  skin  clean  and  hair  brushed  and  the 
roots  active  and  live. 

The  last  thing  a  man  is  learning  to  do  is  to  restore  and  conserve  his 
primitive  virility  and  the  last  and  hardest  thing  he  has  to  learn  in 
method  is  that  this  process  must  be  one  of  return  to  Nature. 

Our  whole  contention  then  in  the  discussion  of  unbiological  habits 
is  against  the  habits  of  civilization,  and  the  touchstone  used  in  sifting 
out  the  habits  that  menace  vitality,  longevity  and  racial  vigor  is  and 
always  must  be,  ''Is  this  habit  natural?  Does  it  tend  to  produce  the 
normal  individual  ? ' ' 

A  man  at  any  moment  is  but  the  summation  of  all  that  he  has 
thought  and  done,  he  is  a  bundle  of  habits ;  function  makes  structure. 
Unnatural  habits  mean  degeneration  or  subtraction  from  the  vital 
reserves  and  longevity,  and  normal  habits  mean  on  the  other  hand 
development,  long  life  and  a  stronger  heredity  for  the  coming  genera- 
tion. 

"What  is  true  of  one  man  is  true  of  an  aggregation  of  men,  a  nation- 
ality or  a  race — with  the  added  fact  that  social  customs  involved  in 
segregation  are  the  most  important  factor  in  the  determination  of  in- 
dividual habits.  Climate  and  social  habits  are  principally  responsible 
for  racial  types;  the  racial  stock  doubtless  for  centuries  affects  the 
type  thru  inheritance  of  physique  and  thru  traditions  as  to  social  cus- 
toms. 

Our  country  in  its  natural  environment  appears  more  favorable  to 
racial  development  than  European  countries.  There  are  differences  in 
development  in  various  parts  of  the  United  States  which  appear  to  be 
due  to  segregation  of  population  more  than  to  climate. 


GENERAL   INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  163 

Diseases  are  more  prevalent  in  states  containing  large  city  popula- 
tions. Nervous  diseases  so  common  in  cities  are  quite  properly  termed 
diseases  of  civilization.  Incessant  noise,  foul  air,  exposure  to  infec- 
tious diseases,  excess  of  food  and  ill  adaptation  of  the  same,  the 
habitual  use  of  stimulants  and  narcotics  and  muscular  inactivity,  are 
some  of  the  principal  causes  of  race  degeneracy  in  cities. 

Dr.  B.  A.  Gould  and  Dr.  J.  H.  Baxter  both  observe  the  physical 
superiority  of  American  Indians  and  white  descendants  of  European 
stock  over  emigrants  from  the  same  countries  who  enlisted  in  our  Civil 
War.  Baxter  demonstrates  the  physical  superiority  of  recruits  from 
Western  and  Southern  over  Eastern  states,  and  the  greater  preva- 
lence of  diseases,  especially  of  nervous  diseases,  in  states  containing 
large  city  population. 

Thru  the  work  of  boards  of  health  the  death  rate  is  being  reduced 
in  some  cases  below  the  average  for  the  country.  Chicago  for  example 
has  in  the  last  ten  years  lowered  its  death  rate  to  less  than  the  average 
for  the  country ;  in  fact,  city  people  are  becoming  very  much  better  in- 
formed as  to  the  laws  of  health  than  country  people.  Only  the  com- 
pulsion of  the  necessity  of  covering  distances  in  the  every-day  round, 
and  the  so-called  inconveniences  of  country  life  which  compel  physical 
activity,  are  responsible  for  the  degree  of  health  possessed  by  country 
people.  It  appears  that  most  men  will  not  do  muscular  work  unless 
they  must.  In  most  ordinary  occupations  and  the  daily  round  there  is 
little  or  no  work  for  arms  and  trunk  muscles.  We  are,  therefore, 
poorly  developed  in  the  upper  bod}^  We  still  have  legs,  but  autos  and 
street  cars  are  fast  depriving  us  of  even  these. 

Race  degeneracy  has  so  touched  the  brains  of  some  that  they  are 
willing  to  call  degeneracy  development  and  to  proclaim  the  evolution 
of  a  new  race,  in  which  the.  body  becomes  attenuated  and  the  head 
mammoth-like  in  contrast,  as  in  our  newspaper  cartoons.  But  big 
brains  demand  good,  rich  red  blood,  as  much  as  do  muscles,  and  how 
may  one  provide  this  except  thru  a  big  vital  system. 

The  student  of  any  species  of  life  of  today  is  not  content  with 
identification  and  abstract  classification  of  life;  he  studies  it  in  its 
relationships,  seeks  to  know  its  enemies  and  its  friends.  The  biologist 
is  of  necessity  also  an  entomologist  and  a  student  of  horticulture. 
Conservation  is  the  watchword  of  the  country.  The  conventions  of 
the  Christmas  holidays,  whether  of  the  various  departments  of  the 
American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science  in  Atlanta,  or 
of  the  Athletic  Associations  meeting  in  New  York,  were  full  of  the  sub- 
ject of  human  conservation.  It  comes  to  us  from  every  angle,  scientific 
and  practical. 


164  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

Millions  hav(>  been  expended  by  the  United  States  and  state  govern- 
ments in  the  suppression  of  hog  cholera,  the  boll-weevil,  gypsy  moth, 
etc.,  but  only  recently  has  man  awakened  to  the  fact  of  race  degen- 
eracy, and  attempted  to  study  himself  and  to  ascertain  the  unbiological 
habits  which  lie  at  the  root  of  the  decline  in  racial  vigor  and  to  remove 
them. 

The  first  and  most  obvious  realization  of  forces  inimical  to  life 
has  been  that  of  infectious  diseases,  diseases  communicable  by  contact 
and  aggravated  in  their  spread  by  congestion  of  population. 
By  the  elimination  of  such  acute  diseases  the  average  length  of  life 
has  in  one  generation  been  increased  ten  years.  Life  expectation 
is  now  forty  years  instead  of  thirty.  This  is  more  remarkable  when  it 
is  remembered  that  the  death  rate  from  diseases  of  heart,  kidneys, 
lungs  and  other  chronic  diseases  due  to  incorrect  personal  habits  has 
nearly  doubled  in  the  same  period.  More  men  live  to  be  forty  but 
fewer  men  live  to  be  sixty  and  seventy  and  a  hundred. 

In  searching  for  the  cause  for  this  condition  we  are  led  to  the  con- 
clusion that  there  is  a  prevailing  lack  of  vitality  or  reserve  force 
enabling  men  to  throw  off  the  more  virulent  germs  of  disease,  and  that 
we  are  crippled  in  various  ways,  locally  weakened  in  lungs,  stomach, 
liver,  etc.,  by  unwholesome  personal  habits. 

Low  vitality  and  reserve  force  are  principally  responsible  for  the 
increase  of  the  more  virulent  germ  diseases,  and  the  prevalence  of 
anemia,  neurasthenia,  insanity  and  other  so-called  diseases  of  civiliza- 
tion or  urbanization.  Thru  this  lowered  vitality  of  people  in  general 
we  have  discovered  the  physiological  effects  of  various  unbiological 
habits  as  was  not  possible  when  men  were  as  a  rule  more  vigorous. 

Ditch  diggers,  coal  heavers,  miners  or  other  men  who  do  strong 
muscular  work,  perspire  freely  and  live  in  the  open  air,  may  neglect 
many  habits  of  life  which  are  conducive  to  health  and  development, 
and  escape  serious  illness  for  many  years,  but  the  man  leading  a 
sedentary  life  cannot  do  so.  A  man  doing  heavy  muscular  work,  be- 
cause of  the  free  perspiration  induced  by  his  daily  labor,  and  life  in 
the  open  air,  may  be  able  to  keep  his  skin  more  or  less  active  without 
suitable  baths,  may  preserve  his  teeth  thru  the  chewing  of  coarse  food 
and  throw  off  the  bacilli  cultures  of  the  mouth  thru  the  antiseptic 
strength  of  the  mouth  secretions  due  to  his  splendid  vitality  rather 
than  by  the  use  of  a  tooth  brush,  may  eat  an  excess  of  meat,  drink  a 
goodly  amount  of  alcohol  and  escape  immediate  disease  or  breakdown, 
but  for  any  violation  of  the  order  of  Nature  he  must  suffer  a  loss  of 
immediate  energy  which  corresponds  to  his  power  of  resistance.  There 
is  no  escape  from  Nature.    She  exacts  her  due.    If  a  man  takes  poisons 


GENERAL   INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  165 

into  his  system  thru  contracting  drug  habits,  if  he  overeats  (a  most 
common  American  failing)  or  eats  ill  adapted  food,  he  must  lose  the 
days  or  hours  necessary  to  correct  the  mistake — and  these  days  or 
hours  are  not  simply  lost  out  of  life  but  are  subtracted  from  life  ex- 
pectation.   Nature  is  inexorable. 

Of  all  the  habits  which  militate  against  life,  the  most  deleterious  is 
the  muscular  inactivity  which  is  involved  in  city  life.  With  the  in- 
creased specialization  of  industries  and  the  increase  in  work  done  by 
machinery,  few  occupations  involve  any  hard  muscular  work.  Urban 
life  makes  comfort  and  convenience  and  saving  time  its  slogan,  makes 
rapid  transportation  one  of  its  chief  efforts.  No  man  does  any  work 
for  himself  except  that  connected  with  his  own  business,  and  that  is 
specialized  until  there  is  no  variety  of  effort.  In  few  occupations  is 
there  any  muscular  effort  left.  So  much  is  done  by  machinery,  even 
in  the  country,  the  greater  part  of  the  old  muscular  work  of  the  farm 
has  been  eliminated.  There  is  nothing  in  the  city  from  childhood  up  to 
provoke  muscularity,  strength  and  organic  vigor  and  everything  to  en- 
courage the  opposite.  Inactivity  is  the  most  destructive  of  all  un- 
biological  habits.  Street  cars  and  autos  discourage  even  walking  to 
and  from  work.  One  may  obtain  a  degree  of  health  from  the  provision 
of  the  proper  air,  water,  food,  baths,  clothing  and  rest  periods,  and 
the  prevention  of  the  spread  of  contagious  diseases ;  in  short,  by  the 
provision  of  a  wholesome  environment,  but  these  negative  factors  will 
not  produce  vigor,  reserve  force,  the  power  to  throw  off  disease  and 
the  power  to  live  long  and  to  perpetuate  the  race.  These  can  result 
only  thru  every-day  out-of-door  exercise  and  recreation.  Give  us  back 
the  physical  habits  of  Merrie  Old  England. 

The  deteriorating  effect  of  the  unbiological  habits  of  our  modern 
civilization  upon  the  heredity,  the  growth  and  development  of  chil- 
dren, is  manifested  in  the  decay  of  the  teeth  indicating  constitutional 
feebleness,  in  the  great  increase  in  eye  disorders,  in  defects  of  hearing, 
adenoids,  enlarged  tonsils,  anemia,  chorea,  epilepsy,  feeble  mindedness 
and  other  diseases  of  the  nervous  system.  Over  half  the  children  in 
city  schools  have  some  of  these  defects.  The  recent  investigations  in 
Battle  Creek  in  connection  with  the  Physical  and  Mental  Perfection 
Contests  have  demonstrated  the  possibility  of  nearly  perfect  children 
thru  good  heredity  and  proper  care.  Eugenics  and  euthenics  should 
be  the  study  of  all  parents. 

You  will  pardon  my  temerity  in  summing  up  a  few  of  the  simple 
things  which  we  all  know  as  affecting  the  life  of  the  individual  and 
the  race : 

It  is  better  to  have  fillings  in  your  teeth  than  to  lose  them  entirely, 


166  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

l)iit  ht'ttcr  still  to  choose  ^ood  |)iift'iits  and  use  n  ^ooil  tooth  Ijnish  freely 
and  not  need  the  Hllings  at  all. 

It  is  better  to  take  the  morning  cool  hath  daily,  cleanse  the  skin  and 
tone  up  the  arteries  than  to  put  all  the  work  of  elimination  on  the 
lungs  and  kidneys  and  contract  some  chronic  disease  at  fifty. 

It  is  better  to  take  time  and  take  it  regularly  for  proper  elimina- 
tion than  to  suiifer  fatigue  and  loss  of  the  power  of  mental  concentra- 
tion from  the  reabsorption  of  poisons  into  the  system. 

It  is  better  to  stand  up  straight  like  a  man  than  to  approximate  the 
all-fours  habit  of  our  cousins,  the  apes,  and  contract  spinal  cvirvature, 
limit  vital  capacity  and  suffer  ultimately  from  nervous  and  lung 
troubles. 

It  is  better  to  eat  lightly  and  simply  of  digestible  food  rather  than 
to  consume  half  the  energy  produced  by  this  same  food  in  the  proc- 
esses of  preparation  for  assimilation,  better  also  to  abstain  from 
headaches  and  other  symptoms  of  autointoxication  due  to  wrong  feed- 
ing. Better  to  leave  the  young  pig  in  the  mire  than  to  help  him  out 
by  being  compelled  to  expend  your  vital  energy  in  his  elimination. 

It  is  better  to  sleep  in  a  close  room  long  and  laboriously  than  not  to 
sleep  at  all,  but  best  to  sleep  with  windows  open  wide  or  out  of  doors 
and  save  an  hour  of  life  daily. 

It  is  better  to  allow  yourself  some  amusement  daily  for  a.  few 
minutes  at  least,  but  not  preferably  for  several  hours  in  a  stuffy  theatre 
or  public  dance  hall  until  late  at  night.  We  Americans  are  losing  our 
mental  poise  partly  by  indulging  in  the  tense  exciting  things  rather 
than  retaining  the  simple  home  amusements  of  our  English  forebears. 

It  is  better  to  do  resistive  exercises  in  your  own  room  or  formal 
gymnastics  in  the  gymnasium  than  to  get  no  exercise  at  all  and  no 
neuro-muscular  tone,  but  best  of  all  to  get  out  of  doors  and  work  or 
play  where  God  meant  you  to  be.  Men  require  recreation,  relaxation 
for  strong  life  and  long  life. 

"It  is  better  to  marry  than  to  burn,"  Paul  says,  but  better  still  to 
remain  single  and  burn  out  your  life  in  the  service  of  humanity  than  to 
marry  without  health  and  without  perfect  mating.  Even  the  birds 
know  better  than  this.  If  Avedded  life  is  the  most  natural  and  most 
important  matter  in  the  world  individual  and  national,  why  not  pre- 
pare for  it  by  seeking  the  greatest  possible  physical  perfection  and 
mentality  and  real  character  and  by  a  study  of  the  nature  and  func- 
tion of  true  love,  which  is  the  highest  force  in  all  Nature. 


GENERAL   INDIVIDUiVL    HYGIENE  167 

THE  INCREASE  OF  INSANITY 

James  T.  Searcy,  A.B.,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  Superintendent  Alabama  Hospitals  for 
,   Insane,  Tuscaloosa,  Alabama. 

As  our  Chairman  has  said,  "It  is  the  unexpected  that  happens.'" 
I  would  have  prepared  myself  to  speak  more  succinctly  and  concisely, 
within  ten  minutes,  on  such  a  subject,  if  I  had  knowTi  I  should  have  to 
make  a  talk, 

I  am  called  sometimes  down  in  Alabama  the  "Head  Crazy  Man 
of  the  State, ' '  because  I  am  at  the  head  of  about  twenty-two  hundred 
insane  persons.  About  eight  hundred  of  them  are  negroes  and  about 
fourteen  hundred  are  whites.  My  following  is  increasing  faster  than 
any  other  one  class  of  people  in  the  state. 

We  feel  ourselves  discouraged  often  by  the  rate  of  increase  of  the 
patients  who  are  coming  into  the  insane  hospitals.  The  population  of 
the  state  of  Alabama,  according  to  the  census  (during  the  ten  years 
which  the  census  included) ,  increased  sixteen  per  cent ;  the  admissions 
into  the  insane  hospitals  increased  forty-five  per  cent — sixty  per  cent 
increase  among  the  negroes  and  thirty  per  cent  among  the  whites. 

These  are  appalling  figures,  but  "misery  likes  company,"  and  we 
can  parallel  them  all  over  the  United  States — not  like  them  exactly 
in  each  state,  for  they  differ.  The  general  population  of  the  United 
States  increased  eighteen  per  cent,  and  that  of  the  insane  hospitals 
increased  twenty-eight  per  cent  during  the  years  of  the  census.  In 
Alabama  we  have  about  two  million  two  hundred  thousand  people,  and 
we  have  twenty-two  hundred  patients  in  the  insane  hospitals,  or  about 
one  patient  to  every  thousand  of  the  population.  In  Georgia  they 
have  one  to  about  seven  or  eight  hundred;  in  Virginia  one  to  six  or 
seven  hundred;  in  New  York,  they  have  one  to  less  than  three  hun- 
dred. In  these  states  up  this  way  (toward  Michigan),  it  is  about  one 
to  every  four  hundred  or  five  hundred. 

Something  is  wrong.  This  increase  of  insanity  is  prevailing  in 
civilized  countries  more  than  in  other  countries,  and,  apparently,  the 
more  civilized,  the  greater  the  increase.  This  is  evidently  the  effect  of 
civilization. 

The  increase  of  insanity  is  a  perplexing  question.  A  man  who  is 
a  psychiatrist,  in  charge  of  persons  of  defective  brains,  is  cross-fired 
from  all  directions  every  day  with  inquiries  as  to  what  is  the  matter. 
"Why  is  insanity  increasing  at  such  a  rate  ? 

Insanity  represents  the  extreme  end  of  human  deficiency  and  de- 
fectiveness. People  in  insane  hospitals  have  reached  such  an  extreme 
grade  of  mental  deficiency  and  defectiveness  that  the  state  has  had  to 
interpose  and  take  charge  of  them.     Short  of  that  grade  there  are 


1()S  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

tlioiisiuuls  at  lar^'c,  oi"  every  ^rade.  Do  you  know  tliat  in  the  schools  in 
this  country  there  are  more  children  dullards  today,  not  able  to  keep 
lip  with  their  classes,  than  there  were  five  years  ago?  Also  there  are 
more  wayward  boys  and  bad  girls.  Among  adults,  all  types  of 
aberrance  are  increasing.  We  are  building  institutions — penal,  cor- 
rectional and  charitable — to  benefit  all  these,  by  placing  such  people 
in  them.  We  cannot  build  them  fast  enough.  We  have  attempted 
to  relieve  the  insane  hospitals  by  starting  epileptic  colonies,  reforma- 
tories for  inebriates,  schools  for  feeble-minded,  and  many  such  institu- 
tions. They  are  full.  Still  the  insane  hospitals  are  crying  for  more 
room. 

I  am  asked  what  causes  prevail  in  civilized,  more  than  in  other 
countries,  tending  to  this.  One  of  the  reasons,  I  throw  out  as  a  sug- 
gestion is  that  we  have  been  taught  to  value  all  human  lives  alike. 
All  our  social  work  runs  on  these  principles.  Those  who  are  defective 
and  deficient  reap  quick  advantage  of  these  opportunities  and  live  to 
adult  life.  Then  they  multiply  themselves.  Civilization  is  multiplying 
the  deficient  and  defective  classes  in  that  way — by  giving  an  equal 
valuation  to  all  alike.  In  the  uncivilized  stage  of  our  history  they 
dropped  out. 

The  kejmote  of  this  Conference  should  be  to  deny  that  all  are 
alike  valuable;  to  show  that  there  are  grades  in  excellences  and  in 
deficiencies;  and  to  show  that  the  hereditary  multiplication  of  the 
deficient  and  defective  ought  to  be  discouraged  in  every  way. 

There  is  another  reason ;  it  is  in  harmony  with  a  good  deal  of  the 
talk  you  have  heard  here  at  this  Conference. 

We  have  in  medicine  a  line  of  drugs  that  are  much  used ;  some- 
times called  ''anesthetics"  and  "anodynes."  These  range  all  the  way 
through  a  long  list.  There  are  chloroform,  ether,  nitrous  oxid,  chloral 
solutions,  the  alkaloids  that  we  get  out  of  opium,  like  morphin,  codein 
and  heroin,  and  its  solutions,  paregoric  and  laudanum.  There  are 
cocaine  from  cocoa  leaves,  nicotine  from  tobacco,  alcohol  from  ferment- 
ing material,  caffein  from  coffee,  tea  and  cola-nuts.  The  effect  of 
these  drugs  is  to  chemically  act  upon  the  sensory  nerves  and  brain 
tracts — because  they  are  more  delicate  than  any  other  structures. 
They  make  a  person  at  first  feel  better ;  when  he  takes  them,  he  likes 
them ;  but,  secondarily,  the  repeated  use  of  any  one  of  them  impairs 
these  nerve  structures  to  such  a  degree  that  he  feels  generally  bad 
when  the  drug  is  withdrawn.  The  habitual  user  of  any  one  of  them, 
I  don't  care  which  (whether  caffeine,  nicotine,  alcohol,  cocaine,  mor- 
phine— through  the  whole  list),  is  dragging  a  lengthening  chain  of  dis- 
comfort, which  shows  itself  when  the  drug  is  withdrawn.     A  drug 


GENERAL   INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  169 

habitue  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  a  person  with  that  kind  of  im- 
paired nerve  structures.  He  feels  bad  from  the  chemic  effects  of  such 
a  drug  and  he  knows  he  can  take  more  to  relieve  it  and  he  does  it. 
Their  continued  use,  as  luxuries,  is  having  a  general  effect  through- 
out all  the  civilized  land.  It  is  producing  in  this  country  "dope 
diatheses."  Children  are  born  "feeling  bad."  A  child  of  parents, 
both  of  them,  or  either  of  them,  taking  any  of  these  agents,  comes 
into  the  world  with  that  kind  of  discomforted  nervous  system.  He 
"feels  bad,"  he  is  "born  tired,"  and  takes  to  the  use  of  these  drugs 
just  as  readily  as  a  duck  takes  to  water.  We  are  increasing  in  this 
country  this  kind  of  neurasthenia :  it  is  said  to  be  more  prevalent  in 
America  than  anywhere  else.  And  we  are  doing  it  in  this  very  way. 
Increasing  insanity  comes  as  a  final  result  of  bad  heredity  and 
drug  abuse  of  the  brain,  both  most  prevalent  in  civilized  countries. 

THE    INCREASE    OF    INSANITY 

Professor  Walter  F.  Willcox 

Almost  everybody  who  has  studied  insanity  believes  it  is  on  the 
increase  and  at  a  very  alarming  rate.  I  have  no  desire  to  question, 
much  less  to  deny,  that  statement.  At  the  same  time,  I  think  there 
are  reasons  for  believing  that,  if  it  is  increasing,  the  increase  is  much 
less  rapid  than  the  figures,  on  their  face,  would  indicate. 

For  example,  several  years  ago  a  paper  was  written  by  one  of  the 
foremost  of  English  statisticians  on  the  increase  of  insanity  in  Eng- 
land.* He  believed  that  there  was  no  conclusive  evidence,  from  the 
statistics,  to  warrant  the  inference  that  insanity  was  on  the  increase. 
The  Royal  Statistical  Society  gave  the  writer  a  silver  medal,  on  the 
ground  that  his  was  the  most  valuable  statistical  paper  of  the  year. 

How  is  it  in  the  United  States?  No  such  careful  study  as  was 
then  made  by  Humphreys  has  ever  been  made  of  the  American  figures 
indicating  an  apparent  increase  of  insanity  in  the  United  States.  But 
it  should  be  pointed  out  (as  to  some  extent  qualifying  the  apparent  in- 
ference from  the  facts  and  figures)  that,  in  the  first  place,  insanity  is 
preeminently  a  disease  of  old  age,  and  as  a  people  we  are  living  longer 
than  we  did  a  generation  ago ;  and  thus  many  more  people  are  living 
into  the  insanity  age ;  and,  in  the  second  place,  our  whole  evidence  re- 
garding the  increase  of  insanity  refers  to  its  increase  in  hospitals  and 
other  institutions.  Many  people,  who  a  generation  ago  or  even  ten 
years  ago,  would  have  been  taken  care  of  in  their  families  and  never 
gone  upon  the  records  are  now  admitted  to  institutions.    They  thereb/ 

*  Noel  A.  Humphreys,  "The  Alleg-ed  Increase  of  Insanity,"  in  Royal 
Stat.  Society,  Journal  LXX  (1907),  pp.  203-233. 


170  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

tend  to  swell  the  apparent  increase  of  insanity,  wliich  after  all  means 
simply  the  increase  of  recorded  insanity. 

Whether  insanity  is  on  the  increase  or  not,  I  do  not  profess  to  be 
able  to  say.  All  the  evidence  of  the  facts  and  figures  indicates  thnt 
it  is,  but  there  are  so  many  qualifications  of  those  figures  before  one 
can  get  their  correct  interpretation,  that  I  think  we  need  in  this  coun- 
try a  thoroughly  disinterested,  competent  and  qualified  study  of  the 
subject.  I  feel  sure  that,  if  such  a  study  were  made,  it  would  show  that 
the  increase  that  exists,  if  it  does  exist,  is  far  less  than  the  increase 
showm  on  the  face  of  the  figures.  I  am  disposed  to  say  that  some  in- 
crease would  be  found  but  nothing  like  the  increase  we  ordinarily  hear 
about. 


DETERIORATION"  OF  THE  CIVILIZED  WOMAN 

Richard  Root  Smith,  M.D.,  Grand  Rapids,  Mich. 

The  subject  assigned  me  demands  a  note  of  explanation — perhaps 
I  may  say  warning.  I  do  not  believe  that  modern  woman  is  degener- 
ating or  deteriorating.  In  our  estimate  of  any  individual  as  to  his  po- 
tential ability  to  obtain  happiness  for  himself  and  to  act  for  the  good 
of  his  family,  his  neighbor,  and  the  state,  we  recognize  roughly  cer- 
tain factors — the  moral,  the  intellectual,  and  the  physical.  Eecog- 
nizing  in  the  abstract  (and  I  may  say  concretely)  in  many  individuals 
their  close  interdependence,  w^e  may  yet  discuss  one  or  another  of  these 
factors  independently. 

In  his  present  state,  man's  moral  side,  his  intellectual  side,  and  his 
physical  side,  each  possesses  certain  elements  of  varying  strength  and 
wealmess,  and  the  estimate  of  any  individual,  to  be  impartial,  must 
recognize  this  fact  and  take  both  into  account. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  paper  to  point  out  and  to  describe  certain 
physical  defects  in  civilized  women  which  we  must  regard  as  marks 
of  deterioration,  since  they  are  largely  inherited,  and  represent  a  less 
perfect  physical  development,  less  strength,  less  endurance,  and  a 
lessened  power  to  cope  with  life 's  problems.  These  defects  in  varying 
degrees  are  found  in  a  large  percentage  of  our  women.  I  must  empha- 
size at  the  beginning  that  in  pointing  them  out  we  must  at  the  same 
time  recognize  woman 's  splendid  intellectual  attainments,  her  superior 
moral  status,  and  that  physically  she  shows  an  endurance  and  strength 
equal  to  many  of  the  strenuous  demands  upon  her.  In  estimating  any 
individual  case,  we  must  also  recognize  her  strength  as  well  as  her 
weakness;  otherwise  we  shall  err  into  an  unwarranted  pessimism. 
Since,  however,  these  defects  interfere  with  her  efficiency  and  her  wel- 


GENERAL   INDIVIDU.y^    HYGIENE  171 

fare,  they  may  well  be  studied  in  order  that  we  may  cope  with  them 
more  successfully. 

The  word  ' '  deterioration ' '  must  not  be  taken  here  in  any  progres- 
sive sense.  We  have  no  adequate  reason  for  believing  that  women  are 
more  vigorous  or  less  so  than  for  many  generations  back.  We  have 
certain  factors  in  modem  civilized  life  that  are  tending  toward  her 
physical  betterment;  others  that  are  acting  toward  impairment. 
These  factors  vary  greatly  among  different  civilized  nations,  and  still 
more  in  different  walks  of  life.  More  than  this,  these  defects  are  not 
confined  to  civilized  women  alone,  but  may  be  found  among  those 
classified  as  uncivilized,  since  here  also  we  find  certain  factors  in  cus- 
tom and  environment  tending  to  the  same  end. 

It  is  well  that  we  begin  by  defining  the  mature  physically  ideal 
woman — ideal  from  the  standpoint  of  vigor,  strength  and  en- 
durance. We  find  her  in  Greek  art  in  the  often  quoted  examples 
of  the  Venus  de  ]\Iilo  and  the  Venus  de  iledici.  The  impres- 
sion we  obtain  at  first  glance  from  such  figures  is  that  of  vigor  and' 
strength.  The  body  is  sturdy,  compact  and  fully  developed.  It  is 
well  muscled  and  covered  with  sufficient  fat  to  round  out  the  angles 
— in  other  words,  well  nourished.  From  the  standpoint  of  vigor  she  is 
perfect,  and  from  the  standpoint  of  beauty  the  best  ideal  that  art  has 
produced — the  two  correspond  closely. 

These  figures  have,  of  course,  been  idealized.  In  actual  life  we 
find  but  few  women  who  attain  this  perfection.  Many,  however,  are 
of  the  same  vigorous  type  and  closely  approach  it.  The  thorax  is 
large  and  deep,  and  there- is  plenty  of  width  at  the  waist  line. 

I  am  showing  you  here  a  figure  taken  from  a  photographic  art 
study.  You  will  note  the  same  characteristics  seen  in  the  ideal  figures 
just  presented.  The  body  is  well  developed,  strong  and  well  nourished. 
There  is  perhaps  no  better  criterion  of  woman's  natural  vigor  than 
the  size  and  form  of  the  chest.  In  women  of  this  type  it  is  large  and 
deep,  rendering  the  upper  abdomen  of  ample  capacity. 

Modem  conditions  of  life  (environment)  vary  enormously,  and  it 
might  be  seriously  questioned  whether  the  physical  make-up  of  which 
I  have  been  speaking,  in  its  highest  degree,  is  best  suited  to  indoor 
living  and  a  physically  inactive  life,  for  such  women  as  a  rule  tend  to 
obesity  as  they  approach  middle  life  and  develop  the  troubles  attend- 
ing it;  but  under  circumstances  which  call  for  considerable  bodily 
exertion  it  is  well  suited.  We  frequently  have  women  of  this  type  who 
have  cared  for  their  homes,  who  have  reared  large  families,  and  have 
had  the  ordinary  amount  of  responsibility,  care  and  stress  which  al- 
most all  modern  conditions  impose,  tell  us  that  they  rarely  if  ever  have 
known  fatigue  or  physical  distress.    Certainly  under  all  conditions  of 


172  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

lifo  a  considerable  degree  of  vigor  as  depicted  in  these  figures  shown 
you  is  necessary  to  meet  its  conditions  efficiently  and  maintain  health. 

Let  us  now  briefly  describe,  in  its  most  essential  characteristics, 
another  type  of  woman — a  deteriorated  type.  This  is  a  type  or  body 
habit  variously  named  by  medical  men — the  asthenic  habit  because 
of  her  lack  of  vigor  and  strength;  the  neurasthenic  habit  because  oE 
her  unstable  nervous  system ;  the  phthisical  habit  because  of  the  pre- 
disposition to  tuberculosis;  the  enteroptotic  habit  because  her  ab- 
dominal organs  are  prolapsed. 

Our  first  impression  is  that  of  frailness.  She  is  slender  and  has 
but  little  fat — is  in  consequence  angular.  She  strikes  you  as  being 
lacking  in  vigorous  development — her  muscles  are  slender  and  small. 
These  are  the  fundamental  characteristics  of  such  a  woman.  Asso- 
ciated with  and  dependent  upon  this  we  find  a  small,  shallow  chest, 
contracted  at  its  lower  end  and  distinctly  narrowing  the  capacity  of 
the  upper  abdomen.  We  may  note  also  that  the  neck,  legs  and  arms 
jare  longer  than  usual.  If  we  examine  more  closely  w^e  may  note  that 
the  other  tissues  partake  of  this  same  frailness,  and  that  the  bones  are 
small.  Very  characteristic  is  the  softness  or  fiabbiness  of  her  tissues ; 
the  skin  is  of  fine  texture  and  the  features  delicate.  It  is  this  delicacy 
of  form  and  feature,  which  have  accentuated  her  feminine  qualities, 
that  have  led  artists  at  different  periods  of  art  to  regard  her  as 
the  highest  type  of  beauty. 

I  am  showing  you,  for  example,  a  picture  from  the  gallery  at 
Dresden,  painted  during  the  middle  ages.  Note  the  slenderness  of  the 
body,  the  length  of  the  limbs,  and  the  small  shallow  chest. 

Closely  coupled  with  this  form  is  almost  constantly  found  a  nervous 
instability,  which  is  perhaps  its  most  serious  feature.  It  is  by  no 
means  confined  to  this  type  of  woman  but  is  here  peculiarly  difficult 
to  manage. 

Another  common  and  more  important  factor  is  that  she  is  lacking 
in  muscular  development.  She  fatigues  easily  and  is,  therefore,  unable 
to  maintain  her  body  in  a  normal  attitude  in  spite  of  her  lightness  in 
weight.  We  see  this  evidenced  in  round  shoulders,  an  abnormal 
straightness  of  the  back  in  the  lumbar  region,  and  flat  foot.  These 
muscular  insufficiencies  are  not  essential  parts  of  her  lack  of  vigor,  for 
under  satisfactory  hygienic  conditions  they  are  often  not  outspoken. 
They  follow  easily,  however,  when  she  is  subjected  to  long-continued 
fatiguing  influences. 

If  we  examine  the  abdominal  viscera  of  this  frail  type  we  will  in- 
variably find  them  more  or  less  prolapsed,  the  prolapse  being  on  the 
whole  proportionate  to  the  degree  of  body  frailness.  The  kidneys, 
especially  the  right,  the  stomach,  and  the  large  intestine  are  the  organs 


GENERAL    INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  173 

most  affected.  The  kidneys  normally  lie,  one  on  either  side,  high  up  in 
the  abdomen,  beneath  the  diaphragm  at  the  back.  They  cannot  ordi- 
narily be  reached  by  the  examining  hand.  In  these  frail  women  as 
a  rule  the  right  kidney  (occasionally  the  left  also)  is  found  to  a 
greater  or  lesser  degree  prolapsed,  in  the  pronounced  cases  even  coming 
to  occupy  a  position  over  the  brim  of  the  pelvis. 

By  means  of  the  X-ray  and  the  bismuth  meal  the  position  of  the 
stomach  and  the  large  intestine  is  easily  demonstrated.  In  all  of  these 
frail  women  we  find,  as  stated,  a  prolapse  of  the  lower  border  of  the 
stomach  and  of  the  large  bowel.  The  stomach  is  stretched  out,  its 
lower  border  coming  to  occupy  a  much  lower  position  than  normally. 

This  is  but  a  hint  at  the  vast  amount  of  work  that  has  been  done 
by  medical  men  in  recent  years,  seeking  to  obtain  knowledge  in  regard 
to  the  prolapse,  its  complications,  its  relation  to  health,  and  its  relief. 
The  problems  are  most  complex  and  as  yet  there  is  little  uniformity  of 
opinion  on  many  of  the  points  involved.  Students  of  the  question  are 
agreed,  however  (first),  that  a  simple  prolapse  of  the  abdominal  vis- 
cera, when  unattended  by  complication,  frequently  exists  without  giv- 
ing rise  to  trouble ;  the  digestive  functions  are  satisfactorily  main- 
tained; (second)  that  disturbances  of  digestion  with  stagnation  of 
food  products  in  the  gastro-intestinal  tract  are  frequently  associated 
with  the  prolapse,  and  that  this  disturbance  of  function  gives  rise  to 
the  gravest  consequences  as  far  as  the  maintenance  of  the  health  of 
the  individual  is  concerned.  Numerous  mechanical  devices  in  the  way 
of  abdominal  supporters  have  been  in  use  for  a  number  of  years,  and 
recently  a  number  of  operations  have  been  suggested  and  carried  out, 
wdth  the  idea  of  obtaining  relief.  In  spite  of  some  encouraging  results, 
these  operations  must  be  said  to  be  more  or  less  snb  judice.  I  speak  of 
this  phase  of  the  problem  with  w^hich  -we  have  to  deal  in  frail  women, 
to  call  attention  to  its  existence  and  frequent  seriousness. 

I  have  pointed  out  to  you  the  main  characteristics  of  the  two  types 
of  women,  the  one  reflecting  vigor,  the  other  weakness.  If  we  examine 
a  large  number  of  women  in  various  walks  of  life,  we  will  find  usually 
that  each  is  a  mixture  of  these  two  types.  In  a  large  number  of  women 
the  defects  are  so  slight  or  so  offset  by  points  of  strength  as  to  be  in- 
consequential ;  in  others  the  points  of  weakness  are  so  great  as  to  re- 
sult in  marked  limitations  in  her  activities — ^marked  suffering  or  even, 
hopeless  invalidism.  We  may  judge  each  one  on  several  points — First : 
the  sturdiness  or  frailness  of  ber  body ;  second :  the  stability  of  her 
nervous  system  or  lack  of  it ;  third :  her  state  of  nutrition  and  her 
muscular  sufficiency  or  lack  of  it. 

A  frail  woman  does  not  necessarily  suffer  ill  health.  She  may  be 
well  in  the  sense  in  which  we  ordinarily  use  the  term.    An  unusually 


17-4  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

proocl  nervous  system  will  often  go  a  long  way  toward  maintaining 
lioaltli  and  efficiency,  and  it  is  common  to  see  such  women  taking  their 
l)l;u'e  ill  tlie  social  system  and  maintaining  it  as  well  as  their  more  vigor- 
ous sisters.  Taken  as  a  class,  however,  these  women  are  not  as  able 
as  others  to  withstand  the  strains  of  life.  Care  and  responsibility,  in- 
door living,  overwork,  and  child-bearing,  if  carried  to  any  excess,  bring 
her  to  a  state  Avhich  we  may  roughly  describe  as  fatigue.  In  popular 
speech  she  breaks  down.  She  develops  a  train  of  symptoms  as  well 
defined  as  any  of  the  well-known  diseases.  She  is  irritable,  nervous 
and  easily  fatigued ;  she  develops  mental  symptoms  often  designate*! 
as  neurasthenia ;  she  shows  signs  of  muscular  wealmess  in  an  abnormal 
attitude  of  body ;  she  has  disturbances  of  many  of  her  bodily  func- 
tions, notably  those  of  digestion,  menstruation  and  urination;  also 
eye  and  heart  symptoms  of  functional  origin,  though  these  .less  com- 
monly. She  has  backache,  pains  in  the  side  and  a  feeling  of  weight 
in  the  lower  abdomen.  Many  of  these  frail  women  are  constantly  suf- 
fering from  symptoms  which  may  be  placed  in  one  or  more  of  these 
groups ;  others  easily  develop  them  when  under  strain  and  but  few  if 
any  can  withstand  it  if  prolonged.  Indoor  living  or  occupation,  if  the 
hours  are  long,  is  especially  harmful  unless  properly  balanced  by  out- 
door living  and  rest.  In  the  contemplation  of  industrial  conditions, 
it  is  these  women  who  should  perhaps  receive  one's  first  consideration, 
barring  those  actually  suffering  from  disease. 

As  to  child-bearing,  the  worst  of  these  women  are  manifestly  unfit 
for  marriage  and  child-bearing,  but  in  those  of  less  degree  we  may  not 
nnder  present  social  conditions  advise  against  it  without  grave  con- 
sideration of  all  the  consequences.  Child-bearing  and  child-rearing 
are  essential  to  the  happiness  of  the  majority  of  women  (though  fre- 
quently not  recognized)  and  necessary  to  the  development  of  character, 
which  in  turn  makes  for  greater  nervous  stability.  In  any  instance, 
however,  it  is  apt  to  be  a  severe  tax  upon  her  health.  This  applies  not 
only  to  child-bearing,  but  more  particularly  to  the  labor  of  rearing  the 
offspring.    These  women  need  careful  supervision  during  this  period. 

As  a  class  these  women  do  not  lack  intelligence — in  fact,  they  are 
more  capable  mentally  than  the  average.  They  are  certainly  not  less 
moral.  An  active  brain,  in  fact,  and  an  unusual  conscientiousness 
lead  them  to  go  far  beyond  their  lessened  powers  of  physical  endur- 
ance. 

If  we  examine  into  the  early  history  of  the  frail  woman  we  will 
find  that,  in  all  marked  instances  at  least,  her  fundamental  characteris- 
tics may  be  traced  to  childhood,  and  back  of  this  to  her  immediate 
progenitors.  The  parents  and  grandparents  are  one  or  more  of  them 
of  like  type.    This  is  a  fact  well  known  to  those  who  have  investigated 


•GENERAL    INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE 


175 


the  matter,  and  which  I  have  had  occasion  to  verify  by  questioning 
some  three  hundred  women  on  this  point.  Of  all  the  factors  in  making 
the  frail  woman  what  she  is,  that  of  heredity  is  unquestionably  the 
strongest. 

Such  womeri  have  their  counterpart  in  the  frail  child,  with  the 
same  fundamental  characteristics  of  slenderness,  thinness  of  muscle, 
lack  of  fat  and  tissue  tone,  and  backwardness  in  vigorous  development. 
Children  vary  at  different  periods  of  their  growth  in  body  form.  To 
bring  out  these  characteristics  we  may  place  a  frail  child  alongside  of 
one  of  vigorous  type  and  similar  age. 

Up  to  ten  or  twelve  years  of  age  we  find  but  little  evidence  of 
actual  prolapse  of  the  organs — the  prolapse  is  not  congenital  but  ac- 
quired during  adolescence.  At  about  eight  years  of  age,  or  what  is 
known  as  the  bisexual  age,  a  widening  of  the  pelvis  becomes 
apparent.  This  increases  more  rapidly  at  about  puberty,  with  a 
corresponding  or  compensatory  narrowing  of  the  waist  line.  In  vigor- 
ous women  this  narrowing  is  inconsequential.  In  the  frailer  ones  it  is 
one  of  the  mechanical  factors,  though  by  no  means  the  only  and  most 
important  one,  in  the  displacement  of  her  organs. 

We  find  in  these  children,  the  type  of  which  we  are  speaking,  that 
many  show  signs  of  muscular  insufficiency  in  round  shoulders,  curva- 
ture of  the  spine,  and  weak  foot.  I  am  showing  you  normal  children 
and  then  those  in  whom  these  deformities  are  well  marked.  These 
abnormalities  denoting  muscular  weakness  or  insufficiency  are  not  con- 
fined to  frail  children  but  are  very  frequent  among  them,  and  similar 
to  those  found  in  frail  women  later  in  life. 

The  lesson  is  obvious.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  it  will  be  many  years 
before  eugenics  will  do  much  to  eradicate  the  frail  individual,  but  a 
very  encouraging  fact  is  that  a  great  deal  may  be  done  to  better  mat- 
ters by  attempts  to  overcome  this  child's  tendencies.  These  children 
need  an  outdoor  life,  an  abundant,  nutritious  diet,  a  correction  of  their 
deformities,  the  removal  of  offending  adenoids  and  tonsils  or  other  con- 
ditions interfering  with  their  nutrition,  a  regulation  of  their  school 
duties  and  exercises  graduated  to  their  individual  needs.  I  believe 
this  can  best  be  done  through  our  schools  and  that  when  wisely  under- 
taken and  carried  out  on  a  large  scale  we  mil  do  much  to  do  away 
with  the  frail,  neurotic  woman  that  now  forms  such  a  serious  problem 
in  modern  life.  Intelligent  school  inspection  and  the  outdoor  school 
already  inaugurated  in  this  country  will  find  a  most  profitable  field 
for  its  activities  when  once  the  frail  child  is  clearly  recognized  as  an  im- 
portant entity  and  one  that  must  be  dealt  with  during  the  years  of 
growth. 


176  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

Old  Age 

(Acting  Chairman  Creegan:  Before  I  call  upon  the  next  speaker,  I 
i-eo-ret  to  announce  that  our  honored  President  will  be  obliged,  before  the 
next  address  is  concluded,  to  leave  the  hall  and  make  his  preparations  to  re- 
turn to  his  home  in  Now  York.  I  am  veiy  sure  that  I  speak  for  this  entire 
body  when  I  say  to  Doctor  Smith  that  it  has  been  a  benediction  to  all  of  us 
to  have  him  with  us  these  days  as  our  presiding  officer.  I  count  it  one  of  the 
honors  of  my  life,  Sir,  to  have  the  privilege  of  sitting-  by  your  side,  to  use  my 
voice  when  yours  seemed  not  to  reach  to  the  utmost  part  of  the  gTeat  hall 
where  our  meetings  have  been  held.  Your  counsel,  your  planning  for  these 
meetings,  has  been  a  blessing  to  us.  Your  life  has  been  an  eventful  one.  I 
undertook  the  other  day  to  make  out  a  memorandum  of  the  various  institutions 
with  which  you  have  been  connected,  and  I  concluded  it  was  too  long  to  read 
to  this  audience.  Those  of  us  who  came  here  feeling  that  we  would  make  our 
arrangements  to  retire  from  active  life  at  seventy  or  seventy-five,  have  changed 
our  minds.  "We  have  found  an  example  worthy  to  be  copied.  Now  we  want 
to  take  you  into  our  confidence  and  we  want  to  invite  ourselves,  if  you  will 
permit  us,  to  meet  you  eight  years  from  now  when  you  celebrate  your  one 
hundredth  anniversary,  hale  and  hearty  as  you  now  are  with  that  splendid 
phenomenal  memoiy  untouched  by  the  shafts  of  time.  We  want  to  meet  and 
celebrate  that  event  with  you.  In  the  meantime  may  God's  richest  blessing  rest 
upon  you,  our  dear  friend,  and  highly  honored  President.) 

President  Stephen  Smith,  M.D.,  New  York,  K  Y. 

I  regret  very  much  that  I  have  engagements  that  will  compel  me  to 
leave  today  and  that  I  cannot  remain  until  the  close  of  the  Conference. 
I  wish  to  express  my  gratitude  to  Doctor  Creegan  for  his  great  kind- 
ness in  relieving  me  of  the  burdens  of  conducting  these  great  meetings, 
which  I  thought  probably  I  had  not  the  voice  to  meet.  That  occasion 
led  me  to  assume  the  position  that  befits  the  occasion  that  I  mentioned 
In  my  opening  address,  the  position  of  silence  and  meditation. 

During  the  period  of  this  Conference  I  have  enjoyed  immensely  the 
discussions  that  have  been  going  on.  The  Conference  has  grown  con- 
stantly in  my  estimation  in  its  greatness  and  especially  in  its  possi- 
bilities for  the  future.  It  seems  to  me  that  it  combines  in  its  program 
and  in  its  purposes  about  all  that  is  to  be  done  or  said  in  favor  of  im- 
proving the  race.  I  look  forward  to  this  as  the  beginning  of  perhaps  a 
new  era.  I  think  the  interest  that  has  been  shown  here  shows  the  great 
interest  of  the  public,  that  the  public  is  ripe  for  a  movement  that  will 
probably,  as  a  gentleman  said  yesterday,  * '  extend  throughout  the  entire 
country  and  give  a  new  life  to  all  our  efforts  for  the  benefit  of  the 
race." 

I  am  congratulated  somewhat  on  my  age.  When  people  speak  of 
that,  I  generally  look  around  to  see  whom  they  are  talking  about.  It 
is  a  familiar  thing  to  me  to  be  called  old.  I  was  reminded  of  it  not 
long  ago  in  a  way  that  was  very  pleasant  by  coming  into  a  crowded  ear 


GENERAL    INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  177 

and  having  a  gray-haired  lady  some  distance  away  beckon  me  to  take 
her  seat.  I  told  her  that  I  thought  I  was  quite  as  capable  of  standing 
as  she  was,  but  she  insisted,  so  I  took  the  seat  and  bowed  her  my 
acknowledgment. 

An  old  lady  patient  came  to  me  the  other  day.  I  met  her  at  a 
gathering.  I  think  she  is  past  eighty.  She  seemed  trembly  and  very 
much  excited  and  had  not  seen  me  for  several  years  and  wanted  to 
know  how  I  maintained  such  health  at  such  an  age,  and  I  said,  ''I 
never  talk  with  old  people. ' '  And  there  is  a  great  deal  more  in  that 
perhaps  than  you  are  aware  of.  I  realize,  at  any  rate,  that  the  way 
to  keep  healthy  and  strong  and  well  and  alive  and  live  long  is  to  live 
in  the  age  that  you  are  living.  Shut  the  door  behind  you.  As  Paul 
said,  "Forget  the  things  of  the  past  and  enjoy  the  things  of  the  pres- 
ent and  the  future ' '  and  especially  look  forward  to  the  development  of 
the  future. 

In  a  more  serious  way,  I  am  sometimes  asked  what  my  course  of 
life  has  been,  what  I  would  advise  anyone  else  to  do,  to  live  long.  I 
say,  ' '  Be  sick  the  first  fifty  years  of  your  life  and  be  compelled  to  live 
on  milk  and  the  next  fifty  years  you  will  probably  be  compelled  to 
enjoy  life,  and  long  life  too."    That  is  pretty  nearly  my  history. 

I  do  not  think  I  saw  a  well  day  from  the  time  I  had  any  conscious- 
ness of  life  until  I  was  about  sixty,  when  a  little  event  occurred  that 
I  might  perhaps  mention  here,  although  it  reflects  somewhat  upon 
discussions  of  alcohol  and  possibly  some  may  take  the  prescription. 
I  do  not  mention  it  very  often  to  young  people.  I  was  invited  by 
President  Cleveland  to  be  one  of  the  free  delegates  to  the  International 
Sanitary  Conference  that  met  in  Paris  in  189-4.  I  had  always  suf- 
fered so  much  from  indigestion,  and  had  to  be  so  very  choice  of  what 
I  ate  and  so  largely  of  the  simplest  kind  of  diet  that  I  was  opposed 
at  first  to  going.  But  under  some  urging  I  went  abroad — satisfied  I 
could  not  live  long  on  French  cooking  and  especially  to  attend  the 
great  French  dinners  that  I  knew  I  should  have  to  attend.  I  went,  and 
the  dinners  began.  We  certainly  had  about  twenty  or  thirty  courses 
and  about  three  hundred  persons  in  the  dining  room.  After  each 
course  wine  was  served.  Well  I  never  could  drink  wine,  it  always 
made  me  very  sick  and  the  menu  was  of  a  kind  that  did  not  appeal 
to  me  at  all,  one  that  I  could  not  endure — at  any  rate  for  three  months, 
during  the  time  I  was  to  be  there.  The  first  dinner  we  had  there  was 
by  President  Parnot  at  the  Palais  de  I'Hygiene  and  I  saw  then  what 
my  fate  was  to  be.  These  long  dinners  with  so  many  courses  and  so 
much  Avine  were  something  I  could  not  endure  at  all.  At  the  second 
dinner  given  by  Madame  Cornell  the  next  day,  or  rather  breakfast  at 
twelve  o'clock,  I  found  seated  next  to  me  a  prominent  physician  of 


178  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

rai-is  whoso  writings  I  was  familiar  with.  I  thought  I  would  ask  him 
wlial  my  course  should  be.  I  found  he  could  speak  a  little  English 
and  I  a  little  French  and  we  got  along  very  well  together.  I  finally 
turned  to  him  and  said,  "Doctor,  I  am  an  old  dyspeptic  and  I  don't 
see  how  I  am  going  to  live  through  these  dinners.  I  can't  partake  of 
them  on  account  of  so  many  courses,  so  much  wine,  etc."  "Oh,"  he 
said,  "I  can  help  you  out.  We  have  a  perfect  understanding  about 
that.  These  dinners  are  all  scientifically  arranged.  Every  particle  of 
food  put  on  the  table  is  scientifically  prepared  for  the  occasion  and  the 
wine  that  is  used  after  each  one  will  digest  that  food  before  the  next 
course  comes  on.  So  you  need  not  be  afraid  of  having  any  difficulty." 
He  said,  "You  follow  my  prescription  and  you  will  get  on  perfectly 
well."  I  told  him  that  was  a  very  pleasant  prescription.  I  didn't 
want  to  drink  any  water,  for  they  were  using  it  from  the  Seine,  which 
at  that  time  w^as  said  to  be  very  foul.  So  I  consented.  I  drank  every 
wine  that  was  brought  on — and  I  have  had  no  dyspepsia  since  ! 

With  reference  to  old  age,  I  wish  to  say  that  old  age  has  a  great 
many  amenities  and  a  great  many  enjoyments.  I  sometimes  tell  my 
friends  I  wish  I  could  feel  the  weight  of  years  for  an  hour  or  two  to 
see  how  it  seems.  You  are  disposed  to  say, ' '  Pity  the  sorrows  of  a  poor 
old  man,"  but  they  are  very  few  compared  with  what  I  anticipated. 
I  find  we  have  a  great  many  sources  of  happiness,  a  great  many  sources 
of  enjoyment.  I  was  interested  not  long  ago  in  reading  an  anecdote  of 
Whittier  and  Holmes,  the  poets.  Whittier  was  four  years  older  than 
Holmes  and  when  he  became  eighty  years  old,  Holmes  wrote  a  very 
witty  poem,  asking  Whittier  how  it  looked  from  that  high  ground, 
"what  is  there  in  the  future  that  you  see,"  and  Whittier  replied  with  a 
poem  stating  that  it  was  perfectly  beautiful  from  that  point.  There 
was  no  more  hill  climbing.  It  was  all  dow^n  hill,  very  pleasant  and 
for  him  to  hurry  to  come  up  to  that  point  where  he  could  enjoy  with 
him  the  age  of  eighty.  I  remember  an  anecdote  of  Victor  Hugo  which 
was  very  interesting.  When  he  reached  the  age  of  seventy,  he  said 
he  was  very  much  depressed.  He  could  scarcely  write  and  for  ten  years 
that  followed  him,  that  sense  of  depression;  but  at  eighty  everything 
brightened  and  he  became  exceedingly  interested  in  all  his  work,  and 
renewed  it.  He  began  to  philosophize,  and  to  wonder  what  had  hap- 
pened, and  what  was  the  explanation  of  this,  and  finally  concluded 
that  at  seventy  he  had  reached  the  old  age  of  youth  and  at  eighty  he 
had  reached  the  youth  of  old  age.  I  think  I  have  experienced  that 
very  decidedly.  But  after  all,  the  question  has  risen  why  we  live  to 
be  old,  why  we  can  live.  I  believe  it  is  within  the  province  of  every 
one,  but  I  think  with  myself  it  was  heredity;  it  was  having  a  good 
father  and  mother.     My  mother  died  at  ninety-seven  and  I  have  a 


GENERATE    INDIVIDUAL    HYGIENE  179 

sister  at  ninety-seven  now.  With  this  heredity  we  had  led  the  simple 
life,  avoided  everything  that  tends  to  lower  the  vitality  later  in  life. 
One  must  do  everything  possible  to  save  the  stock  of  vitality  one  has, 
the  stock  in  trade.  You  are  born  with  a  certain  amount  and  you  can 
use  it  up  very  early  or  you  can  prolong  life  very  much  longer  than 
people  ordinarily  do. 

So  I  think  that  if  we  escape  the  chloroformist  at  sixty  that  Osier 
has  provided  for  us  and  can  reach  the  age  of  seventy  and  are  then 
careful  with  our  habits  and  bur  work,  we  can  reach  the  age  of  eighty — ■ 
where  that  old  pessimist  Moses  said  it  would  be  labor  and  sorrow, 
which  I  did  not  find  to  be  the  case.  If  we  still  continue  to  be  careful 
of  ourselves  we  can  reach  ninety,  and  from  ninety  by  the  grace  of  God 
with  the  last  words  of  Irving  on  our  lips,  "we  can  pass  into  Thy  hands, 
0  Lord. ' ' 

(Acting  Chairman  Creegan:  Probably  not  one  of  us  here  has 
ever  witnessed  such  a  scene  before,  a  man  ninety-two  years  of  age 
being  at  every  meeting,  staying  here  last  night  for  three  hours,  refus- 
ing to  use  the  elevator,  climbing  four  flights  of  stairs  every  day !  But 
what  an  example  he  has  been  to  all  of  us.  The  younger  men  and  wo- 
men who  are  here  will  live  to  see  the  day  when  nobody  is  going  to 
marvel  if  a  man  one  hundred  years  old  should  be  present  at  this  meet- 
ing or  some  similar  meeting  and  perform  his  duties  as  presiding 
officer. ) 


SERVICE 


Acting  Chairman  Reverend  Charles  C.  Creegan^  D.D.,  President  Fargo 
College,  Fargo,  N.  D. 

The  object  of  this  gathering  is  one  that  takes  hold  of  my  mind  and 
moves  my  heart  and  when  I  was  asked  to  come  all  the  way  from  North 
Dakota,  a  distance  of  about  a  thousand  miles,  to  attend  this  Confer- 
ence, I  did  not  hesitate  at  all  to  respond  to  the  call.  I  feel  that  the 
time  has  come  for  a  plain  speech  along  these  various  lines ;  the  time 
has  come  when  we  all  want  to  put  ourselves  on  record  against  the  open 
saloon,  against  the  liquor  traffic  in  every  particular ;  the  time  has  come 
when  we  want  to  learn,  if  we  do  not  now  know,  better  methods  of 
living. 

When  I  see  men  like  my  venerable  friend  here  at  the  right  more 
than  ninety  years'of  age,  hale  and  hearty,  with  a  phenomenal  memory^ 
today  practically  as  good,  I  suppose,  as  he  was  when  he  was  forty,  I 
ask  the  question,  Why  is  it  we  do  not  have  scores  and  hundreds  of  men 
in  the  country  and  women,  too,  who  have  memories  like  his  and  can 
climb  four  flights  of  stairs  and  insist  upon  doing  it  as  he  has  been 
insisting  upon  doing  it  ever  since  he  has  been  here  ?    Why  can 't  we  do 


180  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

it?  What  vh^\\\  is  tluM-e  for  any  man  to  assert  that  we  must  die  when 
we  are  thirty-live,  forty,  fifty  or  even  when  seventy?  No  man  has  a 
right  to  say  anything  of  the  kind.  I  have  come  to  believe  that  we 
ought  to  live.  If  we  have  made  up  our  minds  for  various  reasons  that 
we  are  not  prepared  to  do  it,  we  ought  to  teach  our  children  and 
our  grandchildren  so  that  they  may  expect  to  live  in  the  neighborhood 
of  one  hundred  years  and  to  have  those  years  full  of  splendid  living 
and  beautiful  characters. 

One  of  the  biggest  words  in  the  English  language  or  any  other  lan- 
guage is  "service,"  and  oh  what  fields  for  service  open  up  as  we  hear 
these  various  papers  and  the  addresses  that  have  been  delivered  since 
this  Conference  began.  Service !  service !  along  so  many  lines !  We 
cannot  sit  down  at  a  table  anywhere,  in  a  hotel  or  restaurant,  without 
seeing  that  multitudes  of  people  have  not  learned  the  first  lesson  in 
regard  to  right  living.  You  can  see  that  the  food  they  call  for,  the 
food  they  have  before  them,  the  way  they  eat  their  food  and  all  that 
sort  of  thing  indicates  that  they  have  not  learned  those  first  principles. 
I  have  a  growing  feeling  that  this  institution  has  come  at  the  right 
time.  There  was  a  time  when  I  had  a  very  great  prejudice  against  It. 
It  was  not  until  seven  years  ago  that  I  would  consent  to  come  and  see 
it.  When  Doctor  Kellogg  invited  me  on  a  special  occasion  to  come  here 
and  deliver  an  address,  my  prejudice  gradually  began  to  shake  away, 
and  I  have  visited  the  institution  as  frequently  as  I  could  since.  I 
have  never  been  an  invalid  in  all  my  life  and  I  have  not  needed  the  in- 
stitution for  that  reason,  but  I  have  needed  it  because  I  knew  that 
there  were  certain  things  that  I  needed  to  learn.  I  have  been  learning 
them  here  and  so  have  you. 

Now  let  us  make  this  Conference  a  great  success.  Do  you  think  I 
am  right  when  I  say  that  up  to  the  present  moment,  it  has  been  a 
wonderful  success  ?  What  splendid  papers  we  have  had ! — W^hat 
magnificent  and  eloquent  addresses !  How  they  give  the  true  ring ! 
What  a  great  privilege  this  has  been  to  all  of  us,  and  when  we  go  back 
home  every  single  one  of  us,  women  as  well  as  men,  will  be  practical 
missionaries  to  the  spirit,  to  spread  the  tidings  and  to  make  this  world 
in  which  we  live  more  like  that  we  pray  for  when  we  say,  ' '  Thy  king- 
dom come.  Thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven."  I  have  quit 
worrying  myself  about  how  heaven  is  going  to  be,  how  beautiful  it  is, 
what  sort  of  trumpet  I  am  going  to  blow.  I  don 't  care  a  rap  about  it. 
It  is  going  to  be  all  right  if  I  am  lucky  enough  to  get  there.  What  T 
want  is  to  see  that  I  live  right  here,  and  that  the  kingdom  of  God 
comes  right  do^n  here  in  my  heart  and  that  I  help  so  far  as  I  have 
any  influence  to  make  earth  like  unto  heaven. 


ALCOHOL   AND   TOBACCO 

THE   EFFECT    OF   ALCOHOL    ON   LONGEVITY 

Arthur   Hunter,   Vice-President   Actuarial    Society   of   America,    Actuary 
New  York  Life  Insurance  Company,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

A  good  way  to  determine  the  interest  taken  in  the  subject  of  al- 
cohol is  to  inspect  the  indexes  of  some  of  our  great  public  libraries. 
Tens  of  thousands  of  books  and  articles  have  been  written  on  the 
effect  of  alcohol  on  mankind,  and  on  the  legislative  and  other  prob- 
lems connected  therewith.  It  is  a  serious  task  to  read  even  the  writ- 
ings of  prominent  scientists  on  this  subject.  Before  dealing  with 
the  effect  on  longevity,  it  may  be  of  interest  to  give  the  results  of 
my  study  of  many  articles  on  the  use  of  alcohol. 

The  experiments  of  Atwater,  Reid  Hunt,  and  others  indicate  that 
alcohol,  in  moderate  quantities,  is  a  food.  This  point  of  view  "is 
almost  universally  accepted  by  physiologists,  and  the  drift  of  opinion 
is  certainly  toward  the  view  that  alcohol  is  in  all  respects  strictly 
analogous  to  sugar  and  fats,  provided  always  that  the  amount  used 
does  not  exceed  that  easily  oxidized  by  the  body."  It  is,  however, 
generally  considered  as  a  dangerous  food,  and  in  this  connection  it 
should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  laboratory  experiments  do  not 
represent  the  conditions  as  they  exist  in  every-day  life.  They  do 
not  properly  allow  for  the  increasing  need  and  desire  for  alcohol, 
and  for  its  taking  the  place  very  largely  of  solid  food  among  ex- 
cessive users. 

A  large  number  of  experiments  have  been  made  by  Partridge, 
Kraepelin,  Rivers,  and  many  others,  into  the  effect  of  small  doses 
of  alcohol  upon  muscular  power  and  mental  efficiency.  On  human 
beings  it  seems  to  have  been  conclusively  demonstrated  that  even 
small  doses  of  alcohol  have  a  detrimental  effect  on  muscular  power. 
"The  laborer  who  gains  his  livelihood  by  the  strength  of  his  arm 
destroys  by  the  use  of  alcohol  the  very  foundations  of  his  efficiency. ' ' 
Noted  army  officers,  such  as  Grenfell,  Kitchener,  and  Roberts,  of 
Britain,  von  Haeseler,  of  Germany,  "Wahlberg,  of  Finland,  have  tes- 
tified to  the  fact  that  the  abstainers  from  alcohol  can  stand  far  more 
hard  work  than  those  who  drink  in  moderation.  Their  experience 
is  based  on  keen  observation  of  soldiers  engaged  in  warfare.  Doctor 
Parkes  divided  a  number  of  soldiers  into  two  gangs,  each  as  nearly 
like  the  other  in  all  respects  as  was  practicable.  The  men  in  one 
gang  had  beer  placed  at  their  disposal,  while  those  in  the  other  were 

181 


182  ALCOHOL  AND  TOBACCO 

liiuitod  to  non-alcoholic  drinks.  The  men  in  each  sroup  were  paid 
according"  to  the  amonnt  of  work  accomplished.  The  non-alcoholic 
gang-  did  far  more  work  in  the  day  than  the  alcoholic  gronp,  al- 
thongh  the  former  did  less  work  than  the  latter  in  the  earlier  honrs. 
The  men  who  had  formerly  taken  beer  at  their  work  were  asked  to 
discontinue  using  it,  and  those  in  the  non-alcoholic  gang  were  asked 
to  use  beer.  Again,  the  non-alcoholic  gang  did  more  work  than  those 
who  drank  beer,  showing  that  it  was  not  the  superior  stamina  of 
the  men  in  the  first  experiment  which  had  determined  the  amount  of 
work  accomplished.  In  this,  as  in  many  other  tests,  it  was  noted 
that  those  who  took  alcohol  did  more  work  in  the  early  hours  than 
those  who  abstained,  but  at  the  end  of  the  day  the  results  were  re- 
versed. The  pleasant,  buoyant  feeling  which  alcohol  gives  is  prob- 
ably the  basis  of  the  popular  belief  that  more  work  can  be  done  with 
it  than  without  it — a  belief  which  is  not  supported  by  the  facts. 

With  regard  to  mental  efficiency,  there  seems  little  doubt  that 
a  deadening  influence  on  the  mental  processes  is  produced  by  alco- 
hol, even  in  small  quantities.  For  instance,  Kraepelin  makes  the 
following  statement : 

"The  powers  of  conception  and  .judgment  are  from  the  beginning 
distinctly  affected,  although  he  who  takes  alcohol  is  quite  uncon- 
scious that  it  has  this  effect.  I  must  confess  that  my  own  experi- 
ments, extending  over  more  than  ten  years,  and  the  theoretical  de- 
ductions therefrom,  have  made  me  an  opponent  of  alcohol." 

Herbert  Spencer  remarks  that  "incipient  intoxication,  the  feel- 
ing of  being  jolly,  shows  itself  in  failure  to  form  involved  and  ab- 
stract relation  of  ideas."  Tests  made  of  translating  from  one  lan- 
guage to  another,  of  rifle  shooting,  of  adding  figures,  of  writing, 
of  memory,  etc.,  showed  a  marked  loss  of  efficiency  throiigh  small 
doses  of  alcohol.  The  Rosanoffs  concluded,  after  certain  experi- 
ments with  small  doses  of  alcohol,  that  it  impairs  every  human  fac- 
ulty which  has  been  tested,  and  that  the  higher  and  more  complex 
the  faculty,  the  more  pronounced  is  the  effect. 

Turning  now  to  the  opinion  of  the  medical  profession,  we  find 
that  surgeons  dread  operations  on  alcoholic  patients;  that  alcohol 
is  generally  believed  to  interfere  with  the  production  of  immunity 
against  specific  infectious  diseases;  that  it  plays  an  important  part 
in  bringing  about  degeneration  of  nerves,  muscles,  and  epithelial 
cells.  "In  my  experience  of  nervous  and  mental  diseases,"  says 
Dr.  T.  B.  Hyslop,  "I  am  of  the  opinion  that  alcohol  is  of  little  or  no 
use  except  in  some  cases  M'^here  it  may  be  administered  as  a  tem- 
porary experiment  to  overcome  a  crisis.  The  role  of  alcohol  in  the 
nervous  and  mental  economy  is,  in  the  healthy  individual,  an  evil 
one." 


ALCOHOL  AND  TOBACCO  183 

Alcohol  is  not  now  considered  a  true  stimulant.  Sir  Horace 
Horsley  says  that  it  is  a  narcotic ;  that  in  all  its  forms  it  has  a  pro- 
longed depressant  after-stage ;  and  that  like  other  narcotics  it  pos- 
sesses the  transitory  so-called  "stimulant"  properties. 

All  these  experiments  and  experiences  indicate  that  the  use  of 
alcohol  probably  shortens  life,  but  in  order  to  demonstrate  this  it 
will  be  necessary  to  compare  the  longevity  of  two  groups  under  pre- 
cisely similar  conditions :  one  of  abstainers,  and  the  other  of  non- 
abstainers.  To  obtain  two  such  groups  is  impossible,  because  so 
many  factors  must  be  considered,  such  as  nationality,  habitat,  diet, 
climate,  occupation,  etc.  For  example,  it  would  not  be  proper  to 
compare  a  group  of  abstainers  who  were  heavy  eaters  with  a  group 
of  moderate  users  of  alcohol  who  were  abstemious  in  their  diet,  al- 
though all  other  factors  were  the  same. 

While  it  is  practicalh^  impossible  to  obtain  statistics  regarding 
mortality  for  two  groups  of  men  alike  in  every  other  respect  with 
the  exception  of  the  use  of  alcohol,  a  comparison  on  a  fairly  satis- 
factory basis  may  be  made  of  men  insured  in  life  insurance  com- 
panies. The  statistics  on  some  of  these  classes  enable  us  to  reach 
certain  broad  conclusions  regarding  the  effect  of  alcohol  on  lon- 
gevity, but  it  is  not  claimed  that  the  extra  mortality  which  will  be 
shown  to  exist  in  many  classes  is  due  solely  to  the  use  of  alcohol. 

During  the  last  three  years,  under  the  title  of  the  Medico-Ac- 
tuarial Mortality  Investigation,  the  Actuarial  Society  of  America  and 
the  Association  of  Life  Insurance  Medical  Directors  have  been  con- 
ducting an  investigation  into  various  classes  of  lives  insured  during 
1885  to  1909  in  forty-three  of  the  leading  life  insurance  companies 
of  the  United  States  and  Canada.  The  classes  investigated  included 
persons  in  hazardous  occupations,  those  with  defects  in  physical 
condition,  in  family  history,  or  in  personal  history,  those  who  were 
overweight  or  underweight,  etc.  The  investigation  is  based  on  the  his- 
tory of  over  2,000,000  lives.  Three  volumes  of  the  results  have  already 
been  published,  and  the  fourth  volume  is  in  the  press.  At  this  time 
I  shall  deal  only  with  several  occupations  connected  with  the  manu- 
facture and  sale  of  alcohol,  and  with  certain  classes  of  men  not  in 
these  occupations,  but  who  formerly  used  alcohol  immoderately,  or 
were  steady  users  of  it  at  the  time  the  insurance  was  issued. 

Before  presenting  the  results  of  this  investigation,  it  is  necessary 
to  consider  a  standard  of  measurement  for  mortality.  Just  as  in 
measuring  height  a  standard  foot  has  been  chosen,  for  weight  a 
standard  pound,  so  for  measuring  relative  mortality  we  have 
a  standard  mortality  table  showing  the  number  of  deaths  per 
thousand   at   each   age.      This   standard   table   represents   the   aver- 


184  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

aiie  mortality  for  each  age  and  for  each  j^ear  of  insurance  among 
persons  insured  at  the  regular  rates  of  premium.  For  example,  the 
tabular  mortality  among-  a  group  of  men  aged  37  in  the  first  year 
of  insurance  would  be  41  per  10,000,  whereas  under  a  group  of  the 
same  age  (37)  who  had  been  insured  ten  years  before,  at  the  age  of 
27,  it  would  be  53  per  10,000.  While  the  attained  ages  are  the  same, 
the  mortality  is  different  in  the  two  groups  because  one  group  had 
been  medically  examined  within  a  year,  and  the  other  ten  years 
before.  These  sets  of  ratios  are  applied  to  the  classes  under  inves- 
tigation, and  the  expected  or  tabular  deaths  are  calculated.  Thus, 
if  there  were  a  group  of  5,000  saloon-keepers  insured  one  year  ago 
at  age  37,  the  expected  mortality  would  be  20.5,  i.  e.,  5,000  at  the 
tabular  death  rate  of  4.1  per  1,000,  and  this  would  be  compared  with 
the  actual  deaths.  Should  the  actual  deaths  in  the  group  be  31,  then 
the  actual  mortality  would  be  150  per  cent  of  the  expected  or  tabu- 
lar, according  to  the  average  mortality  of  the  various  companies  on 
standard  lives  who  were  not  engaged  in  hazardous  occupations.  A 
ratio  of  actual  to  expected  deaths  of  150  per  cent  means  50  per  cent 
in  excess  of  the  normal  mortality;  175  per  cent  means  75  per  cent 
in  excess  of  the  normal  mortality ;  and  200  per  cent,  100  per  cent 
in  excess,  or  double  the  normal  mortality  by  the  standard  table. 

Another  way  of  interpreting  these  ratios  is  to  consider  100  as  the 
number  of  deaths  which  would  normally  be  expected,  so  that  if  the 
ratio  of  actual  to  expected  deaths  were  150  per  cent,  there  would  be 
150  deaths,  whereas,  in  a  similar  group  of  normal  lives  there  would 
have  been  onl,y  100. 

The  statistics  of  the  Medico-Actuarial  Mortality  Investigation  de- 
scribed herein  were  based  on  men  who  were  resident  in  the  United 
States  or  Canada  at  the  date  of  application  for  insurance,  and  the 
results,  therefore,  relate  to  the  effect  of  the  use  of  alcohol  in  the 
temperate  zone.  There  are  no  similar  statistics  with  regard  to  tropi- 
cal countries,  and,  accordingly,  the  conclusions  of  Major  Woodruff 
regarding  the  beneficial  effect  of  alcohol  in  the  tropics  are  neither 
confirmed  nor  disproved  by  the  statistics  contained  in  this  paper. 

In  all  the  classes  connected  with  the  liquor  trade,  which  will  be 
brought  to  your  attention,  the  men  insured  in  the  different  com- 
panies did  not  drink  immoderately  at  the  date  of  application  for 
insurance.  The  high  mortality  in  this  trade  cannot  be  ascribed  to 
the  inclusion  of  men  whose  habits  were  bad:  many  of  them  un- 
doubtedly, however,  succumbed  to  temptation  some  time  after  the 
policy  was  issued. 

In  accepting  for  insurance  the  men  in  the  liquor  business,  the 
companies  were  generally  as  severe  in  their  selection  as  in  that  gov- 


ALCOHOL  AND  TOBACCO  185 

erning  the  acceptance  of  persons  in  non-hazardous  occupations;  in 
fact,  the  statistics  prepared  by  the  Committee  indicate  that  the  com- 
panies accepted  for  insurance  men  engaged  in  unfavorable  or  doubt- 
ful occupations  less  freely  than  those  in  non-hazardous  occupations. 
The  first  group  of  occupations  with  which  I  shall  deal  is  that  con- 
nected with  the  serving  of  liquor.  The  group  covering  Saloons  also 
includes  Billiard  Rooms,  Pool  Rooms,  and  Bowling  Alleys  in  which 
there  is  a  bar : 

c'trrtnvc                                                          Actual  Expected  Ratio  of  Actual  to  Extra 

.•>Ai.uuj\/i  :                                                           Deaths  Deaths  Expected  Deaths  Mortality 

Proprietors  and  Managers  not  attend- 
ing bar    222  122  182%  82% 

Proprietors      and      Managers      attending 

bar     830  479  173%  73% 

HOTELS  WITH  BAR: 
Proprietors,    Saperintendents    and    Man- 
agers  attending   bar      519  292  178%  78% 

It  will  be  noted  in  the  foregoing  that  the  mortality  is  higher 
among  the  proprietors  and  managers  of  saloons  who  stated  that 
they  did  not  attend  bar  than  among  those  who  admitted  attending 
bar ;  and  that  the  mortality  among  hotel-keepers  attending  bar  is 
practically  the  same  as  among  saloon-keepers.  There  were  fully 
22,000  cases  in  the  above  classes — a  nuanber  large  enough  to  give 
reliable  results. 

In  the  following  two  occupations  the  policy-holders  did  not  attend 
bar: 

TjriTT^T  V  TJ-TTTT  KIT?                                      Actval  Expcctcd  Ratio  of  Actuul  to  Extra 
tiui£.in-i    Willi  JiAK:                                    Deaths  Deaths  Expected  Deaths  Mortality 
Proprietors,     Superintendents    and    Man- 
agers  not  attending  bar    529  392                    135%  35% 

RESTAURANTS  WITH  BAR: 
Proprietors,     Superintendents    and    Man- 
agers not  attending  bar    105  69  152%  52% 

It  is  apparent  that  where  liquor  may  be  had  freely,  there  is 
danger  to  the  men  who  may  have  it  without  price. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  give  examples  of  all  occupations  connected 
with  the  liquor  trade,  but  the  following  two  large  groups,  contain- 
ing the  records  of  men  insured  under  15,000  policies,  are  of  par- 
ticular interest: 

PprirfiipTrc.                                                       Actual  Expected  Ratio  of  Actual  to        Extra 
rs^iiin  £,A,j£,^  ;                                                     Deaths  Deaths  Expected  Deaths  Mortality 
Proprietors,      Managers      and      Superin- 
tendents         483  359                    135%                       35% 

WHOLESALE  LIQUOR  HOUSES: 

Proprietors   and   Managers    992  811  122%  22% 

It  is  freely  recognized  that  there  is  a  considerable  difference  be- 
tween the  various  types  of  breweries  and  between  the  duties  of  those 
in  charge  of  the  various  wholesale  houses.  If  these  two  classes  were 
broken   up   into   more   homogeneous   groups,   the   mortality   would 


186  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

raiiue  i'roni  nornial  to  twice  the  normal,  depending  on  the  habits 
of  the  men  and  their  specific  work.  The  loss  of  life  may  be  readily 
seen  in  the  case  of  wholesale  liquor  merchants.  If  these  proprietors 
and  managers  had  been  in  a  non-hazardous  occupation,  there,  would 
have  been  about  180  less  deaths  during  the  period  under  observa- 
tion. 

Other  classes  have  been  investigated,  such  as  clerks  in  breweries, 
traveling  salesmen,  clerks  in  wholesale  liquor  houses,  etc.  In  every 
instance  the  mortality  was  higher  than  among  lives  in  non-hazard- 
ous occupations,  with  the  single  exception  of  the  proprietors,  mana- 
gers, and  superintendents  of  distilleries. 

Valuable  information  regarding  the  influence  of  occupation  on 
mortality  may  sometimes  be  obtained  from  a  study  of  the  causes 
of  death.  A  standard  of  comparison  is  necessary,  and  this  is  ob- 
tained by  tabulating  the  causes  of  death  among  a  large  group  of 
persons  who  had  been  accepted  by  life  insurance  companies  at  the 
regular  rates  of  premium — that  is,  who  were  considered  standard 
or  average  lives.  From  such  a  group  the  normal  death  rate  from 
each  cause  is  deduced,  and  a  comparison  can  then  be  made  with  the 
actual  death  rates  in  the  class  under  investigation.  Thus,  the  nor- 
mal annual  death  rate  from  tuberculosis  of  the  lungs  at  age  35  is 
about  8  per  10,000  exposed  to  risk  of  death,  and  if,  in  a  specific  oc- 
cupation, the  death  rate  were  found  to  be  16,  it  would  be  twice  the 
normal.  The  causes  of  death  in  the  occupation  classes  just  dealt  with 
show  distinctly  the  efifect  of  alcohol.  For  example,  among  the  hotel 
proprietors,  superintendents  and  managers  who  attend  bar,  the 
death  rate  from  cirrhosis  ,of  the  liver  was  six  times  the  normal ;  from 
diabetes  and  Bright 's  disease,  three  times  the  normal;  and  from 
apoplexy,  heart  disease  and  pneumonia,  twice  the  normal.  Unques- 
tionably, some  of  the  excess  mortality  among  those  in  the  liquor 
trade  is  due  to  the  long  hours  and  other  unsatisfactory  conditions, 
but  the  greater  part  of  the  excess  is  due  to  the  contact  with  alcohol 
in  its  various  seductive  forms. 

In  the  reports  on  the  Medico-Actuarial  Mortality  Investigation, 
there  appears  the  mortality  among  several  classes  of  men  who  have 
used  alcohol  to  an  immoderate  extent  in  the  past,  but  who  were  not 
in  the  liquor  trade  at  date  of  insurance.  None  of  the  cases,  there- 
fore, in  the  groups  now  to  be  considered  entered  into  the  classes 
which  have  already  been  considered. 

HISTORY  OF  OCCASION.y^  EXCESSES 

The  forty-three  companies  in  the  Medico-Actuarial  Investigation 
issued  during  a  period  of  twenty-five  years  about  5,800  policies  at 


ALCOHOL  AND  TOBACCO  187 

the  regular  premium  rate  on  men  who  had  a  history  of  occasional 
alcoholic  excesses  in  the  past  and  who  were  not  in  hazardous  occupa- 
tions (including  as  hazardous  occupations  the  manufacture  and  sale 
of  alcohol).  The  great  majority  of  men  with  this  history  who  ap- 
plied for  insurance  were  declined,  and,  accordingly,  the  classes  con- 
sisted of  the  very  best  of  the  applicants,  so  far  as  the  companies 
were  able  to  determine.  NotA\dthstanding  this  extreme  care  in  selec- 
tion, the  mortality  was  high,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  following 
synopsis : 

Actual  Expected     Ratio  of  Actual  to       Extra 
Deaths  Deaths       Expected  Deaths     Mortality 
Occasional    alcoholic    excesses,     the    last 
ivithin   five   years   of   the   date   of   ap- 
plication   for    insurance     110  67  164%  64% 

Occasional  alcoholic  excesses,  the  last 
more  than  five  years  prior  to  the 
date  of  application  for  insurance...      58  40  145%  45% 

An   excess   at    an  indefinite   time   in   the 

past      121  83  146%  46% 

The  heavy  extra  mortality,  averaging  52  per  cent,  is  not  due  solely 
to  excesses  in  the  past  only,  but  arises  partly  from  excesses  after 
the  policy  was  taken  out.  A  proportion  of  those  who  had  exceeded 
the  limits  of  moderation  in  the  past  undoubtedly  became  heavy 
drinkers  at  some  time  after  the  policy  was  issued. 

FORMERLY  INTEMPERATE,   REFORMED  WITHOUT   TREATMENT 

Another  class  consisted  of  those  whose  habits  were  formerly  in- 
temperate as  to  alcohol,  but  who  had  reformed  without  any  treat- 
ment, and  who  were  in  non-hazardous  occupations.  This  class  also 
consists  of  the  best  types  only  of  risks  presented  to  the  companies, 
cases  where  there  was  reasonable  assurance  that  the  satisfactory 
habits  at  date  of  application  for  insurance  would  be  likely  to  con- 
tinue. The  statistics  are  divided  according  to  time  elapsed  since  the 
habits  were  intemperate. 

Actual  Expected     Ratio  of  Actual  to       Extra 
Deaths  Deaths       Expected  Deaths     Mortality/ 
The    last    record    of    intemperate    habits 
within   five   years   of   date   of   applica- 
tion   for    insurance    150  113  133%  33% 

The  last  record  of  intemperate  habits 
more  than  five  years  from  date  of 
application  for   insurance    154  137  112%  13% 

It  may  be  inferred  from  the  foregoing  figures  that  the  longer 
the  time  elapsed  since  the  habits  were  intemperate,  the  more  pros- 
pect there  is  of  a  permanent  cure. 

TAKEN   CURE  FOR  ALCOHOLIC   HABITS,   TOTAL   ABSTAINER   SINCE   CURE 

This  was  not  a  sufficiently  large  class  to  justify  a  division  accord- 
ing to  time  elapsed  since  alcohol  was  taken  to  an  immoderate  extent. 


188  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

The  followiiii;:,  therefore,  shows  all  cases  in  which  the  habits  were 
unsatisfactory  at  least  two  years  prior  to  date  of  application: 

Actual  Expected     Ratio  of  Actual  to       Extra 

Deathn  Deaths        Expected  Deaths      Mortalitii 

Record  of  intemperate  habits  at  least 
two  years  prior  to  application; 
policy  holders  took  cure  for  alcoholic 
habits,  and  had  been  total  abstainers 
since  cure  up  to  date  of  application 
for    insurance     79  58  136%  36% 

The  mortality  among  those  who  had  taken  a  cure  and  were  total 
abstainers  from  that  time  to  date  of  application  for  insurance  was 
somewhat  higher  than  among  those  who  reformed  without  treatment. 
It  should  not  be  deduced  therefrom  that  the  alcoholic  cures  are  not 
of  value;  it  is  probable  that  those  who  had  taken  a  cure  had  used 
alcohol  more  freely  than  those  who  had  reformed  without  such  a 
cure,  and  also  that  the  men  in  the  latter  class  may  have  been 
stronger-minded  than  in  the  former.  The  companies  hoped  to  de- 
termine the  mortality  among  men  who  had  taken  the  cure  for  alco- 
holism and  had  not  been  total  abstainers  since  the  cure,  but  the 
number  of  cases  was  too  small  to  justify  an  investigation. 

STEADY  USE  OF  ALCOHOL 

Another  interesting  class  of  men  investigated  by  the  Actuarial 
Society  and  the  Medical  Directors'  Association  is  that  comprising 
those  who  were  designated  "steady,  free  users"  of  alcohol.  In  col- 
lecting the  statistics,  the  decision  as  to  the  cases  which  would  prop- 
erly fall  within  this  designation  was  left  to  the  judgment  of  the  in- 
dividual companies.  As  a  result,  the  type  of  cases  placed  in  this 
class  was  found  to  vary  to  a  considerable  extent,  depending  largely 
on  the  view  of  the  medical  directors,  and  the  class  was  accordingly 
divided  into  two  groups.  In  one  group  ("Liberal")  were  placed  all 
the  cases  in  which  the  companies  had  used  as  a  test  Anstie  's  limit  of 
two  ounces  of  alcohol  in  a  day;  and  in  the  other  ("Conservative"), 
those  which  considered  less  than  Anstie 's  limit  as  constituting  a 
steady  free  use.  In  the  "Conservative"  section  appear  the  cases 
where  two  glasses  of  beer  or  one  glass  of  whiskey  daily  was  con- 
sidered a  steady,  free  use,  although  few  persons  would  consider  such, 
a  quantity  as  a  free  use  of  alcohol.  (In  a  publication  of  a  promi- 
nent insurance  company,  the  equivalent  of  Anstie 's  limit  is  stated 
to  be  two  wineglasses  of  sherry  or  other  strong  wine,  one  pint  of 
champagne,  three  tumblersful  of  strong  ale,  or  five  tumblersful  of 
beer. )     The  following  shows  the  results  of  the  subdivision  : 

Actual  Expected  Ratio  of  Actual  to  Extra 

Deaths  Deaths  Expected  Deaths  Mortality 
"Conservatire"  :      Interpretation — steady, 

but   very   moderate  use    1,725  1,460                  118%  18% 

"Liberal":     Interpretation — steady,    free, 

but    not    immoderate    use     698  374                  187%  87% 


ALCOHOL  AND  TOBACCO  189 

There  can  be  no  better  evidence  in  my  opinion  of  the  bad  effects 
of  alcohol  on  longevity  than  the  foregoing.  These  classes  do  not 
constitute  men  who  were  immoderate  drinkers  at  the  date  of  appli- 
cation, or  whose  standing  in  the  community  was  bad.  They  were  all 
men  considered  to  be  entitled  to  policies  without  extra  premium 
by  the  insurance  companies,  their  habits  not  being  considered  a 
serious  detriment.  Yet  the  extra  mortality  among  those  who  used 
two  ounces  or  more  of  alcohol  a  day  was  87  per  cent,  and  the  causes 
of  death  showed  that  the  death  rate  from  cirrhosis  of  the  liver  was 
five  times  the  normal,  and  from  diabetes,  tuberculosis,  pneumonia, 
and  suicide,  twice  the  normal.  The  mortality  among  saloon-keepers 
whose  habits  were  satisfactory  at  the  time  the  policy  was  issued  was 
slightly  lower  than  among  men  not  connected  with  the  manufacture 
or  sale  of  alcohol  who  took  two  or  more  ounces  of  alcohol  each  day, 
but  who  were  not  considered  immoderate  drinkers. 

In  the  foregoing  presentation  I  have  included  all  classes  enter- 
ing into  the  Medico-Actuarial  Mortality  Investigation  which  were 
composed  of  persons  who  were  free  users  of  alcohol  at  the  time  of 
insuring,  or  had  previously  been  immoderate  users  of  alcohol.  The 
Medico-Actuarial  Investigation  included  thirteen  classes  of  persons 
connected  with  the  manufacture  or  sale  of  alcohol,  and  only  one  of 
these  classes  showed  a  mortality  as  low  as  the  normal  (Managers 
and  Proprietors  of  Distilleries).  It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  the 
presentation  here  made  is  not  unduly  unfavorable. 

MORTALITY    AMONG    ABSTAINERS 

It  may  interest  abstainers  to  know  that  in  1840  an  application 
was  received  by  an  English  insurance  company  for  a  policy  on  the 
life  of  an  abstainer,  and  the  directors  of  the  company  decided  to 
charge  10  per  cent  more  than  the  ordinary  premium  because  they 
looked  upon  the  applicant  as  "thin  and  watery,  and  as  mentally 
cranked  in  that  he  repudiated  the  good  creatures  of  God  as  found 
in  alcoholic  drinks."  As  the  result  of  this  action,  he,  with  his 
friends,  founded  the  first  temperance  insurance  company  in  Britain, 
and  himself  lived  to  the  age  of  82. 

There  has  been  published  only  one  comparison  between  abstainers 
and  non-abstainers,  based  on  the  experience  among  the  insured  in 
an  American  company,  and  this  was  presented  by  the  New  England 
Mutual  Life  Insurance  Company.  The  insured  were  divided  into 
four  classes:  (1)  Total  abstainer;  (2)  Rarely  use;  (3)  Temperate; 
and  (4)  Moderate.  The  standard  used  in  testing  the  mortality  was 
the  American  Table,  which  is  generallv  the  basis  for  the  calculation 


190  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

of  preiniiiiiis.     The  following-  shows  the  approximate  percentages  of 

that  table : 

Total   abstainer 59% 

Rarely  use 71% 

Temperate   847o 

Moderate . .  .125% 

According  to  the  above  table,  the  moderate  drinkers  had  twice  as 
high  a  mortalitj^  as  the  total  abstainers.  There  have  been  no  other 
data  published  in  recent  years  in  this  country  of  the  experience  of  life 
insurance  companies  with  abstainers,  except  that  published  by 
the  Security  Mutual  Life  Insurance  Company,  of  Binghamton, 
N.  Y.  Unfortunately,  a  comparison  was  not  made  of  non-abstainers 
with  abstainers,  but  the  mortality  among  the  latter  was  very  low, 
and,  so  far  as  may  be  judged,  much  lower  than  among  the  general 
insured  of  the  company.  The  following  is  a  synopsis  of  the  pub- 
lished experience  of  insurance  companies  in  other  English-speaking 
countries : 

Morfaltty  of  General  or        Approximate    excess    of 
N on- Abstainer     Section        mortality    among    Non- 
compared   with   that   of        Abstainers      over      Ab- 
Abstainer  Section.  stainers. 
United   Kingdom   Temperance   and   General 
Provident     Institution      (England),     ex- 
perience  from    1866   to    1910 135%  35% 

Sceptre     Life     Assurance     Company     (Eng- 
land),  experience  from   1884  to   1910.  .  150  50 
Scottish   Temperance   Life   Assurance    Com- 
pany   (Scotland),   experience  from   1883 

to    1907     140  40 

Australian  Temperance  and  General  Life 
Assurance  Society  (Australia),  experi- 
ence from   1900  to   1910 160  60 

Manufacturers  Life  Insurance  Com- 
pany (Canada),  experience  from  1902 
to  1910    175  75 

From  the  non-abstainer  section  were  excluded  those  who  were 
known  to  drink  immoderately  at  the  date  of  application  for  in- 
surance. 

There  is  conclusive  proof  in  these  figures  that  those  who  are 
total  abstainers  live  much  longer  on  the  average  than  those  who  are 
non-abstainers.  It  must  not  be  assumed,  however,  that  the  very  low 
mortality  of  the  total  abstainers  is  due  solely  to  their  abstinence 
from  alcohol.  Dr.  Dwight,  the  Medical  Director  of  the  New  Eng- 
land Mutual  Life  Insurance  Company,  points  out  that  the  mortality 
among  men  who  are  total  abstainers  from  alcohol  is  practically  the 
same  as  among  men  who  are  total  abstainers  frorii  tobacco,  and  that, 
generally  speaking,  the  same  body  of  men  are  included  in  these  two 
classes.  There  are  other  factors  which  enter  into  this  matter,  such 
as  these:  (1)  abstainers  are  proportionately  oftener  found  in  non- 
hazardous  occupations  than  in  hazardous.  For  example,  there  would 
be  a  larger  proportion  of  clergymen,  who  have  normally  a  very  low 


ALCOHOL  AND  TOBACCO  191 

mortality,  among  the  abstainers  than  among  the  moderate  drinkers ; 
(2)  the  conditions  which  surround  the  home  life  may  be  better 
among  the  abstainers  than  among  the  non-abstainers,  and  there  may 
not  be  the  samie  temptation  to  the  former  to  devote  a  large  amount 
of  time  to  club  life ;  (3)  a  man  who  is  a  crank  on  one  subject  is 
likely  to  be  a  careful  liver.  (A  crank,  says  0.  W.  Holmes,  is  a  man 
who  does  his  own  thinking.)  An  abstainer  and  non-smoker  is  prob- 
ably abstemious  in  his  diet,  and  lives  in  the  open  air  as  much  as 
possible.  It  has  also  been  suggested  that  those  who  are  total  abstain- 
ers are  so  because  they  are  vigorous  and  active  and  do  not  feel  the 
necessity  for  stimulants,  whereas  those  who  are  not  total  abstainers 
might  not  be  quite  equal  in  physique.  There  is  not  a  consensus  of 
opinion  in  this  matter,  however,  the  President  of  the  United  King- 
dom Temperance  and  General  Provident  Institution  of  Britain  giv- 
ing his  opinion  that  there  was  little  foundation  for  the  belief  that 
the  better  mortality  among  the  abstainers  is  due  to  their  generally 
careful,  quiet,  methodical  mode  of  life.  He  believes  that,  other  things 
being  equal,  abstinence  from  the  use  of  alcoholic  liquors  as  bever- 
ages is  conducive  to  health,  and  promotes  longevity.  He  states  that 
a  large  number  of  persons  come  before  him,  and  that  he  would  defy 
anyone  who  saw  them  to  say  which  was  the  abstainer  and  which 
was  the  non-abstainer  unless  he  had  the  record  before  him;  ''they 
lived  in  the  same  towTi,  they  worked  at  the  same  occupation,  they  had 
the  same  rate  of  income,  they  were  practically  the  same  kind  of 
person." 

Unfortunately,  there  are  no  statistics  in  existence  of  two  bodies 
of  men  exactly  alike  in  every  particular  with  the  single  exception 
that  one  group  consists  of  total  abstainers  and  the  other  of  moderate 
users  of  alcohol.  Yet,  as  there  is  always  the  temptation  to  drink  to 
excess  among  moderate  users  of  alcohol,  and  this  temptation  a  pro- 
portion of  them  will  not  be  able  to  resist,  we  may  say  with  assurance 
that  a  body  of  abstainers  would  have  a  longer  life-time  on  the  aver- 
age than  a  body  of  non-abstainers  alike  in  all  respects  except  as 
to  the  use  of  alcohol.  "There  is  no  more  perplexing  problem  of  in- 
dividual psychology  and  physiology  than  the  subtle  differences 
which  make  it  possible  for  one  man  to  drink  moderately  through- 
out life  without  danger  of  excess,  while  another,  apparently  as  well 
constituted  and  living  under  as  favorable  conditions,  perishes  in  the 
presence  of  alcohol."     (Partridge.) 

I  have  been  in  the  actuarial  profession  for  over  twenty  years, 
and  have  had  the  opportunity  of  studying,  not  only  the  published 
statistics,  but  many  private  investigations.  I  cannot  recall  a  single 
large  class  of  men  or  women  using  alcohol  freelv  but  not  immod- 


192  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

eratoly  at  the  date  of  application  for  insurance,  or  who  had  used  it 
in  excess  formerly  and  were  now  temperate,  that  did  not  have  a 
higher  mortality  than  the  normal.  AVhile  not  a  total  abstainer,  I  am 
convinced  that  it  would  be  immeasurably  better  for  this,  or  any  other 
country,  to  have  the  production  and  sale  of  alcoholic  liquors 
abolished  if  it  were  practicable.  The  advantages  claimed  for  alco- 
hol are  a  small  offset,  in  my  judgment,  to  the  evils  which  proceed 
from  its  use  and  its  abuse. 


ALCOHOL — WHAT  SHALL  WE  DO  ABOUT  IT? 

Henry  Smith  Williams,  LL.D.,  M.D.,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

I  should  like  at  the  outset  to  subscribe  to  every  word  that  Mr. 
Hunter  has  told  us  about  the  effects  of  alcohol.  I  should  like  also 
to  subscribe  very  fully  to  the  optimistic  point  of  view  that  he  pre- 
sented at  the  close.  I,  too,  am  an  optimist.  I,  too,  believe  things  are 
not  nearly  so  bad  as  they  might  be  and  that  they  are  going  to  be 
very  much  better. 

But  at  the  same  time  in  regard  to  this  matter  of  alcohol,  we  are 
confronted  with  some  very  unpleasant  statistics.  I  shall  subscribe 
a  third  time  to  what  he  said  about  the  unreliability  of  statistics, 
but  the  few  that  I  must  give  you  I  think  are  authentic.  They  refer 
merely  to  quantities  of  alcohol  that  are  being  consumed.  He  spoke 
of  the  attitude  of  insurance  companies  in  1840.  Now  it  chances  that 
in  1840,  the  time  of  our  grandparents,  the  amount  of  alcohol  con- 
sumed in  this  country  per  capita  each  year  was  just  under  four  gal- 
lons, specifically  two  and  one-half  gallons  of  distilled  spirits  and 
one  and  one-third  of  malted  beverages,  something  less  than  four  gal- 
lons. Last  year  for  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1913,  the  per 
capita  consumption  of  alcoholic  beverages  in  this  country  was  some- 
thing over  twenty-three  gallons ;  that  is  to  say,  there  were  almost  six 
times  as  much  alcoholic  beverages  consumed  last  year  as  in  1840.  Let 
me  at  once  point  out,  however,  that  the  case  is  not  quite  as  bad  as  it 
seems,  for,  of  course,  we  all  know  that  last  year  and  now-a-days  we  are 
consuming  a  great  deal  more  beer,  in  proportion,  and  a  great  deal  less 
whiskey  in  proportion.  We  know  also  that  the  detrimental  effect  of 
alcoholic  beverages  depends  very  largely  and  perhaps  entirely  on  its 
alcoholic  content,  and  that  whereas  whiskey  or  distilled  liquors  have 
thirty,  usually  forty  or  forty-five,  up  to  sixty  per  cent  of  alcohol,  the 
malted  beverages  have  only  from  two  to  six  per  cent.  Nevertheless, 
if  we  reduce  the  amount  of  liquor  consumed  last  year  to  terms  of 


ALCOHOL  AND  TOBACCO  193 

alcohol,  and  make  the  same  reduction  for  the  liquor  consumed  in 
1840,  we  find  that  there  was  a  larger  consumption  of  absolute  alco- 
hol last  year  in  America  than  in  1840. 

That  is  a  fact  of  almost  appalling  significance,  at  least  when  we 
reflect  that  seventy-three  years  of  effort  have  been  made  to  combat 
alcohol.  At  the  end  of  that  time  we  are  consuming  more  than  we 
did  at  the  beginning.  The  tide  of  alcohol  has  risen,  decade  by  decade. 
There  has  been  no  decade  since  1840  when  the  per  capita  consump- 
tion has  not  been  greater  than  it  was  in  the  preceding  decade. 

The  statistics  regarding  the  rise  are  very  clear  because  they  are 
based,  of  course,  on  the  government  records.  The  payment  of  an 
internal  revenue  tax  must  be  made,  so  that  the  alcohol  statistics  are 
among  the  few  statistics  that  we  can  really  trust,  I  think.  It  seems 
that  in  1896  the  per  capita  consumption  of  distilled  liquors  in  the 
United  States  was  about  eighty-six  hundredths  of  a  gallon  per 
capita.  Last  year  it  was  one  and  a  half  gallons  per  capita.  There 
was  a  notable  falling  off  in  1908,  and  some  of  us  were  deluded  into 
hoping  that  the  crest  of  the  wave  had  been  passed,  that  now  it  was 
receding;  but  apparently  the  cause  of  the  falling  off  was  merely 
the  industrial  conditions  of  the  time,  and  now  the  tide  is  rising  again, 
with  no  seeming  tendency  to  reach  the  high  water  mark. 

Meantime  there  has  been  an  incessant  effort,  notably  in  the  last 
dozen  or  fifteen  years,  to  combat  alcohol  by  means  of  legislation. 
Needless  to  say  I  refer  to  the  prohibition  movement.  In  1880  Kansas 
passed  a  prohibition  law ;  in  1884  Maine ;  in  1890  North  Dakota ;  and 
five  Southern  states  have  come  in  in  recent  years,  beginning  with 
Oklahoma  and  Georgia  in  1907.  Local  option  has  spread  so  widely  that 
today  we  are  told  no  fewer  than  forty  million  Americans  are  living 
in  dry  territory.  Now  if  this  territory  were  really  dry,  no  one  as- 
suredly would  take  greater  pleasure  in  contemplating  that  fact  than 
I  do  or  I  would ;  but  unfortunately  we  must  recall  that  it  is  legal  to 
ship  alcoholics  into  this  dry  territory,  even  where  they  have  state- 
wide prohibition.  I  have  recently  been  making  a  personal  investiga- 
tion to  endeavor  to  find  out  what  really  are  the  conditions  in  the  pro- 
hibition territories.  I  will  give  you  one  or  two  illustrative  instances. 
In  the  month  of  September  of  1913 — last  September — ^there  were  offi- 
cially shipped  into  Topeka,  Kans.,  ninety  thousand  quarts  of  alco- 
holic beverages,  or  ten  quarts  per  family.  The  little  town  of  Te- 
cumseh,  near  Topeka,  a  town  of  one  hundred  inhabitants,  received 
fifteen  hundred  quarts  in  the  month  of  September.  Turn  to  the 
South.  I  made  an  investigation  there  recently,  and,  as  an  illustra- 
tion, in  Asheville,  N.  C,  where  there  is  not  a  saloon  open  and 
where  I  verily  believe  the  prohibition  law  as  regards  the  sale  of 

(8) 


194  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    I5ETTERMENT 

li([uor  is  eai-riod  out  absolutely,  there  were  shi|)p(Ml  in  four  thousMiid 
li-allons  of  alcoliolie  beverages,  exclusively  distilled  liquor,  I  think — 
four  thousand  gallons  in  ten  days,  into  a  worthy  town  of  two  thou- 
sand inhabitants.  If  we  look  a  little  more  widely,  we  find  the  re- 
turns of  a  recent  investigation  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Com- 
mission pointing  out  that  no  fewer  than  six  million  gallons  of  dis- 
tilled liquor  are  shipped  by  the  express  companies  from  four  or  five 
Southern  states,  almost  exclusively,  of  course,  into  prohibition  terri- 
tory. The  city  of  Chattanooga,  itself  lying  in  the  prohibition  state 
of  Tennessee,  ships  seven  hundred  and  eighty-eight  thousand  gallons 
per  year.  Incidentally  the  entire  shipment  to  Asheville  came  from 
Chattanooga.  Other  cities  in  the  prohibition  states  shipped  enor- 
mous quantities,  and  the  estimate  is  made  by  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce Commission  that  the  total  shipments  of  liquor  by  express 
companies  amount  to  not  less  than  twenty  million  gallons  per  year. 

These  are  all  very  unpleasant  facts.  They  seem  to  show  that  the 
legislation  of  recent  years  has  discriminated  in  favor  of  distilled 
liquors  against  malted  ones — not  intentionally,  of  course,  but  in 
effect,  because  the  distilled  liquors  are  so  easily  transported,  shipped 
by  express. 

That  is  not  quite  all.  In  the  South  there  has  grown  up  in  the 
past  few  years  since  the  prohibition  laws  were  passed  in  Georgia, 
North  Carolina  and  other  states,  an  enormous  traffic  in  other  drugs, 
morphine  to  a  certain  extent,  but  notably  cocaine.  The  poor  white 
population  and  the  ignorant  negro  population,  sometimes  not  being 
able  to  write  or  not  having  the  intelligence  to  write  for  liquor  as  the 
more  intelligent  people  do,  or  perhaps  not  having  the  dollar  or  two 
to  send,  content  themselves  with  buying  a  box  of  cocaine  from  the 
nearest  newsboy.  I  meant  to  bring  with  me,  but  forgot  to  do  so,  a 
little  box  of  cocaine  taken  from  a  negro  prisoner  in  a  Southern  jail. 
It  looks  like  an  ordinary  pill  box.  Those  are  sold  for  a  quarter. 
Enormous  quantities  of  it  today  are  being  sold  throughout  the  South. 
The  effects  are  seen  in  the  most  disastrous  way  because,  unfortunately, 
bad  as  is  the  effect  of  liquor  on  the  negro  in  particular,  the  effects  of 
cocaine  are  far  worse.  Under  the  influence  of  cocaine,  the  negro  be- 
comes homicidal  even  though  normally  a  mild  person ;  he  becomes 
homicidal  and  ugly  in  every  way.  The  policemen  of  the  South  are 
finding  a  new  problem  presented  to  them  by  the  cocaine  negro.  And 
there  can  be  no  question  that,  very  largely,  increase  in  the  use  of 
cocaine  is  due  to  the  fact  that  it  has  become  somewhat  difficult  for  the 
negro  to  secure  liquor. 

A  word  about  one  other  line  of  legislation  in  the  South.  South 
Carolina  attempted  to  solve  the  problem,  as  you  know  perhaps,  by 


ALCOHOL  AND  TOBACCO  195 

having  a  dispensary  law.  They  got  hold  of  one  corner  of  a  great 
truth.  The  great  truth  is  that  the  real  solution  of  the  liquor  problem 
must  come  through  taking  the  control  of  the  traffic  out  of  indi- 
vidual hands,  making  it  so  that  no  individual  and  no  corporation 
makes  money  out  of  the  sale  of  liquor.  That  is  the  great  truth  w^hich 
originated  and  was  promulgated  in  Sweden.  They  got  hold  of  a 
corner  of  it,  but  they  did  not  apply  it  in  a  rational  way. 

They  did  take  the  traffic  out  of  the  hands  of  individuals  and  gave 
it  over  to  the  state,  but  unfortunately  they  applied  the  profits  to  the 
regular  tax  rate,  and  so  instead  of  there  being  a  few  people  wiio 
were  interested  and  having  profits  from  the  liquor  business,  every- 
body was  more  or  less  interested. 

I  chanced  to  find  the  other  day  the  official  ann'oiuicement  of  the 
commissioners  of  one  county,  Barnwell  County,  in  South  Carolina, 
which  has  a  population  of  35,000,  asking  for  bids  for  liquor  for  the 
coming  year  and,  without  troubling  you  with  figures,  I  may  sum- 
marize them  by  saying  that  the  quantity  of  liquor  called  for 
amounted  to  four  gallons  per  capita  of  whiskey  and  its  allies,  and 
only  two  quarts  per  capita  of  beer.  We  see  that  by  this  law  there 
is  an  enormous  discrimination  in  favor  of  whiskey.  That  would  be 
my  criticism  of  all  of  the  legislation  of  recent  years.  Unintention- 
ally, but  none  the  less  effectively,  it  is  discriminating  in  every  way 
in  favor  of  whiskey. 

I  shall  make  just  one  other  reference  to  the  investigation  that  I 
have  made  to  test  the  effects  of  liquor,  to  judge  it  by  its  effects  in  the 
prohibition  territory.  After  all  we  have  no  objection  to  alcohol  as 
such.  It  has  almost  the  formula  of  sugar.  We  have  no  objection  to 
its  particular  combination  of  carbon,  hydrogen  and  oxygen.  What 
we  object  to  is  its  effects — its  effects  on  the  brain,  on  the  mind  and 
morals  of  the  people.  And  so  I  thought  to  make  a  test  to  see  whether 
— since  it  is  impossible  to  determine  the  exact  amount  of  liquor  that 
is  shipped  into  prohibition  territories — whether  or  not  it  is  true  that 
the  effects  of  alcohol  are  as  conspicuous  in  prohibition  territories  as 
elsewhere.  So  I  made  an  investigation  in  Kansas  and  then  in  the 
South.  It  is  not  yet  published  but  will  very  soon  be  in  detail.  Sum- 
marizing let  me  say  that  the  records  of  police  courts,  the  records  of 
prisons,  the  records  of  almshouses,  the  records  of  asylums  for  the 
insane,  all  show  conditions  in  the  prohibition  territory  that  average 
at  least  as  bad  as  and  very  commonly  w^orse  than  elsewhere.  I  fear 
there  can  be  no  question  about  that. 

It  remains,  then,  to  inquire,  What  shall  we  do?  Accepting  the 
facts  as  I  found  them,  I  cannot  make  myself  believe  that  the  pres- 
ent line  of  legislation  is  effective,  or  is  the  best  that  we  can  do. 


19f)  FIRST    NATIONAI,    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

Others  feel  the  same  way,  some  of  those  in  anthority.  Last  summer 
Senator  Works,  of  California,  introduced  a  joint  resolution  in  Con- 
gress providing  for  the  total  abolition  of  distilled  liquor.  He  wishes 
to  have  a  (Constitutional  amendment  passed  to  that  effect.  [Ap- 
plause.] I  like  to  hear  the  applause,  because  I  should  applaud  that 
move  myself  if  I  thought  it  had  any  prospect  of  success.  But  1  fear 
it  is  illusory.  I  fear  in  the  first  place  that  there  is  no  probability  that 
it  will  become  a  law,  and,  in  the  second  place,  I  fear  that  in  the 
present  state  of  things  it  would  not  be  effective  if  it  did.  If  we  can- 
not enforce  partial  prohibition,  I  cannot  see  how  we  can  hope  to  en- 
force the  total  prohibition  of  a  substance  that  is  so  popular  that  one 
and  a  half  gallons  per  capita  of  it  are  consumed  each  year  in  the 
United  States.  Yet  this  resolution  marks  a  stage  of  progress  in  that  it 
does  discriminate,  definitely  and  precisely,  against  distilled  liquor. 
TJhe  other  laws  have  had  the  unfortunate  effect  of  discriminating  in 
their  favor.  I  also  consider  it  as  epochal  in  another  regard,  in  that  it 
recognizes  the  principle  that  we  must  advance  by  evolution,  rather 
than  by  revolution;  that  we  cannot  take  away  from  a  people  any- 
thing that  is  used  in  such  enormous  quantities. 

All  through  history  there  is  no  example  of  a  people  changing  its 
habits  radically  in  a  single  generation.  Always  those  changes  must 
be  slow,  always  by  substitution.  The  best  that  I  can  hope,  from 
my  study  of  history  and  my  knowledge  of  human  psychology,  is  that 
we  may  substitute  the  milder  drink  for  the  stronger  one,  ultimately 
a  still  milder  for  that,  and  ultimately  an  altogether  non-alcoholic 
one.    That,  it  seems  to  me,  is  the  principle  w^e  must  attempt  to  apply. 

Speaking  practically  then,  just  a  few  words  as  to  what  possible 
lines  of  action  seem  to  me  to  lie  just  ahead.  I  would  say.  Tax  "hard" 
liquor — a  modification  of  Senator  Work's  idea  to  put  a  very  high  tax 
on  distilled  beverages,  double  the  present  tax  at  least.  Then  I  would 
have  the  saloon,  since  w^e  must  have  it,  pay  a  much  higher  license  on 
distilled  beverages.  That  would  discriminate  against  whiskey  and  in- 
crease its  price.  As  a  mere  economic  result  its  consumption  would 
therefore  tend  to  decrease.  This  w^ould  not  keep  the  people  who  are 
the  most  injured  by  whiskey  from  taking  it.  That  is  a  second  prin- 
ciple that  we  must  recognize.  Alcoholism  is  always  an  effect.  It  is 
the  cause  of  many  things,  but  it  has  its  effect  because  of  the  bad 
brain  which  the  person  who  is  injured  hy  it  has  had  the  misfortune 
to  inherit.  The  normal  person  will  not  become  a  drimkard  even  if 
liquor  ran  free  from  the  fountains  at  the  street  comers,  but  the  ab- 
normal person,  with  a  lust  for  alcohol,  will  get  it  if  he  must  go  through 
fire  and  possibly  water  for  it.  We  have  got  to  recognize  that,  and 
treat  the  dipsomaniac.    Recognizing  that,  our  present  plan  of  sending 


ALCOHOL  AND  TOBACCO  19  ( 

him  to  jail  for  a  day  or  a  week  and  then  turning  him  out  again  to  do 
the  same  thing  over  is  foolish.  It  is  grotesque,  and  we  must  get  away 
from  it  by  treating  him  rationally,  by  segregating  him  for  a  sufficient 
period. 

One  other  point.  We  must  recognize  that  the  greatest  dangers  of 
alcohol  are  to  the  adolescent.  We  must  make  it  as  nearly  impossible 
as  it  can  be  for  the  adolescent,  for  the  youth,  to  secure  alcohol.  Let 
there  be  an  absolute  interdiction  of  the  sale  of  alcohol,  either  to  the 
drunkard  or  to  the  minor.  Let  the  records  of  our  police  courts  be 
given  to  the  saloon-keeper,  and  let  him  be  restrained  from  selling  al- 
cohol to  a  person  who  has  been  arrested  for  intoxication  within  a 
period  of  one  year,  let  us  say,  or  two  years,  and  take  away  his  license 
if  he  violates  that.  Take  away  his  license  at  once  if  he  ever  sells  to 
a  minor. 

Then — more  important,  as  I  see  it,  than  anything  else — let  the  en- 
tire proceeds,  both  the  government  revenue  and  of  local  license  fees, 
be  used  for  public  utility,  and  not  applied  to  the  general  tax  rate. 
Let  them  be  used  for  eleemosynary  institutions,  playgrounds,  gym- 
nasia, music  halls  and  other  counter  attractions  to  the  saloon.  That, 
of  course,  is  the  second  fundamental  principle  of  the  great  Swedish 
Gothenburg  System.  We  should  therefore  discriminate  against 
whiskey,  treat  the  dipsomaniac  rationally,  keep  alcohol  away  from 
the  youths  and  use  all  the  money  that  may  come  from  the  traffic 
to  fight  the  traffic. 

Discitssion . 

The  Sacrifice  of  Boys  and  Girls 

Dr.  Amanda  D.  Holcomb,  Mount  Pleasant,  Mich. 

I  was  intensely  interested  in  the  cure  given  last  night  by  Doctor 
Williams  for  this  liquor  condition.  The  thing  that  interested  me 
especially  was  that  it  is  a  cure  that  we  can  get.  It  is  easy  of  attain- 
ment. If  we  want  a  bill  to  supersede  the  National  Prohibition  Bill, 
we  can  get  the  Bill  that  he  suggested,  to  raise  the  license  and  to 
raise  the  revenue  on  liquor.  We  can  get  that.  It  will  be  easy. 
Money  will  be  furnished  by  the  breweries  to  put  it  through,  and  we 
will  get  it,  and  it  will  work,  because  they  have  our  one  hundred 
thousand  boys  who  are  being  debauched  every  year  by  the  liquor 
traffic,  and  this  will  be  increased  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
boys.  And  we  shall  have  plenty  of  rescue  work  for  women,  then,  be- 
cause our  fifty  thousand  girls  that  are  being  debauched  to  satisfy 
that  hundred  thousand  boys  w^ll  be  increased  to  seventy-five  to  one 
hundred  thousand  girls  that  we  will  have  to  rescue. 


198  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFEEENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

Discns.fiou. 

The  Worst  Dry  Town  versus  the  Best  Wet  Town 
Damei.  a.  Pouno,  Battle  Creek  Sanitariiun,  Battle  Creek,  Michigan. 
For  the  last  fourteen  years,  or  since  my  undergraduate  work  in 
Michigan,  I  have  been  intensely  and  in  a  very  vital  way  interested  in 
the  question  discussed  last  night  by  Doctor  Williams.  I  have  been 
here  [at  the  Battle  Creek  Sanitarium]  for  the  last  three  weeks  with 
one  who  needed  me  very  greath^  Because  of  that  I  have  not  par- 
ticipated in  the  Conference.  Last  evening  I  heard  the  paper  of 
Doctor  Williams  and  I  appreciated  it  very  much.  I  would  say  as  an 
announcement,  so  that  you  will  understand  that  I  can  speak  with 
the  authority  of  representation  at  least,  that  I  am  Citizenship  Super- 
intendent of  the  Christian  Endeavor,  and,  as  such,  represent  officially 
upward  of  four  million  young  people ;  I  am  one  of  the  National  Vice- 
Presidents  of  the  National  Anti-Saloon  League,  National  President  of 
the  Temperance  Council  of  one  hundred  official  national  organiza- 
tions ;  I  am  also  educational  superintendent  of  the  Prohibition  Na- 
tional Committee.  I  appreciate  what  Doctor  Williams  said,  not  be- 
cause I  agreed  with  him  in  every  particular,  because  I  did  not,  but 
because  I  appreciated  the  way  in  which  he  dealt  with  the  sub.iect, 
and  believe  he  meant  every  word  he  said. 

I  am  very  sure  we  shall  not  solve  this  problem,  from  my  view- 
point or  from  your  point  of  view,  until  we  deal  with  every  phase  of 
the  question,  until  we  are  quite  unbiased  and  willing  to  understand 
the  thing  the  other  man  sees  more  clearly  than  perhaps  we  see  it. 
I  do  not  disagree  with  the  statistics  quoted  by  Doctor  Williams.  I 
do  disagree,  in  some  instances,  with  the  statistical  application  of 
what  he  said.  For  instance,  the  introduction  of  90.000  quarts  of 
liquor  into  Topeka  is  not  conclusive.  The  real  question  is  how  much 
liquor  was  shipped  into  Topeka  before  prohibition  became  effective 
there.  Were  there  more  than  90,000  quarts  shipped  in,  within  the 
same  time,  before  prohibition  became  operative  ?  We  are  bound  not 
to  forget  also  that  Asheville,  in  the  South,  is  a  resort  frequented  by 
Northerners  and  that  these  men  are  men  of  great  wealth. 

There  is  another  thing  we  are  bound  to  recognize :  I  agree  with 
the  Doctor  when  he  says  prohibition  does  not  prohibit.  He  did  not 
make  the  statement  in  that  way;  he  said  it  Avould  not  be  effective 
under  the  circumstances.  Prohibition  does  not  prohibit  because  it 
cannot  prohibit.  It  is  an  amendatory  law,  but  I  submit  to  you  that 
prohibition  can  be  made  effective,  that  it  is  subject  to  enforcement 
just  in  proportion  as  prohibition  is  appreciated  as  an  opportunity. 
Just  in  that  proportion  will  it  be  effective  in  accomplishing  that 
whereunto  it  is  sought.    I  do  not  say  it  will  wipe  out  drunkenness. 


ALCOHOL  AND  TOBACCO  199 

Some  people  will  get  liquor.  Proliibition  is  said  to  be  a  failure.  So 
far  as  some  kinds  of  people  are  concerned,  it  is  a  failure.  I  am  talk- 
ing about  the  rising  generation. 

I  say,  out  of  first-hand  experience  in  every  great  city  of  our 
North  American  Continent,  that  the  worst  dry  town  is  unspeakably 
better  than  the  best  wet  town,  so-  far  as  the  raising  of  children  is 
concerned.  I  was  in  Maine  in  December.  I  went  to  Portland  with 
the  new  sheriff  of  that  county.  I  saw  thousands  of  gallons  of  liquor 
confiscated. 

I  believe  in  prohibition  because  I  believe  it  is  a  great  moral  ques- 
tion. I  am  convinced  that  the  Government  ought  to  assume  a  proper 
attitude  on  this  question,  that  the  Government  ought  to  say  as  a 
foundation  basis,  a  basis  upon  which  we  can  work  to  eugenics,  a 
foundation  basis  upon  which  we  may  work  through  every  depart- 
ment, especially  unto  the  uplifting  of  mankind — the  Government 
ought  to  say  in  the  beginning  whether  the  liquor  traffic  as  an  insti- 
tution, whether  the  liquor  traffic  as  a  great  problem  industrially, 
economically,  politically  and  morally  is  right  or  wrong,  and  having 
so  declared  itself,  then  it  comes  to  us  as  a  greater  opportunity  to 
take  care  of  the  actual  situation  that  confronts  us  at  the  present 
time.  Prohibition  does  not  prohibit,  but  it  can  be  made  effective. 
It  is  subject  to  enforcement. 

When  men  say  more  liquor  is  sold  in  dry  territories  I  am  sure 
we  are  not  troubled  greatly.  Why  is  it,  then,  that  the  liquor  man 
does  not  spend  a  great  deal  of  money  and  time  in  bringing  to  pass 
prohibition,  so  that  it  will  be  possible  for  him  to  sell  more  liquor? 

I  saw  some  agencies  employed  to  make  the  introduction  of  liquor 
in  Portland.  Me.,  possible.  I  saw  a  tank  that  had  been  set  in 
cement  between  the  floors  of  a  building.  Eighty  feet  of  pipe  led 
down  to  the  faucet.  On  turning  the  faucet  one  way  with  a  given 
pressure  you  get  whiskey :  by  turning  it  another  way  you  get  water 
— all  of. which  goes  to  show  that  liquor  is  sold  in  greater  quantities 
in  dry  territory  than  in  wet  territory,  all  of  which  goes  to  show  that 
it  is  easier  to  get  intoxicated  under  prohibition  than  under  license. 

But  I  ask  you  whether  or  not  license  has  succeeded.  We  have 
had  laws  all  over  the  United  States  against  selling  intoxicating 
liquors  to  minors.  We  have  had  laws  all  over  the  United  States 
against  selling  intoxicating  liquors  to  those  who  have  become  habit- 
ual drunkards.  Have  these  laws  been  effective?  No  man  here  will 
say  that  these  laws  have  been  effective.  But  I  charge  you  now,  that 
inasmuch  as  at  the  end  of  a  long  period  of  years  prohibition  has  been 
as  supinely  a  failure  as  license,  we  shall  find  another  way.  The 
burden  of  proof  rests  on  license  today,  not  on  prohibition. 


200  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

And  T  woulil  remind  you  that  this  is  a  national  question.  After 
all,  we  have  never  had  a  loot  of  real  prohibition  territory  in  the 
United  States.  This  is  a  national  disease.  It  is  a  national  problem. 
Until  we  deal  with  a  national  problem  in  a  national  way,  until  for 
national  disease  we  bring  a  national  remedy,  we  shall  not  begin  to 
solve  finally  the  great  question  that  confronts  us  at  the  present  time. 

I  submit  to  you  today  that  we  are  studying  a  many-sided  proposi- 
tion, and  that  to  arrive  at  a  wise  conclusion  we  need  not  only  the 
research  work  of  those  who  are  already  committed  to  prohibition, 
but  we  need  the  research  work  of  men  like  Doctor  Williams  and 
other  men  who  are  just  as  honest  as  I  ever  hope  to  be,  and  who  are 
doing  their  very  best  to  solve  the  greatest  problem  that  has  ever  con- 
fronted this  race  or  any  other  race. 

Discussion. 

Proportionate  State  Consumption  of  Alcohol 

Dr.  E.  G.  Lancaster,  President  Olivet  College,  Olivet,  Michigan. 

There  is  not  one  onje-hundredth  part  of  the  liquor  drunk  in  Maine 
and  Kansas  that  there  is  in  the  "wet"  states,  like  Massachusetts. 
I  think  I  can  prove  that  by  the  statistics  Mr.  Williams  gave  us  in 
his  strong  paper.  I  appreciate  the  paper  very  much,  because  it  is 
just  in  time  to  head  off  a  lot  of  wild  stampedings.  He  said  that  the 
express  companies  are  handling  twelve  million  gallons  of  liquor  a 
year,  and  that  the  people  drink  about  two  or  three  gallons  per 
capita.  This  means  two  or  three  hundred  millions  of  gallons  per 
year.  It  shows  there  is  one  hundred  times  as  much  liquor  drunk  in 
wet  territory  as  there  is  in  dry. 

Discussion. 

Caution  in  the  Use  of  Statistics 

Edward  Bunnell  Phelps,  Editor  The  American  Underwriter,  New  York, 
N.  Y. 

I  want  to  say  just  a  word  in  the  way  of  general  caution — on  the 
strength  of  quite  a  number  of  years  of  work  in  statistics — that  at 
best  statistics  are  a  hard  lot.  All  of  you  know,  of  course,  the  old 
saying  regarding  the  association  of  statistics,  "lies  and  liars."  I 
am  every  day  more  and  more  impressed,  even  in  studying  statistical 
publications  and  papers,  with  the  ever-present  perils  and  dangers 
and  glorious  uncertainties  of  statistics  which  have  not  been  thor- 
oughly masticated  and  thoroughly  digested.  In  fact,  I  am  rather 
inclined  to  believe  that  there  is  room  for  a  movement  in  this  country 
in  the  direction  of  fletcherized  statistics. 

There  can  be  absolutely  no  question,  Avhen  a  man  is  starting  to 


ALCOHOL  AND  TOBACCO  201 

build  a  house,  of  the  importance  of  the  house  being  well  grounded 
and  well  founded,  which  importance  obviously  increases  with  the  in- 
creasing height  and  area  of  the  building.  I  can  distinctly  recall,  in 
the  early  days,  the  building  of  skyscrapers  on  Manhattan  Island 
where  a  number  of  intelligent  people  thought  certain  corporations 
were  really  throwing  away  a  great  deal  of  money  going  so  far  down 
into  the  ground  to  get  their  foundations  on  a  bed-rock  basis.  But 
as  people's  eyes  opened  to  the  rapidly  growing  height  and  possi- 
bilities of  the  skyscrapers  of  New  York  and  they  began  to  get  even 
an  approximate  idea  of  the  tonnage,  so  to  speak,  of  thousands  and 
thousands  of  tons  of  steel,  iron  and  stone,  they  realized  that,  after 
all.  it  had  not  been  a  fad,  but  a  necessity,  to  get  down  to  the  bed- 
rock basis. 

Now  if  we  are  going  to  do  sane  and  rational  and  useful  and 
lasting  things  in  this  Conference,  for  heaven 's  sake,  let  us  start  on  a 
sane  and  sound  basis,  and  do  not  let  us  get  into  the  published  tran- 
sactions of  this  Conference,  which  certainly  will  circulate  all  over 
this  country  and  possibly  through  Europe — do  "not  let  us  get  in,  with 
the  sanction  of  the  printer's  ink,  alleged  facts  which  are  not  facts, 
figures  which  may  be  honestly  misstated  but  nevertheless  are  in- 
correct and  entirely  misleading. 

Dr.  Henry  Smith  Williams :  Inasmuch  as  we  are  talking  about 
alcohol,  I  want  to  ask  Mr.  Phelps  frankly  if  he  heard  my  statement 
last  night  and  if  he  is  referring  to  any  figures  that  I  may  have  used. 

Mr.  Phelps :  Your  paper,  sir,  was  one  of  the  most  sane  papers  that 
I  have  heard  in  a  good  many  years. 

Doctor  Williams:  I  thank  you.  I  hope  that  my  statistics  were 
correct. 

Discussion. 

Expedients  in  Violation  of  Principle 

Dr.    Charles    G.    Pease,    President    Non-Smokers'    Protective    League    of 
America,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

I  am  opposed  to  the  state  having  anything  to  do  with  the  traffic 
of  liquor.  I  do  not  think  that  we  as  a  people  can  afford  to  profit 
through  the  downfall  of  the  people  of  the  race.  We  can  get  our 
income  without  taxing  liquor.  We  want  to  seek  principles  and  to 
act  upon  principles  which,  given  time  to  work  them  out,  will  bring 
about  the  right  condition.  But  to  have  makeshifts,  or  expedients, 
used  in  violation  of  a  principle,  it  may  seem  to  better  the  conditions 
slightly  at  first,  but  in  the  ultimate  we  are  still  presenting  to  the 
people  the  right  to  indulge  in  that  which  the  state  sanctions  and 
receives  a  financial  income  from. 


202  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

I  should  like  to  sa}',  in  regard  to  the  craving  for  alcohol,  that 
Charles  B.  Townes,  recognized  authority  and  one  who  is  engaged  in 
bringing  men  out  of  alcoholism  and  drug  addiction,  says  that  if  we 
can  get  rid  of  tobacco,  we  will  get  rid  of  ninety  per  cent  of  alco- 
holism and  ninety  per  cent  of  other  drug  addiction. 

Discussion. 

The  Rising  Tide  of  Alcohol  Consumption 

Dr.  Henry  Smith  Williams. 

I  shall  not  attempt  in  any  way  to  answ^er  anything  that  has  been 
said.  Most  of  it  I  agree  with.  I  wish  to  point  out  just  one  thing, 
that  a  good  deal  of  the  discussion  has  not  really  been  pertinent  to 
the  idea  that  I  had,  which  was  a  way  of  getting  rid  of  alcohol.  A 
good  deal  of  the  discussion  has  been  about  alcohol. 

I  am  constrained  to  say  just  a  personal  word.  I  assumed  per- 
haps a  little  over-optimism,  that  everyone  interested  in  temper- 
ance knew  of  my  work  on  intemperance.  Probably  none  of  you 
knew  of  it.  Five  years  ago  I  published  in  McClnre's  Magazine  a 
series  of  articles  on  alcohol.  That  was  regarded  by  Mr.  McClure 
and  others  as  perhaps  the  most  popular  series  of  articles  on  any 
scientific  topic  ever  published  in  any  American  magazine.  The 
proof  of  that  was  that  there  were  nearly  one  hundred  thousand  re- 
quests to  reproduce  those  articles  wholly  or  in  part.  They  came 
not  only  from  temperance  unions  and  societies  all  over  the  country, 
but  from  the  presidents  of  railroads,  the  heads  of  manufacturing 
companies  and  all  that.  I  set  forth,  as  some  people  were  kind  enough 
to  say,  for  the  first  time  in  a  dispassionate  way  the  essential  facts 
and  the  effect  of  alcohol  on  the  human  body,  telling  it  without  prej- 
udice and  yet  without  gloves. 

As  I  say,  I  assumed  that  my  attitude  in  that  regard  was  known 
to  this  assembly  and  thought  it  was  understood  by  everybody  that 
I  regarded  mj^self  as  one  of  the  foremost  champions  of  temperance 
in  America  and  that  I  was  only  going  to  supplement  this  work  with 
what  I  regarded  as  a  practical  effort  to  get  some  results.  Mr.  Mc- 
Clure happened  to  come  out  on  the  train  with  me  yesterday  and  he 
said  to  me,  "Doctor,  how  does  it  happen  that  after  that  exposition 
and  after  we  have  set  forth  the  physiologic  effects  of  alcohol  so  that 
everyone  knows  them,  there  has  been  no  result,"  and  I  said,  "Mr. 
McClure,  that  has  been  one  of  the  bitterest  disappointments  of  my 
life.'"  I  really  did  think  in  1908  and  1909,  when  the  tide  of  whiskey 
went  down  a  little,  that  I  had  had  a  small  measure  in  cutting  out  a 
few  gallons  of  that.  I  said, ' '  At  last  it  has  come  ;  people  are  listening, 
they  know  now."  These  thousands  of  letters  came  from  men  of  promi- 


ALCOHOL  AND  TOBACCO  203 

nenee,  saying,  ' '  After  reading  your  articles  I  shall  never  again  touch 
alcohol,"  etc.  I  have  stacks  of  letters  like  that.  The  articles  were 
published  in  book  form  by  the  Century  Company  and  I  hoped  they 
were  doing  something  to  help  in  a  little  way  to  stem  this  tide.  Then 
after  1909,  the  tide  began  to  rise  again  and  I  saw  that  nothing  had 
happened.  When  I  have  spoken  on  other  occasions  and  have  advo- 
cated the  Gothenburg  System,  I  have  been  bitterly  assailed  and 
criticized  for  that,  so  I  have  now  attempted  to  find  a  compromise, 
something  that  seems  to  be  practical. 

Now  just  one  other  word  that  is  personal.  It  makes  some  dif- 
ference who  is  advocating  a  thing,  so  let  me  say  that  personally 
I  have  been  a  lifelong  advocate  of  temperance.  My  mother  brought 
me  up  to  think  that  it  was  almost  as  bad  to  touch  liquor  as  to  steal, 
and  I  have  that  old  Puritan  strain.  I  do  not  need  those  things,  so 
I  do  not  take  them.  I  don't  take  tea,  coffee,  tobacco  or  alcohol.  At 
the  same  time  I  do  not  say  to  my  fellow-man  who  does  need  them — 
I  think  he  needs  them  or  he  wants  them — "Because  I  don't  need 
them,  you  shan't  have  them."  I  don't  feel  that  is  ethical.  How- 
ever, I  do  not  wish  to  discuss  this  matter.  I  would  say  this,  how- 
ever. If  any  here  are  interested,  or  would  like  to  see  my  little 
book  on  alcohol,  which  sets  me  right  as  to  my  attitude  toward  tem- 
perance, if  they  will  leave  their  names  with  the  Secretary,  I  shall 
be  most  happy  to  present  a  copy  to  any  who  may  ask  for  it. 

Discussion. 

Licensing  Light  Drinks 

Professor  Robert  Sprague,  Massachusetts  Agricultural  College,  Amherst, 
Massachusetts. 

For  about  twenty-five  years  I  have  lived  in  various  prohibition 
states,  many  years  in  Maine.  I  have  gone  through  practically  every 
capital  of  the  civilized  world  at  midnight  and  noon,  and  all  the  time 
with  the  liquor  question  in  view. 

I  should  like  to  mention  just  a  few  things  in  connection  with 
Maine.  I  am  very  well  acquainted  with  Maine.  Maine  started  her 
prohibition  laws  in  1851;  it  might  have  been  in  1854.  But  it 
was  in  1884  that  she  put  it  into  her  Constitution.  Now  up  to  two 
years  ago  I  had  been  living  for  five  years  in  Maine.  I  believe  that 
there  are  no  more  polite  people  and  no  better  stock  on  this  conti- 
nent than  you  will  find  today  in  Maine,  and  certainly  no  people  ever 
made  a  stronger  and  more  gallant  fight  for  their  liberties  than  the 
people  of  Maine  have  in  the  last  60  years  on  the  liquor  question — 
against  criticism,  against  everything  that  might  be  brought  up, 
against  money.    They  have  stood  firm  on  that  liquor  question. 


204  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

One  of  the  liomls  of  departinents  in  Harvard  two  years  a^o  came 
to  me  and  wanted  to  take  a  little  trip  in  Maine  to  find  out  something 
about  how  liquor  was  handled.  He  went  into  one  city  with  which 
I  was  well  acquainted.  The  first  place  we  went  to  was  a  big  build- 
ing three  stories  high,  a  second-class  hotel.  There  was  a  smoking 
room  on  the  first  floor  and  back  of  that  there  was  a  bar.  We  went 
in  there  and  stood  around  a  while,  saw  men  come  and  go,  drinking 
everything.  In  behind  that  we  found  another  room.  It  was  the 
room  where  the  people  who  had  gotten  drunk  were  deposited.  The 
men  in  that  room  were  piled  about  four  feet  high  on  top  of  one 
another.  We  had  to  drink  a  little  beer  in  order  to  stay,  but  while 
we  stood  there  they  were  dragged  in  by  the  collar,  by  men  who 
had  the  thing  in  charge,  and  thrown  onto  the  pile.  There  they  were 
spewing  over  one  another.  Some  of  them  got  more  or  less  conscious. 
They  would  then  struggle  out  and  be  taken  care  of  in  another  room, 
where  they  were  kept  until  they  were  able  to  go  on  to  the  street  and 
take  care  of  themselves.  Around  the  city  we  went,  in  twenty-two 
places.  There  was  no  liquor  sign  in  that  town;  there  was  no  open 
saloon.  Everything  was  closed.  At  that  time  there  were  four  or 
five  special  state  deputies  in  the  city  especially  appointed  by  the 
government,  with  no  other  duty  than  to  enforce  the  prohibitory  law 
with  all  the  power  of  the  state  behind  them. 

I  have  seen  that  for  years  in  Maine.  There  are  more  divorces 
granted  in  Maine  today  because  of  drunkenness  than  in  any  other 
state  in  the  union. 

Mr.  Poling:  I  challenge  the  figures.     Will  you  give  them  to  us? 

Professor  Sprague:  All  right,  I  will  refer  you  to  the  last  (1910) 
report  of  divorces  of  the  United  States,  the  last  regular  census.  I 
cannot  carry  the  figures  in  mind,  but  will  be  glad  to  look  them  up 
with  you.  I  do  not  think  that  it  is  because  of  more  drinking.  I 
suspect  it  is  due  to  this,  that  the  folks  in  Maine  are  more  sensitive 
to  drunkenness,  which  is  the  cause  of  divorce ;  it  indicates  the  keen 
sensitiveness  of  the  Maine  conscience  on  the  matter  of  drinking.  So 
do  not  take  that  in  the  wrong  way.  But  there  is  a  great  deal  of 
drinking  in  that  state  and  in  various  other  states. 

Then  I  w^ant  to  refer  to  this :  In  Maine  today  I  rarely  hear  a  real 
temperance  lecture,  a  really  out-and-out,  hard-fisted  temperance  lec- 
ture that  calls  for  self-control  and  moral  suasion. 

I  want  to  agree  with  what  Doctor  Williams  said  last  night.  It 
seems  to  me  that  we  have  never  in  this  country  attempted  what 
he  has  proposed,  the  elimination  of  the  strong  drink  by  some  system 
whereby  the  people  may  get  the  weak,  the  light  drink,  with  light 
alcoholic  elements,  light  proportions  in  them,  but  get  them  freely 


ALCOHOL  AND  TOBACCO  205 

and  get  them  guaranteed  pure.  We  have  not  tried  that.  Certainly 
we  are  forcing  upon  many  of  our  prohibition  states,  upon  the  drink- 
ers, the  most  and  worst  undrinkable  stuff  that  ever  has  been  made  by 
man  anywhere  on  the  planet,  that  I  have  ever  seen.  The  people  in 
Maine  are  drinking  today,  I  believe,  the  worst  stuff  that  has  ever 
been  poured  into  the  human  system.  I  can  take  you  to  places  in 
prohibition  states  in  the  East  where  in  the  cellars  of  drug  stores 
they  have  set  up  a  can  of  sulphuric  acid,  a  can  of  prune  juice,  a  can 
of  this  and  a  can  of  that.  These  things  are  drawn  off,  and  the  liquor 
is  made  on  the  spot  according  to  the  demand — perfectly  destructive. 
There  is  no  question  about  that.  I  say,  I  agree  with  the  effort  to  try 
an  experiment,  at  least,  along  the  line  of  Doctor  Williams'  proposi- 
tion, that  we  should  ^try  to  cut  out  the  destructive  stuff  and  give 
some  license. 

Just  one  more  thought.  I  don't  believe  in  the  national  prohibi- 
tion proposition.  I  don't  believe  that  if  a  man  out  on  the  Pacific 
Coast  wants  to  take  a  glass  of  beer,  I  as  a  citizen  of  Massachusetts 
have  a  right  to  say  that  he  shall  not.  I  believe  it  is  contrary  to  the 
very  spirit  of  American  liberty. 

Disctissio7i. 

The  "Booze  Special" 

f     Mrs.   J.   L.   Higgins,   Temperance  Worker,  Battle   Creek,   Mich. 

I  want  to  give  you  just  a  little  experience  within  ten  miles  of 
this  town.  You  know  Battle  Creek  was  dry  for  two  years,  this  city 
of  thirty  thousand  inhabitants.  They  commenced  first  by  going  to 
Augusta.  Then  Augusta  shut  up  its  saloons.  Then  they  went  to 
Galesburg,  and  Galesburg  shut  up  its  saloons.  Then  they  went  on 
down  to  Kalamazoo,  twenty-two  miles  away,  to  get  their  drink. 
They  came  back  nights  on  the  last  car.  It  became  so  notorious  that 
it  was  called  the  "booze  special." 

One  night  I  was  in  the  city  of  Kalamazoo  and  coming  back  I 
missed  my  first  car  and  got  on  the  late  car.  At  the  first  corner  a  few 
men  got  on  with  their  grips,  a  half  dozen  more  at  the  next  corner 
with  their  grips.  I  looked  at  them  and  said,  "If  those  are  traveling 
men,  they  are  degenerating  fast."  At  the  next  corner  some  more 
men  got  on  with  their  grips,  and  I  recognized  the  fact  that  I  was 
on  the  "booze  special."  A  man  sitting  across  saw  me,  knew  my  busi- 
ness, knew  what  I  was  doing.  He  had  read  somewhere  that  every 
dog  has  his  day,  and  he  made  up  his  mind  that  his  day  had  come. 
He  said  to  me,  "Madam,  do  you  see  this?"  I  certainly  did.  He 
said,  "Does  that  not  reveal  to  you  that  prohibition  is  the  greatest 
farce  on  the  face  of  the  earth?    These  men  have  been  down  to  Kala- 


206  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

mazoo.  Their  grips  are  full  of  liquor.  They  are  taking  the  liquor 
back  to  Battle  Creek."  He  continued,  "More  liquor  is  drunk  under 
prohibition  in  Battle  Creek  than  was  ever  drunk  under  a  high 
licensed  system.    It  is  the  biggest  farce  on  the  face  of  God's  earth." 

I  am  not  in  the  habit  of  making  temperance  speeches  on  "booze 
specials,"  but,  as  the  Quakers  say,  "the  spirit  moved  me,"  and  I 
said  to  him,  "Let  us  count  them,"  and  we  counted  them.  There 
were  just  fifteen  men  aboard.  I  said,  "Here  are  just  fifteen  men.  It 
is  Saturday  night.  These  would  not  be  one  drop  in  the  bucket  in  one 
saloon  in  Battle  Creek  on  Saturday  night,  and  we  had  over  thirty 
saloons.  Where  are  the  rest?"  He  said,  "They  are  at  home  with 
their  families  tonight,"  and  I  said,  "Thank  God  that  the  tempta- 
tion is  twenty-two  miles  away. ' '  I  said,  ' '  These  fellows  are  regular 
old  soaks,  anyway. ' '  Then  those  men  began  to  gather  around  me,  some 
of  them.  They  had  heard  me  speak  before  and  they  did  not  want 
to  hear  me  speak  again,  and  I  said  to  them,  "My  friends,  you  heard 
what  I  said.  You  are  regular  old  soaks.  The  money  that  should  be 
spent  for  clothes  and  comfort  and  food  for  your  families,  you  have 
spent  for  the  liquor  that  you  have  in  your  grips. ' '  I  said, ' '  I  would  not 
be  surprised  if  you  are  in  debt  to  some  honest  dealer  in  Battle  Creek 
for  the  very  clothes  you  have  on,"  and  I  continued,  "That  is  not 
the  worst  of  it.  You  are  law  breakers.  If  you  had  your  just  des- 
serts, you  would  be  behind  the  bars,  and  the  worst  of  all  is,  you'are 
not  ashamed  of  it.  We  cannot  do  much  for  you.  God  pity  you.  You 
poor  fellows,  we  cannot  do  much  for  you.  All  we  can  do  for  you 
is  to  leave  you  in  the  hands  of  the  just  and  merciful  God."  I  said, 
"We  are  not  working  for  you  especially.  We  are  working  to  turn 
out  a  race  of  citizens,  among  whom  such  men  as  you  will  be  prac- 
tically unknown. ' '  And  then  one  of  them  sat  down  on  a  seat,  folded 
his  hands  a  little  meekly  and  said,  "But  madam,  think  of  the  taxes." 
I  looked  at  him  a  moment  and  I  said,  "My  friend,  I  don't  know 
you,  but  I  know  your  kind — ragged,  blear-eyed,  run  down  at 
the  heel."  You  have  seen  them  many  a  time.  And  I  said,  "I  know 
your  kind  and  I  venture  to  say  that  you  don't  pay  taxes,  one  dol- 
lar." He  looked  at  me  a  moment  and  his  friend  sitting  beside  him 
grinned  a  little  and  said,  "You  are  just  right,  madam,  he  don't." 
I  said,  "You  are  a  pitiable  subject  to  worry  about  taxes." 

My  friends,  one  thing  faces  us.  That  is  what  God's  will  is  toward 
men,  and  God  has  but  one  method  of  dealing  with  sin — extermina- 
tion. 


ALCOHOL  AND  TOBACCO  207 

Discussion. 

The  Saloon  and  the  Taxpayer 

George  B.  Peak,  President  Central  Life  Assurance  Society  of  the  United 
States,  Des  Moines,  Iowa. 

When  we  observe  the  increased  amount  of  alcohol  that  is  being 
used  now,  as  compared  to  formerly,  what  would  have  been  the 
amount  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  fight  against  alcohol?  I  suppose 
the  use  of  alcohol  would  have  been  quite  general  and  we  would  all 
be  showing  some  of  the  effects  of  it.  As  the  consumption  has  been 
increased  some  five  times  what  it  was  in  1840,  perhaps  it  would  have 
been  ten  times  or  twenty  times  the  amount.  I  believe,  for  one,  that 
the  fight  against  alcoholism  has  been  a  gaining  one.  We  have  been 
gaining  on  ourselves — perhaps  not  conquering  the  great  evil,  but 
teaching  the  world  the  great  injury  from  alcohol  and  preparing 
ourselves  for  a  more  effective  fight  in  the  future. 

A  few  years  ago  the  leading  newspaper  in  our  city  announced 
the  fact  that  no  liquor  advertisements  would  appear  in  the  paper  in 
the  future.  That  paper  was  soon  followed  by  the  other  papers  and 
now,  in  Des  Moines,  a  city  of  over  one  hundred  thousand,  it  is  im- 
possible to  insert  a  liquor  advertisement  in  any  of  the  papers. 

I  am  somewhat  acquainted  with.  Kansas,  somewhat  acquainted 
with  Oklahoma,  somewhat  acquainted  with  the  prohibition  territory 
in  Texas,  somewhat  acquainted  with  states  that  have  no  prohibition 
territory,  and  I  feel  very  certain  that  the  condition  is  far  better  in 
states  that  have  made  the  earnest,  vigorous  fight  against  alcohol  than 
where  the  fight  has  not  been  waged — far  better.  I  am  acquainted 
with  the  condition  in  our  own  state,  Iowa;  also  the  condition  in  Des 
Moines.  You  remember  that  in  Iowa  they  had  a  state  prohibitory 
law.  The  legislature  amended  it,  and  now  the  cities — ^by  getting  up 
a  petition  signed  in  the  larger  cities  by  the  majority,  which  is  one 
over  the  half  of  the  voters  —  can  introduce  saloons.  We  had 
a  very  severe  fight  on  the  last  petition,  that  went  through  all  the 
gourts  to  the  supreme  court.  It  was  decided  that  the  petition  was 
not  valid,  and  the  saloons  were  closed  last  November  and  remained 
closed  for  about  a  month.  During  that  month  there  were  just  about 
one-half  of  the  arrests  for  crime  in  Des  Moines  as  during  the  pre- 
vious month.  Compared  with  the  year  before,  at  the  same  time,  there 
was  about  one-half  of  the  criminal  practice  going  on  in  the  city,  and 
less  than  one-half  of  the  drunkenness — there  was  some  drunkenness 
during  this  time,  because  there  was  a  little  town  about  four  miles 
from  Des  Moines  that  had  two  open  saloons,  one  bar-keeper  in  each 
saloon.  These  saloons  increased  their  bar-keepers,  one  to  twenty- 
five,   and  the   other  to   twentj^-two  men,   serving   out  the   drink  to 


208  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

some  of  the  Des  Moines  people,  who,  yon  see,  went  out  to  these  places 
to  get  drinks.  Notwithstanding  that,  the  drunkenness  in  the  city 
and  the  arrests  for  drunkenness  were  reduced  to  about  fifty  per 
cent  of  what  they  were  the  month  previously. 

Now  I  believe  that  the  only  successful  fight  against  alcoholism 
is  to  stop  the  open  places  that  educate  the  young  man  to  drink. 
When  they  circulated  this  last  petition,  they  raised  the  question  of 
finance.  These  saloons  paid  into  the  city  a  tax  of  something  over 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars.  Now  the  saloon-keeper  raised  the 
question  of  the  state's  need  of  this  hundred  thousand  dollars.  They 
finally  succeeded  in  getting  quite  a  number  of  men  to  sign  the 
petition  who  would  not  have  signed  it  otherwise,  but  that  peti- 
tion is  now  in  the  courts  again,  and  it  will  be  tried  out  through  the 
lower  courts  and  the  supreme  court. 

I  noticed  the  other  day,  in  a  Des  Moines  paper,  that  about  twelve 
of  the  leading  business  men  of  Des  Moines — men  who  pay  the  largest 
taxes  with  the  exception  of  one  taxpayer  there,  who  rents  his  build- 
ings very  largely  for  saloon  purposes  (these  other  men  are  not  in- 
terested in  renting  places  for  saloon  purposes) — that  these  business 
men  found  an  affidavit  and  presented  it  to  the  courts.  They  de- 
manded that  the  saloon  be  closed  on  the  ground  that  it  increased 
their  taxes  because  it  increased  the  expenses  of  looking  after  polic- 
ing the  city;  because  it  increased  the  expenses  of  the  courts;  be- 
cause it  filled  the  poorhouses,  and  added  to  the  expense  of  the  in- 
ebriate asylum,  and  all  of  those  things ;  because  the  saloon,  instead 
of  being  a  revenue  producer,  was  an  expense  maker.  Whenever  you 
can  get  the  people  to  see  the  saloon  from  that  point  of  view,  that  it 
is  an  expense  maker  instead  of  a  revenue  producer,  you  make  a  gain. 

Discussion. 

A  "High-Class"  Saloon 

Mrs.  Maud  Glassner,  Michigan  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs,  Nashville, 
Michigan. 

I  want  to  indorse  what  has  just  been  said  about  the  saloon  and 
to  add  a  little  personal  experience,  if  I  may  be  pardoned  for  doing 
so.  When  we  were  married,  my  husband  had  a  small  store  and  we 
lived  above  it.  We  got  along  very  happily  for  three  years,  when 
the  building  next  door  was  converted  into  a  saloon.  Now  I  am 
convinced  that  the  great  majority  of  men  and  women  in  gatherings 
of  this  sort,  who  do  not  frequent  saloons,  know  very  little  of  really 
what  goes  on  in  an  open  saloon.  So  I  want  to  tell  you  some  of  the 
things  that  happened  when  the  saloon  was  set  down  eighteen  feet 
from  the  side  of  our  building.    In  the  first  place  the  saloon-keeper 


ALCOHOL  AND  TOBACCO  209 

who  was  to  run  the  business,  came  into  our  store  and  ordered  some 
supplies  and  very  pompously  informed  us  that  he  was  an  excep- 
tional man — he  was  a  teetotaler,  in  fact.  He  did  not  use  the  vile 
stuff;  he  was  an  exceptionally  good  saloon-keeper;  and  that  in  the 
last  town  where  they  were  his  wife  was  such  an  excellent  woman  they 
had  asked  her  to  teach  a  class  in  a  Sunday-school ;  that  he  was  going 
to  run  a  high-class  place ;  that  we  had  never  known  what  a  high-class 
saloon  was,  but  we  were  going  to  learn.  He  almost  persuaded  me 
that  there  might  be  such  a  thing  as  a  beneficent  influence  coming  out 
of  the  saloon  in  a  town  of  our  size.  So  while  they  carried  the  plate 
glass  mirrors  into  the  saloon  and  the  mahogany  furniture  into  the 
front  of  this  building,  in  back  they  were  building  a  high  board  fence, 
enclosing  a  part  of  the  back  yard.  Our  customers  were  very  much 
amused  when  I  said  I  didn't  know  why  they  built  an  addition  onto 
the  back  of  the  building  when  they  did  not  knoAv  how  much  busi- 
ness they  were  going  to  do.  I  was  very  much  amused  when  I  found 
that  every  saloon  had  to  have  some  place  where  the  men  might  wal- 
low as  hogs  in  their  own  filth.  That  is  what  that  was.  Those  men 
would  get  out  there  and  engage  in  rough  singing  and  talking  and 
fighting.  There  never  was  such  a  storm  of  vile  langniage  and  pro- 
fanity coming  from  any  place  as  there  was  from  that  part  of  that 
saloon.  The  saloon-keeper  used  to  stand  in  the  door  of  the  saloon  to 
coax  the  boys  into  the  place,  while  men  were  discussing  the  means 
by  which  they  had  turned  themselves  from  men  into  carrions.  The 
worst  part  of  it  to  me  was  that  I  had  been  accustomed  to  doing  my 
sewing  in  the  sunny  side  of  the  doorway  of  the  store.  I  could  not 
sew,  I  could  not  rock  my  baby  to  sleep  in  that  upstairs  window,  or 
hang  my  washing  in  the  back  yard,  without  hearing  language  that 
would  scar  the  soul  of  any  woman.  And  I  said  to  myself,  "If  that 
is  the  sort  of  language  and  the  sort  of  talk  that  goes  on  in  an  open 
saloon,  the  fewer  we  have  of  them,  the  better  for  our  population." 
It  seems  to  me  that  is  a  self-evident  fact.  The  most  terrible  part 
of  the  whole  thing  to  me  was  the  fact  that  these  terrible  social  dis- 
eases which  we  are  trying  so  hard  to  combat  now-a-days  were 
laughed  at  and  joked  about.  Sure  cures  were  swapped  and  patent 
remedies  recommended,  just  as  if  decent  people  were  miles  and  miles 
away.  And  I  faced  bad  men  under  the  influence  of  liquor  over 
the  counters  of  our  store  until  I  really  wished  I  had  the  grit  of  Carrie 
Nation  and  a  stick  of  dynamite.  It  seemed  to  me  as  if  it  would  be 
of  service  to  humanity  to  wipe  that  thing  off  the  globe.  I  know  of 
young  boys  who  got  into  the  atmosphere,  who  heard  that  talk,  who 
went  out  and  formed  clubs  to  carry  on  that  vicious  bruteness. 


210  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

Discussion. 

A  League  of  Publishers 

;Melvil  Dewey^  President   Lake  Placid  Club,  Lake  Placid,  New  York. 

I  think  it  is  true  tliat  Avliile  the  people  are  equally  sincere 
and  earnest  in  regrard  to  this,  there  are  diametrically  opposite 
opinions  as  to  what  should  be  done.  The  pathology  we  all  know. 
It  is  the  therapeutics  we  should  get  at.  Has  not  someone  here  a  sug- 
gestion upon  which  we  could  all  agree?  The  paper  of  Doctor  "Wil- 
liams does  not  stand  at  all  as  the  expression  of  the  opinion  of  the 
Conference.  The  Conference  itself  simply  publishes  what  has  been 
said.  The  remarks  of  Doctor  Williams  are  his,  and  the  remarks  of 
some  other  person  are  his,  and  people  must  choose  what  they  think 
to  be  the  right.  In  regard  to  the  remark  about  statistics,  I  would 
suggest  that  the  truth  may  be  absolute  truth  and  yet  very  mislead- 
ing. You  know  if  you  take  a  fish  pole  and  look  at  it  end  ways,  it 
is  the  size  of  a  ten-cent  piece.  Look  at  it  otherwise,  and  it  is  the 
length  of  an  elephant.  So  one  man  looks  at  the  thing  from  a  certain 
point  of  view,  another  man  from  another  point  of  view  equally 
honest.  What  we  see  is  true,  but  we  must  learn  to  walk  all  around 
it  and  see  it  in  all  its  bearing  if  we  are  going  to  command  the  con- 
fidence of  the  public. 

I  don't  believe  it  would  be  of  any  use  if  we  spent  another  week 
here,  discussing  prohibition  and  other  regulations,  for  men  equally 
able,  equall}^  honest,  equally  experienced  are  diametrically  opposed 
on  these  questions.  But  there  are  things  on  which  we  could  agree. 
For  instance,  a  suggestion  was  made  last  night  that  I  wish  someone 
would  take  up  here  and  give  some  sidelight  on.  That  is,  what  the 
publisher  said  who  stated  he  was  very  ready  to  join  in  a  league  of 
publishers  who  would  refuse  to  break  into  their  columns  the  ad- 
vertising of  alcohol,  tobacco,  and  patent  medicines,  a  get-rich-quick 
scheme,  or  any  other  thing  distinctly  inimical  to  race  betterment. 
There  are  hundreds  of  publications  in  this  country.  This  Confer- 
ence might  unify  them,  form  a  league  of  that  kind.  All  sides  will 
agree  on  that.  Whatever  you  may  say  on  drink  and  liquor,  we  all 
agree  that  it  is  a  bad  thing  for  the  race  to  have  it  advertised  and 
thrown  before  them  in  all  sorts  of  ways.  The  employers  of  the  Em- 
ployers' League  will  pledge  themselves  not  to  employ  users  of  al- 
cohol and  tobacco,  if  you  go  as  far  as  that.  AVe  could  get  a  thousand 
employers  in  a  very  short  time  wlio  would  refuse  to  take  into 
their  employ  any  man  or  boy,  or  woman  either,  addicted  to  this 
vice  that  is  making  a  race  of  runts. 


ALCOHOL  AND  TOBACCO  211 


Discussion. 


Soothing  Syrups  and  Alcohol  Craving 
Dr.  Edith  B.  Lowry,  St.  Charles,  Illinois. 

I  have  been  very  much  interested  in  one  of  the  causes  of  drink.  I 
notice  in  Chicago  that  among  the  downtown  offices  many  men  would 
work  in  the  office  under  stress  for  two  or  three  hours,  then  they 
would  feel  the  craving  for  something,  rush  out,  and  get  a  drink.  I 
decided  there  must  be  a  cause  for  that.  In  my  own  work,  I  found 
that  sometimes  when  I  had  been  working  for  two  or  three  hours  I 
began  to  have  a  restless  feeling,  a  craving  for  something,  and  I  felt 
that  it  was  the  same  that  these  men  had  and  which  a  great  many 
would  interpret  to  mean  a  need  of  alcohol  and  others  would  a  need 
of  coffee.  I  found  out  that  if  I  kept  some  molasses  candy  on  my  desk 
and  ate  two  or  three  pieces  at  that  time,  that  satisfied  the  craving. 
I  found  that  it  is  a  craving  of  the  system  for  something  which  can 
be  satisfied  only  by  the  right  diet. 

Another  thing,  I  found  that  a  great  many  of  those  men  in  the 
offices,  who  rush  out  for  drinks,  were  eating  regularly  at  the  res- 
taurants. They  did  not  have  well-balanced  meals;  they  did  not 
have  the  right  things  in  their  system,  the  right  food  that  the  system 
craves.  It  seems  to  me  one  of  the  best  solutions  of  this  alcohol  ques- 
tion is  being  offered  now  in  the  schools  by  their  domestic  science 
and  domestic  economy  classes,  which  are  teaching  the  girls  how 
to  have  well-balanced  meals  in  the  home.  Then  the  men  are  not 
going  to  have  quite  the  same  craving  for  alcohol. 

Another  cause  for  this  alcoholism  is  the  training  from  babyhood. 
It  is  quite  customary  among  a  good  many  families  to  give  the  babies 
soothing  syrups  and  a  little  whiskey  and  water,  when  they  have  colic, 
or  various  other  stimulants.  The  system  naturally  becomes  accus- 
tomed to  the  stimulation  and  naturally  craves  it.  As  a  child  grows 
older,  this  craving  is  satisfied  by  some  soft  drinks  at  the  soda  foun- 
tains and  various  other  places.  Then,  as  the  child  advances  to  an 
older  age,  it  outgrows  this  habit  of  soft  drinks  and  takes  to  harder 
drinks.  So  the  training  of  mothers  to  manage  their  homes 
rightly,  to  bring  up  the  babies  rightly,  feed  them  rightly,  and  also 
feed  the  families  rightly  is  going  to  do  a  great  deal  in  solving  the 
alcohol  question. 

Discussion. 

Prohibition  and  the  Drug  Consumption 

Dr.  James  T.  Searcy,  Tuscaloosa,  Alabama. 

There  is  no  question  that,  the  scientific  aspect  of  the  alcohol  ques- 
tion is  what  the  whole  question  rests  upon.     When  a  man  takes  a 


212  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

driiik  of  alcohol  or  wIumi  he  smokes  his  pipe  of  tobacco  or  drinks 
his  cup  of  coffee  or  takes  his  toff  of  cocaine,  he  does  it  with  the 
knowledge  that  it  is  a  scientific  question.  There  is  no  doubt  about  it. 
He  feels  better  for  having  taken  any  one  of  these  agents.  Now, 
there  is  a  great  deal  of  information  coming  up  from  all  directions 
as  to  what  occasions  the  better  feeling  that  that  man  has  when  he 
takes  any  one  of  these  drugs.  Most  anybody  feels  more  or  less  dis- 
comfort., a  great  deal  at  times,  more  than  others.  If  he  can  take  any 
agent  that  will  prevent  his  recognizing  the  discomfort,  he  has  done 
something.  Whatever  the  effect  is,  he  recognizes  it  as  a  fact  that  he 
does  feel  better.  But  the  chemical  action  of  those  very  drugs,  when 
removed,  is  to  leave  him  more  delicate  and  more  sensitive.  That  man 
feels  worse  than  he  did  before  he  took  that  agent.  If  he  repeats  this 
continually,  he  continues  to  feel  bad  and  continues  to  increase  his 
hyperesthesia,  so  he  wants  more  of  the  drug  and  he  takes  more  to 
satisfy  him. 

Now  we  have  gone  all  over  this  world  of  civilized  people  and 
collected  from  everywhere  agents  of  this  kind  and  are  using  them. 
We  are  using  the  caffeine  from  tea  and  coffee  that  we' get  in  Asia, 
using  the  caffeine  from  the  cola  nuts  that  we  find  in  Africa  and  now 
are  producing  in  South  America.  We  find  in  the  Andes  Mountains 
that  the  Indians  chew  cola  leaves.  We  find  the  Indians  in  this 
country  using  tobacco.  Now  it  takes  whole  states  to  furnish  enough 
for  the  country.  We  found  that  the  Moors  of  Spain  distil  the  milder 
fermented  drinks,  getting  stronger  alcoholics.  Now  we  cannot  get 
enough  agents  strong  enough  for  us.  The  users  of  milder  ones,  like 
caffeine,  take  directly  to  nicotine,  then  they  get  to  alcohol.  The 
caffeine  fiends  are  coming  from  all  directions,  and  the  morphine 
users,  and  sometimes  the  chloral,  sometimes  the  coal-tar  products. 
We  are  relieving  our  headaches  everywhere  through  civilized  society 
with  the  broadcast  use  of  these  things.  That  is  having  some  effect. 
It  is  having  a  broadcast  effect  in  this  country  of  producing  in  every 
direction  psychroesthenic  hyperesthesia  of  the  nervous  system, 
from  which  people  feel  bad.  As  I  said  last  night,  they  are  born  tired. 
They  know  they  can  get  these  things.  They  are  advertised  as  stimu- 
lating, invigorating,  refreshing,  exciting ;  these  chemists  having 
pushed  out  that  kind  of  scientific  information  for  the  use  of  these 
drugs.  Then  they  come  to  me  for  some  information  as  to  the  cause 
of  increasing  insanity.  Long  before  you  get  insanity,  the  indica- 
tions of  nervousness  come. 

I  can  tell  the  effect  of  the  prohibition  principle  by  its  effect  in 
my  own  institution.    Birmingham,  some  two  or  three  years  ago.  had 


ALCOHOL  AND  TOBACCO  213 

prohibition.  We  did  not  get  the  alcohol  inebriates  from  Birming- 
ham— not  nearly  so  many  as  we  did  before  or  as  we  have  since  they 
have  taken  away  the  prohibition  of  alcohol — but  we  did  get  drug 
fiends  in  greater  number.  They  changed  from  one  to  the  other. 
All  through  that  Southern  country  we  have  prohibited  the  use  of 
alcohol  in  negro  districts,  so  poor  negroes  are  taking  cocaine  and  it 
makes  worse  fiends  of  them  than  the  other. 

Doctor  Williams:  They  are  a  good  deal  worse,  aren't  they, 
Doctor? 

Doctor  Searcy :  We  cannot  say  that.  I  had  brought  into  my  office 
the  other  day  a  druggist  who  came  into  the  hospital  as  an  inebriate 
from  the  use  of  caffeine.  We  are  manufacturing  that  kind  of  people 
by  the  cigar,  by  alcohol  and  we,  a  civilized  people,  have  done  it  all 
over  the  world. 


Discussion. 

International  Committee  on  Liquor 

Frederick  L.  Hoffman,  Statistician  Prudential  Insurance  Company,  Newark, 
N.  J. 

About  a  year  ago,  on  the  initiative  of  the  Russian  Government 
and  of  the  French  Government,  in  cooperation  with  other  European 
governments, .  an  International  Committee  was  formed  for  the 
scientific  study  of  the  liquor  question  entirely  de  novo,  without  any 
preconceived  notion  whatsoever.  The  United  States  has  formed  a 
Sub-Committee  of  that  International  Committee.  Of  the  Sub-Com- 
mittee, Mr.  Taft  is  chairman.  It  includes  on  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee a  number  of  those  who  were  on  the  original  Committee  of 
Fifty  which  studied  the  liquor  problem.  While  they  have  not  as 
yet  seen  their  way  clear  to  organize  for  active  work,  they  have 
divided  into  five  or  six  specific  committees,  each  of  wliich  will  deal 
with  a  separate  and  well-defined  branch  of  the  whole  question  of 
the  relation  of  alcohol  to  the  public  in  all  its  phases. 

Discussion. 

Alcohol  Posters 

Mrs.    Charles   Kimball   at^d   Elizabeth   Hewes    Tilton.   Boston,    Mass. 

Mrs.  Kimball  :  Just  now  we  are  carrying  on  aggressive  work 
against  alcohol  in  Boston.  It  is  being  done  through  posters  in  an  edu- 
cational way.  A  little  over  a  year  ago,  the  first  poster  came  out,  put  on 


214  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

JOHN    MITCHELI. 

LABOR    LEADER, 

said  (Toronto,  1909).  that  ho  was  not  at  all 
impressed  with  the  statement  that  if  you  closo 
down  the  Liquor  business,  you  bring  a  calamity 
to  the  community.  If  a  brewery  or  distillery 
were  closed  down,  on  its  ruins  would  go  up 

A  FACTORY. 

Thlak>ll.Over,  Poster  Commlltee,  II  Mason  St.,  Cambridge. 


WKo  is  the  first  man 
to  be  laid  off,  and  the 
last  man  to  be  taken 
on? 

Hr  Nliui  Who  Ibiid 


OVESFt  ^J^i   CENT 

MORE  ACCIDENTS 

TO  WORKMEN  WHO  DRINK 

THAN  TO  WORKMEN  IN  GENERAL 


ALCOHOL  AND  TOBACCO  215 

a  small  building;  on  Charles  Street.  It  justified  its  excuse  for  being 
that  day,  for  in  a  short  time  groups  of  people  came  up  and  stood  long 
enough  to  read,  ' '  One  dollar  in,  two  dollars  out,  for  every  dollar  the 
street  receives  for  license.  Two  dollars  go  out  to  take  care  of  criminals, 
paupers  and  insane  brought  to  our  institutions  through  drink. 
Think  it  over."  On  the  same  afternoon  the  newspaper  men  came 
there  and,  following  them,  the  photographers.  In  a  little  while  it 
became  newspaper  news.  We  had  word  from  all  over  the  country 
inquiring  about  the  poster  campaign.  This  offers  perhaps  a  con- 
tinuous movement  that  nothing  else  offers.  The  sound  of 
the  human  voice  passes.  We  listen  to  an  eloquent  address ;  we  enjoy 
it  and  we  think  of  it.  It  comes  up  at  times.  The  poster  remains 
with  its  educational  value.  When  the  voter  goes  to  vote  for  license 
or  no  license,  he  sees  the  poster.  It  brings  to  his  mind  the  thing 
he  should  vote  for. 

In  our  university  city,  Cambridge,  we  had  a  poster  day.  Mary 
Barry  had  the  posters  placed  on  all  public  buildings.  Citizens 
loaned  their  fences,  bankers  gave  their  windows,  and  we  had  a  roj^al 
day.  We  have  had  many  such  days  in  the  state  of  Massachusetts. 
Doctor  Southern,  of  the  Psychopathic  Hospital,  looks  over  every  one 
of  our  posters,  in  connection  with  Dr.  Putnam,  the  famous  neurolo- 
gist of  Harvard.  These  posters  are  given  careful  study.  Everyone 
can  rely  on  the  poster  as  being  statistically  correct. 

I  submit  a  statement  by  Elizabeth  Hew^es  Tilton,  Chairman  of  the 
Poster  Committee,  Cambridge,  Mass. 

ALCOHOL    EDUCATION    THROUGH    POSTERS    FOR    THINKERS NOT    DRINKERS. 

Alcohol  Education  through  Posters  is  a  movement  of  Boston 
doctors  and  social  workers,  affiliated  with  the  Boston  Associated 
Charities.  For  thinkers,  not  drinkers,  it  aims  at  no  specific  legisla- 
tion, but  works  to  change  men's  attitude  tow^ard  alcohol.  It  is  not 
Prohibition:  it  is  not  No-License.  It  stands  for  the  only  thing  that 
can  make  Prohibition  prohibit.   No  License  means  AO  EDUCATION. 

In  short,  it  is  no  use  legislating  against  what  men  want.  You 
must  educate  your  average  man  not  to  want,  and  then  legislate  for 
the  laggard.  It  seems  a  long  road,  but  what  scientists,  physicians,  so- 
ciologists think  today,  the  man  on  the  street  thinks  tomorrow.  The 
selected  minds  of  the  race  have  turned  against  alcohol.  To  take 
these  facts,  and  without  sentimentality  or  exaggeration  pass  them 
on  to  the  average  man,  is  the  object  of  this  health  and  efficiency 
campaign  against  liquor. 

Posters  were  chosen  because  alcohol  is  such  a  time-worn,  crank- 


216  FIRST    NATIOXAI.    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 


Sl.OO  m!      $2.00  OUT! 

rm  m  $1.00 

HUT  IB  SM  RECEIVED 

LAST   YEAR   FOR, 

LIQUOR  LICENSES 

XT  PAID  OUT 

OVER 


•     I 


For  the  CRIMINALS.  PAUPERS 
and  INSANE  broiiglit  to  our  In- 
stitutions tlirougli  DRINK 

■  iiiiiiili 

THINK  THIS  OVER! 


MOi  Annu«l  Report.  Mib.  Bureau  o<  Lelxir 

BUCK      PSIffTINO    COMPANt.    BOSTON    ---i, -„^- 


ALCOHOL  AND  TOBACCO  217 

worn  subject  that  you  are  forced  to  apply  a  very  fresh  handle  to 
make  the  subject  new  and  news,  to  carry  it  into  that  final  educa- 
tion, the  press.  With  this  fresh  approach,  Collier's,  Miuisey's,  The 
Survey  and  The  Outlook  have  all  come  forward  and  offered  to  help. 
Had  it  been  simply  Alcohol,  it  is  doubtful  if  they  could  have  got  a 
hearing  for  the  campaign. 

Now  I  want  to  call  attention  to  a  curious  fact — the  utter  silence 
of  all  our  social  service  work  on  the  alcohol  question.  In  the  New 
Year's  Survey,  it  summarizes  all  the  work  being  done — better  hous- 
ing, trade  unionism,  sex  hygiene,  but  not  one  word  about  alcohol. 
I  do  not  know  but  my  impression  is  that  there  are  few  courses  de- 
voted to  alcohol  in  our  schools  for  social  science,  so  that  it  has  come 
about  that  the  average  social  worker  does  not  think  the  question 
important. 

The  real  leaders  never  doubt  its  importance,  but  they  tell  you 
that  it  is  so  intricate,  and  men  get  so  passionate  about  it,  that  they 
have  been  at  a  loss  how  to  move  on  it.  They  say  it  is  not  a  cause, 
but  a  war.  But  move  on  it  we  must,  for  it  plays  too  great  a  part  in 
all  the  things  that  social  workers  are  fighting  for  them  to  ignore  it 
longer.  We  are  fighting  against  these  things  that  destroy  the  health 
and  efficiency  of  our  nation — poverty,  insanity,  crime,  immorality, 
disease.    In  every  one  of  these  alcohol  plays  an  appreciable  part. 

The  Boston  Associated  Charities  found  that  one-fourth  of  the 
poverty  that  comes  on  charity  in  Boston,  Mass.,  is  directly  and  in- 
directly due  to  drink.  Curiously  enough,  the  Committee  of  Fifty, 
working  through  several  states,  also  declared  one-fourth  of  our 
poverty  due  to  drink. 

Only  one-fourth  you  may  say,  but  if  you  are  fighting  poverty 
and  have  found  something  that  is  making  one-fourth  of  it,  don't 
despise  that  one-fourth.    Move  on  it. 

Doctors  agree  that  alcohol  is  the  inunediate  cause  of  from  one- 
fifth  to  one-third  of  our  insanity.  Insanity  causes  a  very  great  ex- 
pense to  a  state.  If  you  find  something  that  is  making  from  one- 
fifth  to  one-third  of  that  expense,  good  judgment,  good  business, 
would  be  to  move  on  it. 

Here  I  may  insert,  by  the  way,  the  arrests  for  drunkenness  hav- 
ing increased  in  Massachusetts  one  hundred  and  sixty  per  cent  in 
eleven  years,  we  have  a  Commission  to  look  into  the  matter.  Doctor 
Southard  invited  this  Commission  to  the  Psychopathic  Hospital 
and  showed  them  one  patient  after  another  clear  out  of  their  minds 
from  alcohol.  I  was  present  and  no  more  depressing  sight  have  I 
ever  seen.  At  the  end  Doctor  Southard  said,  "Gentlemen,  individual 
liberty  is  a  doctrine  very  much  in  vogue.  From  it  I  will  not  dissent. 


218  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACJE    BETTERMENT 


Ti  1  mniiii  MiW! 


i 


96 


°o 


OF  IKE  IMPIRIIH 


Qwann  H! 


Back  Printinit  Compni^.  Boston  <)g^g^ 


ALCOHOL   AND  TOBACCO  219 

But  I  wish  to  say  that  a  state  that  licenses  shops  that  sell  insanity 
should  pay  out  its  millions  liberally  to  support  the  victims  of  its 
hobby." 

Excluding-  drunkenness  as  a  crime,  the  IMassachusetts  Bureau  of 
Labor  found  that  fifty  to  fifty-three  per  cent  of  our  crime  was  due  to 
drink.  The  Committee  of  Fifty  found  forty-nine  to  ninety-five  per 
cent  due,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  drink. 

I  believe  in  prison  reform,  but  some  of  the  energy  ought  to  go, 
not  toward  the  reform  inside  the  prison,  but  in  reforming  the  causes 
outside  that  send  men  there.  Statistics  are  loose  things,  but  every- 
thing shows  an  extremely  strong  connection  between  drink  and 
crime,  and  if  you  can  reduce  our  prison  expense  by  one-half  or  even 
one-third  by  removing  alcohol,  I  think  it  is  worth  while  to  bring  this 
fact  out,  to  make  it  prominent  in  all  this  splendid  prison  reform 
movement.  In  fact,  I  think  it  is  the  opposite  of  "efficiency  manage- 
ment" not  to  bring  it  out. 

We  had  a  letter  on  this  subject,  which  I  now  submit  by  permis- 
sion. 

IjETTER  received  FROM  A  FORMER  POLICE  COMMISSIONER  IN 
SAN  FRANCISCO 

San  Francisco.  May  15,  1913. 

"I  notice  in  the  Lexington  Minute  Man,  that  I  receive  from  my 
native  town  weekly,  a  paragi-aph  to  the  effect  that  a  poster  is  to  be 
displayed  in  Bedford  saying  that  'directly,  indirectly,  one-half  of 
our  crimes  are  due  to  drink.'  It  may  interest  your  committee  to 
learn  of  my  experience  in  that  line. 

"While  Police  Commissioner  in  San  Francisco  in  1907-08-09,  it 
was  my  custom  to  examine  the  records  in  the  city  prison  frequently, 
showing  all  the  crimes  and  other  particulars  attending  arrests,  that 
numbered  about  two  hundred  daily,  and  my  conclusion  was  that 
fully  ninety  per  cent  were  due,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  the  use  of 
liquors.  Again,  all  saloons  in  San  Francisco  were  closed  for  thirty 
days  following  the  great  fire  in  April,  1906,  the  result  being  that 
there  was  so  little  police  duty  necessary,  in  spite  of  the  great  confu- 
sion growing  out  of  the  fire,  that  one-half  the  police  force  were  given 
vacations  for  periods  of  from  ten  to  thirty  days.  When  the  saloons 
were  again  opened,  the  officers  on  vacation  were  recalled,  as  it  was 
deemed  necessary  to  place  the  entire  force  on  duty  because  of  the 
increased  crime  and  disorder. 

' '  Yours  truly, 

"A.  D.  Cutler. 
"510  Kohl  Bldg.,  San  Francisco." 

The  connection  between  alcohol  and  immorality  is  too  well 
known  to  dilate  on.     Miss  Jane  Addams  says  that  those  who  have 


220  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    UACE    liETTKRMENT 


ARCHBISHOP 

IRELAND 

SAYS.- 

"The  Great  Cause  of  Social  Crime  is 
Q||||y|4;  the  Great  Cause  of  Poverty  is 
QUII^K^  When  I  hear  of  a  family  broken 
up,   I    ask  the  cause,  -  DRINK.    ^^  '  9^  ^o 

the  gallows   and   ask   its   victim  the  cause,  the 

answer, -DRINKi 

Then   I   ask    myself  in   perfect   wonderment, 

Wliy  do  not  men  pnt  a 
STOP  to  tills  thing?" 


ALCOHOL  AND  TOBACCO 


221 


ALCOHOL! 


YOU  MAY  THINK:— 

It  is  only  Heavy  Drinkinif  that  harms. 

EXPERIMENTS  SHOW:— 

That  even  Moderate  Drinkin({  Injures  Health,  Lessens  Efficiency. 

YOU  MAY  THINK:— 

Alcohol  braces  us  for  hard  work  and  lessens  fatiifue. 

EXPERIMENTS  SHOW:— 

That   ALCOHOL    IN    NO    WAY     INCREASES    MUSCULAR 
STRENGTH  OR  ENDURANCE. 

ALCOHOL   LOWERS  VITALITY;  ALCOHOL 
OPENS  THE  DOOR  TO  DISEASE. 

At  the  Massachusetts  General  Hospital,  Boston,   the  nse  of  Alcohol  as  a 
medicine  declined  77  per  cent,  in  eight  years. 

Most  Hoders  Hospitals  show  the  same  tendeaej. 

ALCOHOL  IS  TH£  IMMEDIATE  CAUSE  OF 

MUCH   OF  OUR    INSANITY. 

MUCH   OF  OUR  POVERTY. 

MUCH   OF   OUR  CRIME. 

THE  MASSACHUSETTS  PRISON   COMMISSION   REPORTED  THAT  96% 
OF  THOSE   IN  PRISON  IN  1912  HAD  INTEMPERATE   HABITS. 
LASTLY,  ALCOHOL  PROMOTES  COMMERCIALIZED  VICE. 
YET  YOU  MAY  SAY:— We  need  the  Revenue  from  Liquor. 

DO  YOU  REALIZE—HOW  SMALL  IS  THE  REVENUE  com- 
pared with  the  Costs  of  Carrying  the  Victims. 

YOUR  MONEY  SUPPORTS  THESE  VICTIMS, 
FOR  HIGHER  TAXES   MEAN    HIGHER   RENTS. 

IN  SBOZtT 

ARRAYED  AGAINST  ALCOHOL  arc  ECONOMY.  SCIENCE.  EFFIQENCY.  HEALTH.  MORALITY. 

CITIZENS,  THINK! 


SOSTOn   ASSOCtATEO   CHARITIIS. 


AlCOHOL   EDDCAIIOd 


TREES  ALONG 


-■"^^^ 


222  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

stiulied  tlu>  subject  know  that  it  is  the  iiidispciisahlc  vcliidc  ol'  white 
slavery. 

A  great  American,  known  to  all  of  you,  said,  in  a  private  letter, 
that  his  recent  trip  around  the  world  made  him  feel  that  alcohol, 
in  conjunction  with  venereal  disease,  might  carry  off  the  white  race, 
unless  great  educational  and  restrictive  measures  were  instantly 
applied. 

All  these  facts  should  sink  deep  into  the  minds  of  social  workers 
and  come  out  in  action:  for  they  are  their  own  particular  subjects — 
poverty,  crime,  disease,  immorality.  To  fight  them  efficiently,  one 
must  fight  alcohol,  fight  it  with  education. 

The  youth  of  the  nation  will  be  appealed  to  by  the  fact  that 
alcohol  is  probably  the  greatest  health  and  efficiency  "sapper"  that 
we  have. 

Experiments  prove  that  even  moderate  drinking  injures  health 
and  lessens  efficiency.  This  has  made  the  Kaiser  a  total  abstainer 
and  caused  him  to  beg  his  army  to  give  up  beer. 

Another  fact  that  cannot  fail  to  impress  the  race  is  that  alcohol 
is  dying  out  as  a  medicine  because,  far  from  giving  life,  it  destroys 
life  by  lowering  vitality.  It  really  opens  the  door  to  disease.  Hence 
at  the  Massachusetts  C4eneral  Hospital,  Boston,  the  use  of  alcohol  as 
a  medicine  declined  seventy-seven  per  cent  in  eight  years. 

In  short,  the  passing  of  alcohol  would  restore  untold  amounts  of 
health  and  efficiency  now  being  lost,  not  through  heavy  drinking, 
hnt  through  moderate  drinking. 

These  things  should  not  be  done  all  at  once — but  education  boards 
should  be  run  through  long  periods. 

For  information  regarding  Posters,  please  write  to — 

Elizabeth  Hewes  Tilton, 

Chairman  Poster  Committee, 

Cambridge,  Mass. 

TOBACCO   A   RACE    POISON 

Daniel  Lichty,  M.D.,  Senior  Consultant,  Roekford  City  Hospital ;  President, 
Trustees  Roekford  Municipal  Tuberculosis  Sanitarium. 

Man,  generic  man,  is  the  greatest  asset  of  the  age,  and  of  the 
world.  It  is  the  duty  of  those  who  dwell  on  the  heights  to  conserve 
this  asset. 

It  should  not  be  necessary  to  put  the  subject  of  tobacco  on  the  de- 
fensive, yet,  in  its  almost  universal  use,  to  openly  declare  it  a 
race  poison  demands  this;  it  requires  the  courage  and  'sacrifice  of 
a  martyr  to  do  it. 


ALCOHOL  AND  TOBACCO  223 


LIQUOR  BILL 

$1,750,000,000 

IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  FOR  ONE  YEAR! 

THIS  WOULD  - 

1.  Build  Ten  Hospitals  in  each  of  the  48 
States  in  the  Union  at  a  cost  of  $10(),- 
000  each  and  endowed  with  $500,000 

each  $288,000,000 

2.   Build  4  Colleges  in  each  State  each  costing 

$1,000,000.  and  endowed  with  $1,000,000      384,000,000 
3    Build  a  Road  from  New  York  to  San 

Francisco  at  a  cost  of  $10,000,000,  and 

give  each   State  $1,000,000  to  build 

tributary  roads 58,000,000 

4.  Equip  10.000  Playgrounds  for  Children 

at  a  cost  of  $2,000  each 20,000,000 

5.  Give  each  State  $10,000,000  for  lndus= 

trial  Education  in  the  public  schools         480,000,000 

6.  Place  50  Libraries  in  each  State,  each  cost= 

ing  $100,000  and  endowed  with   $100,000      480,000,000 

And  Leave  $40,000,000 

F^OK  

MUNmi  RECREATION  CENTRES 

IN  PLACE  OF  THE  SALOON 

By  W.  E.  PITTENGER 
South  End  AlcoholiMuaitlon  Commlttte  II  MiMon  St.,  Cambridtt.  Mass. 

Buck  Friatla*  Ccaipu;,  BMtsn  a^Sto 


224  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

However,  as  Abraham  Lincoln  said  of  his  opi)Osition  to  human 
slavery,  "If  the  end  brings  me  out  wrong,  ten  angels  swearing  I 
was  right  would  make  no  difference." 

Tobacco  is  a  poison,  a  narcotic  poison,  an  acro-narcotic ;  it  is  so 
classed  in  every  text-book  on  poisons,  in  every  book  on  botany. 
Every  chemistry  so  classes  its  alkaloids,  and  every  dictionary,  medi- 
cal or  otherwise,  so  defines  it.  Every  part  of  the  plant  is  poisonous. 
Even  the  sweet  secretion  of  its  flowers  is  stupefying.  Only  a  few 
poisonous  plants  excel  it  in  deadliness.  In  Germany  tobacco  is  fit- 
tingly called  teufel  kraut,  "devil's  weed." 

Tobacco  alone  possesses  the  fascinating  flavor  and  aroma  that 
lures  the  world.  Eighty  per  cent  of  the  adolescent  and  adult  male 
population  are  enamored  of  its  narcotic  and  lethal  potency.  How 
some  are  poisoned  and  others  are  immune  is  the  paradox  of  human 
physiology  and  pathology.  Here  heredity  and  education,  maternal 
and  filial  affection,  are  all  deposed  and  dumped  into  a  commoir  mire 
of  tobacco  debauchery. 

That  it  possesses  a  potency  to  disturb  function  in  callow  youth 
or  adult  decrepity,  most  beginners  will  readily  attest.  King  James' 
counterblast  against  tobacco  is  such  a  worthy  and  graphic  clinical 
recital  of  its  systemic  effect  as  a  modern  therapeutic  professor  might 
be  proud  to  have  composed.  "A  custom  loathsome  to  the  eye,  hate- 
ful to  nose,  harmful  to  the  brain,  dangerous  to  the  lungs,  and  in 
the  black  stinking  fumes  thereof  nearest  resembling  the  horrible 
Stygian  smoke  of  the  pit  that  is  bottomless,"  is  his  characteriza- 
tion of  burning  tobacco. 

That  it  has  lethal  properties,  stupefies  and  kills,  neither  scientist 
nor  layman  can  successfully  refute.  The  recital  of  its  exclusive  dis- 
covery and  use  in  the  Western  Hemisphere  has  many  character- 
istics of  the  recital  of  the  ardent  adventurer,  or  the  buccaneer  sailor. 
Pipes,  implements,  not  unlike  modern  smoking  pipes,  have  been  dis- 
covered in  Italy,  Greece,  Asia,  Turkey,  China,  Ireland  and  the  East 
Indies.  Areheologists  acknowledge  these  finds  and  admit  that  they 
may  have  been  used  for  the  combustion  and  inhaling  of  some  nar- 
cotic substance. 

Anesthesia  and  narcosis,  from  whatever  substance,  are  regarded 
as  pathological  conditions ;  they  produce  perversions  of  function  and 
increase  morbidity.  That  a  universally  acknowledged  narcotic 
and  poisonous  substance  has  found  such  lurement  to  man,  the 
boasted  monarch  of  earth,  is  an  enigma  of  modern  ethics  and  eth- 
nology. There  are  other  pernicious,  habit-forming  drugs  as  well  as 
tobacco  being  insidiously  foisted  on  susceptible  humanity  by  un- 
relenting commercial  advertising  that  have  their  toxin  and  their 


ALCOHOL  AND  TOBACCO  225 

menace.  National  and  individnal  perspicacity  seems  already  myopic, 
if  not  blinded,  by  the  blandishments  of  their  advertising.  Prance 
was  slow  in  recognizing  the  demoralization  absinthe  was  working 
on  her  people  nntil  its  wrecks  tainted  her  society  and  blotted  her 
landscape. 

China  passed  from  dynasty  to  dynasty  under  the  stupor  of 
opium — an  Empire  in  area,  mines  of  wealth  at  her  feet,  but  with  a 
paucity  of  appreciation  of  these  gifts  or  of  the  degradation  opiuni 
was  working  among  her  people,  until  the  sober  remnant  of  virile 
civilization  compelled  her  to  abandon  the  cultivation  of  the  seduc- 
tive poppy.  Century  upon  century  passed  over  opium-tinctured  China, 
but  her  race  was  stupefied  and  retrograde  among  nations.  Spain, 
once  "the  Mistress  of  the  seas,"  has  become  a  mendicant  at  the  feet 
of  nations  since  she  introduced  tobacco  to  her  impetuous  people, 
and  is  begging  for  her  autonomj^  with  the  tobacco-shriveled  ghost 
of  her  former  proud  self  mocking  her  pleadings. 

In  1896  the  National  Board  of  Health  of  Mexico  issued  a  pam- 
phlet on  tobacco  using,  calling  on  all  good  people,  especially  doctors, 
saying,  "We  can  continue  our  devotion  to  tobacco,  knowing,  as  we 
do,  its  calamitous  results,  but  let  us  warn  the  innocent  who  sin  from 
ignorance,"  etc. 

Man  the  world  over  has  sought  and  possessed  a  sense  obtunder. 
Tobacco,  alcohol,  opium,  cocaine,  are  all  narcotics  which  make  all 
races  adverse  to  ethnic  as  well  as  ethical  progress.  No  substance 
has  become  so  universal  as  tobacco.  Through  his  stupor  he  severs  con- 
nection with  the  real  source  of  joy  and  power — fresh  air,  pure  water, 
right  food,  and  wins  false  force  through  intoxication  and  narcosis. 

The  recognized  degenerate  opium  user  of  Eastern  Asia,  the  betel 
chewer  of  the  Andes  and  the  Himalayas,  the  hashish  eater  of  Arabia, 
and  the  absinthe  wrecks  of  France,  are  graphically  the  antecedent 
degenerates  of  the  Occidental  tobacco  inebriates,  who  must  follow 
their  trail  to  final  race  extinction.  Narcotic  indulgence,  whether 
in  Asia  or  America,  means  race  degeneracy,  ethnic  inferiority  and 
extinction,  race  poisomng. 

The  efficiency  engineer,  the  corporation  superintendent,  the 
transportation  chiefs,  all  captains  of  industry,  are  calling  for 
greater  efficiency  in  their  several  departments — but  the  smoker 
blazes  away,  and  the  snuff  and  tobacco  chewers  roll  their  quids  in 
stupid  indifference  to  the  requirements  of  comity  and  efficiency. 
Employers  refuse  the  cigarette  kid,  while  compulsion  secures  the 
veteran  pipe  fiend  employment.  David  Starr  Jordan  says  there  is  no 
use  in  considering  the  future  of  the  cigarette  boy,  as  he  will  have 
no  future. 


S2b  FIRST    NATKINAIi    CONFERKNOK    ON     HACK     HK'I'I'KRM  KXT 

The  (ioc'tor.  the  roseareli  stiidciit,  tlic  biological  cti^iiKU'i-  seem 
timid,  lax  or  indifferent  to  the  ethnic  hlio-ht  of  tobacco. 

Occasionally  articles  appear  in  scientific  medical  or  other  hij^hly 
ethical  and  literary  maf>azines  deplorin{>:  the  spreading  use,  economic 
waste,  and  bane  of  tobacco  and  its  racial  wreckajje.  In  other 
more  popular  magazines,  whose  circulation  is  measured  by  mil- 
lions (and  their  readers  by  tens  of  millions),  with  front  and  back 
full -page  covers  in  four  colors  we  find  display  lines  of  illustrated  ad- 
vertisement extolling  the  merits  of  their  respective  tobacco  manufac- 
tures, each  with  positive  declaration  and  loud  boasting  that  their  prod- 
uct has  neither  ' '  bite ' '  nor  ' '  sting, ' '  nor  poisonous  nicotine.  A  score  of 
pipes  are  patented  every  year  claiming  to  prevent  the  acrid  smoke 
and  toxic  oil  and  deadly  nicotine  from  reaching  the  consumer.  The 
anxious,  hurried  reader  does  not  recognize  between  the  lines  the 
admissions  of  the  cunning  advertiser  of  both  pipe  maker  and  tobacco 
mixer  that  there  is  poison  in  his  product,  in  the  substance  and  in 
the  advertisement.  A  chewing  gum  is  now  advertised  to  relieve 
the  dryness  of  the  mouth  after  smoking.  No  trust  is  so  conscience- 
less in  its  advertising  as  the  tobacco  trust.  A  hundred  or  two 
human  lives  may  be  burned  to  death  or  horrible  disfigurement  in 
shirtwaist  factories ;  another  several  hundred  destroyed  in  burning 
hotels;  ships  may  be  set  on  fire,  mines  burned,  hospitals,  homes, 
morgues  and  graves  be  filled,  while  widows  wail  and  children 's  cries 
fill  the  saddened  air,  but  the  news  press  must  not  tell  that  these 
grewsome  and  grief-laden  tragedies  were  all  caused  by  stupefied 
cigar,  cigarette,  and  pipe  smokers,  indifferent  and  carelessly  crimi- 
nal with  their  matches  and  embers  and  stubs. 

The  nicotine  from  tobacco  combustion  and  chewing  enters  the 
.system  through  the  usual  channels  of  respiration,  gestation  and  al3- 
sorption.  In  chewing,  the  extracted  toxin  takes  the  course  of  foods, 
through  the  stomach  and  absorbent  glands,  and  probably  has  some 
of  its  virulence  burned  out  or  diluted  in  passing  through  the  liver 
before  it  enters  the  right  heart  and  is  admitted  into  the  general 
circuit.  In  smoking,  the  poisonous  oil  and  nicotine  are  volatilized, 
and  with  the  carbon  monoxide — the  product  of  combustion  which 
has  both  an  affinity  and  an  avidity  for  the  blood — a  triune  toxin 
enters  the  pulmonary  circuit.  Saturates  the  alveoli  of  the  lungs,  and 
hits  the  base  of  the  right  heart  and  the  partition  between  auricle 
and  ventricle— Avhere  are  located  the  wondrous  bundles  of  nerves 
that  eontrol  the  contractions  and  expansions  of  tl\e  heart's  chambers 
— and  paralyzes  the  valves  and  muscles  of  this  wondrous  organ. 
It  taints  the  lung  tissue,  and  leaves  the  residuum  of  stinking  toxic 
air  in  the  air-cells  that  remains  for  daj^s,  to  pollute  his  exhalations. 


ALCOHOL  AND  TOBACCO  227 

Doctors  and  patients  need  only  to  recall  the  exhaled  breath  of  ether 
and  chloroform  days  after  the  operating  room,  or  to  try  to  shun  the 
garlic  and  other  odors  of  the  oriental  condiments  of  the  recent  immi- 
grant days  after  their  ingestion.  Tlirough  all  these  circuits  absorp- 
tion is  going  on,  and  back-firing,  and  pulse-halt  and  ■  heart-block 
signal  the  examining  doctor,  and  warn  both  that  the  track  is  wrong, 
weakened,  wrecked.  Early,  too,  in  these  rounds  the  centers  of  both 
the  intellectual  and  functional  brain  and  spinal  cord  are  being  as- 
saulted ;  in  fact,  the  earliest  impact  is  here,  and  sensation  and  motion 
are  crippled.  Through  these  come  also  the  protesting  reflexes,  the 
nausea,  the  tremors,  vertigo,  convulsions,  and  deaths. 

Why  clamor  for  pure  air  when  every  waking  breath  of  the  to- 
bacco user  is  polluted  with  toxic  fumes?  The  poison  is  absorbed 
from  mucous  membranes  and  from  the  skin.  The  snuff  and  tobacco 
chewers  get  theirs  by  the  former  waj'.  In  Alaska,  vyhere  the  ex- 
treme cold  cracks  the  lips  and  cheeks,  while  attempting  to  hold  a 
pipe  or  cigar  in  the  mouth,  the  dupe  rubs  up  plug  and  fine  cut  and 
binds  it  in  bags  under  the  arm-pits  or  over  his  solar  plexus  and 
imagines  he  gets  the  effects  of  his  cherished  weed.  The  smoker  in- 
hales and  exhales,  and  leaves  a  trail  of  highly  volatilized  toxic 
residuum  along  the  entire  respiratory  tract  that  paralyzes,  benumbs, 
and  easily  makes  a  tuberculous  victim,  adding  another  race  ex- 
terminator. 

When  used  as  a  poultice  for  spasmodic  croup  in  infants  it  has 
caused  alarming  depression  and  death.  Formerly  used  in  strangu- 
lated hernia,  it  produced  pallor,  cold  sweats,  and  such  alarm  that  its 
use  in  medicine  is  abandoned ;  it  is  too  poisonous.  Through  smok- 
ing and  inhalation,  all  these  symptoms  come  more  direct,  and  the 
fatal  invasion  is  averted  by  the  protest  and  paralysis  that  releases 
the  vigil  of  the  flexors  of  the  jaw  and  lips,  that  drops  the  pipe  or 
cigar  from  the  mouth  to  burn  the  skin  or  clothes  and  arouse  the 
body  to  salvation. 

It  is  said  tobacco  soothes  perturbed  nerves,  calms  mental  and 
corporeal  irritation,  smooths  business  ruffles  and  domestic  infe- 
licity. That  is  why  the  messenger  and  delivery  boys  must  have  it 
as  soon  as  they  get  around  the  first  corner;  why  the  grocery  loafer 
and  dray  drivers  must  have  it.  It  allays  itch,  cures  corns,  relieves 
the  irritation  of  the  unwashed,  and  assuages  the  hunger  of  the 
pestiferous  tramp.  Any  excuse  or  none  suffices  to  win  a  recruit 
and  hold  a  devotee. 

Imitation,  as  a  relic  of  the  simian  age,  remains  strong  in  man. 
His  Caucasian  cousin  cannot  beg  ancestral  infirmity  for  his  narcotic 
frailty.     He  insists  he  cannot  stop  it;  he  must  have  it.     He  denies 


228  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

thiimb-suckinfr  to  his  woaklino-  babe  and  «iinn-eh('vviiis-  to  his  ner- 
vous {rirl.  but  he  must  take  a  "cure"  to  stop  it.  His  immunity  lies 
in  his  will  that  tobacco  has  weakened.  Caesar  sai(J,  "To  live  is  to 
will."  The  tobacco  user's  narcosis  made  him  forget  that  "he  is  the 
master  of  his  fate,  the  captain  of  his  soul."  He  cannot  escape  the 
oblififations  of  present  progressive  civilization.  He  nnist  abandon 
his  quest,  his  habit  of  dru<^,  whiskey  and  tobacco  narcosis,  and  alij?n 
himself  with  men  and  not  with  monkeys  or  be  left  behind  in  the  race. 
Real  men  should  arise  above  imitation.  Imitation  is  mere  servility. 
Tobacco  usinja:  is  drug-  slavery. 

The  blastopthoria,  or  germ  damage,  produced  by  alcohol  on  the 
cell  wall  and  substance  is  now  microscopically  as  well  as  physio- 
logically and  pathologically  demonstrated.  The  same  study  applied  to 
tobacco  gives  the  same  results.  The  toxic  dent  of  tobacco  is  made  on 
the  incalculably  thin  film  of  the  cell  wall  and  the  poison  is  projected 
into  the  cell  elements,  even  to  its  nucleus  and  nuclei.  This  may  be  by  a 
vital  dynamism  or  physical  osmosis,  but  the  law  is  unrelenting.  It 
matters  not  whether  this  be  a  squamous  scale  from  the  lips  or  mouth 
or  the  palm  or  back  of  the  hand,  whether  it  be  the  more  highly  organ- 
ized cell  from  the  cortex  or  the  sympathetic,  the  sperm  cell  of  the 
male  or  the  sacred  citadel  of  the  ovum ;  tobacco,  alcohol  and  syphilis 
make  the  same  sear  and  leave  the  same  blight  on  sire,  self,  and  progeny. 

The  blood  does  not  furnish  an  antitoxin,  an  amboceptor,  against 
phytotoxins.  The  working  principle  of  Ehrlich's  bacterial  theory 
of  immunity  does  not  apply  against  the  alkaloidal  poisons,  plant 
poisons,  like  morphine,  nicotine,  soapin,  etc.  The  body  does  not 
develop  an  immunity  against  these  in  the  same  sense  that  it  does 
against  bacterial  toxins ;  the  blood  serum  does  not  manufacture  or 
acquire  the  substance  capable  of  neutralizing  these  poisons.  There 
is  no  amboceptor  between  nicotine  and  the  blood  or  the  cell  struc- 
tures. Neither  has  an  elective  affinity  been  found  that  is  harmless 
to  metabolism  or  helpful  to  liistogenic  structure.  There  must,  how- 
ever, be  a  substance  in  the  plant,  cultivated;  in  curing,  or  added  by 
the  manufacturer,  that  has  an  alluring  as  well  as  a  paralyzing  effect 
on  cell  life  and  an  impairing  and  a  destructive  one  on  the  germ  plasm. 
We  know  that  next  to  reptile  venom  and  prussic  acid,  nicotine  is 
a  most  hemolytic,  blood-destroying,  agent ;  it  breaks  the  cell-wall  of 
the  cell  and  destroys  its  nucleus,  its  vital  center.  Added  to  this 
is  furfurol,  carbon  monoxide,  by-products  of  tobacco  combustion, 
poisons  that  are  readily  taken  up  by  the  cells  and  quickly  dissolve 
their  primary  chemical  elements.  Within  this  organism,  the  cell, 
besides  its  elements,  is  inherent  the  very  potential  of  life,  the  nu- 
cleus, the  primal  dynamism  that  correlates  these  forces  and  directs 


ALCOHOL  AND  TOBACCO  229 

them  to  organic  function  and  to  final  destiny.  Thv<  is  the  deter- 
mdner  of  species,  the  nearest  we  get  to  the  Great  Directing  Divinity. 
That  it  is  atomic  does  not  deny  its  existence  or  dynamism. 

Epilepsy,  insanity,  idiocy,  imbecility  and  all  the  collateral 
grades  of  mental  infirmities  are  on  the  increase.  The  statistics  of 
increase  of  positive  defectives  over  population  are  appalling — to 
say  nothing  of  the  criminals,  substandards  and  repeaters  of  com- 
mon society.  To  enumerate  them  would  be  wearisome.  Let  this 
suffice :  In  Illinois  the  increase  of  insanity  is  667  per  cent,  while 
population  increase  was  only  50  per  cent,  census  1900.  That 
these  unfortunates,  wrecks,  and  derelicts  have  been  cast  upon  the 
moaning  beach  of  the  Sea  of  Life  in  regularly  increasing  winrows, 
parallel  with  the  increasing  use  of  tohacco,  is  a  graphic  and  signifi- 
cant presentation  that  cannot  be  ignored  nor  denied.  There  may 
be  comfort  in  this  reflection,  however,  that  blocking  this  blight  on 
humanity  in  part,  is  absolute  sterility  in  the  male,  which  is  also 
on  the  increase,  in  the  original,  in  the  secondary  and  tertiary  issues 
of  the  tobacco  user. 

Prof.  Howard  A.  Kelly,  of  Johns  Hopkins  University  Medical 
School,  quotes,  endorses  and  emphasizes  the  statement  of  the  late 
Dr.  Prince  A.  Morrow  that  "the  unpremeditated  childless  marriages 
due  to  the  husband's  incapacity  from  gonorrhea  vary  from  17 
to  25  per  cent,  and  that  75  per  cent  of  sterility  in  married  life  is 
not  of  choice,  but  is  due  to  the  inca,pacity  of  the  husband."  But 
he  does  not  account  for  the  difference  between  the  maximum  of  25 
per  cent  due  to  gonorrhea  and  the  75  per  cent  of  general  sterility. 
This  balance  of  infertility  readily  points  to  other  toxin  than  venereal 
and  easily  admits  tobacco  into  the  ranks  for  competition  for  barrenness 
and  this  race  extinction. 

The  latest  reports  (1911)  of  the  Census  Bureau  show  that  slightly 
more  than  42  per  cent  of  the  infants  dying  under  one  year  of  age 
in  the  registration  area  did  not  live  to  complete  the  first  month  of 
life,  and  that  of  this  42  per  cent  almost  10  per  cent  died  as  a  result 
of  conditions  existing  before  they  were  born — probably  of  paternal 
assault  and  toxemia  before  conception,  or  of  injury  or  accident  dur- 
ing delivery.  However,  with  modern  asepsis  and  manual  technique 
and  skill,  deaths  during  birth  are  rare,  and  this  change  does  not  hold 
true.  Of  those  that  lived  less  than  one  week,  about  83  per  cent  died 
of  conjugal  assault  from  venereal  or  other  toxic  projectile  in  which  the 
very  general  use  of  tobacco  would  be  conspicuous.  Of  the  number  that 
lived  less  than  one  day,  94  per  cent  died  of  prenatal  toxins  in  either 
or  both  parents.  While  these  figures  exhibit  an  appalling  waste  of  life, 
apparently  at  fetal  conception  or  maturity,  they  in  no  degree  represent 


230  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

the  aceidontal  Jiiul  i^rciiKHlitattHl  feticidt's  in  iiiircf/islcrrd  districts  of 
the  vicious  stratum  of  society,  that  without  doul)t  fur  outnumber  the 
fi^ires  given  in  a  very  small  registration  area.  Registration  districts 
betoken  a  higlier  sanitary  and  ethical  standard  than  non-registration 
areas,  and  better  conditions  are  expected  to  exist. 

There  are  prenatal  conjugal  considerations  here  that  census  re- 
porters do  not  recognize  and  enumerate. 

Procreation  when  either  parent  is  alcoholized,  or  tobacco 
narcotized,  should  be  prohibited,  whether  this  be  acute  or  chronic. 
In  either  way  it  affords  a  good  example  of  transient  blastophthoria 
in  w^hich  the  germ-plasm,  sperm-plasm,  is  damaged,  so  that  degener- 
ative progeny  is  very  likely  to  result. 

Nicotine  begets  very  decidedly  neuropathic  stock.  The  heredity 
of  nicotine-tainted  stock  is  never  on  the  right  side.  Nicotine  is  an  ethi- 
cal as  well  as  a  race  poison.  Heredity  as  a  science  has  made  rapid  prog- 
ress and  is  advancing.  Humans  are  entitled  to  equal  considera- 
tion with  plants  and  animals.  Propagation  should  be  made  selective 
from  both  sides.  There  might  well  be  a  parent  inspection  before 
there  is  the  child  and  pupil  inspection,  before  the  "Better  Babies" 
enter  their  contests.  There  needs  be  a  standard  of  narcotic-free 
fatherhood  before  a  standard  of  childhood  and  scholarship  is  de- 
manded. Prophylaxis  should  precede  prosecution  and  segregation. 
It  is  realized  that  statistics  are  the  mystics  of  argument.  The  aggre- 
gate of  life  is  made  up  of  vicissitudes  of  transmigration,  climate, 
environment,  vocational  disease  and  accidents,  habit  and  habit-he- 
redity, disease  and  disease-heredity,  alcohol,  syphilis,  and  tobacco. 
Alcohol  is  in  almost  universal  use.  Syphilis  is  all  too  prevalent; 
its  spirochetie  leave  their  unmistaken  trail  in  rural  and  mural  "Dam- 
aged Goods."  But  there  is  a  bane  as  prevalent  as  all  these  combined. 
It  is  the  Race  Poison,  Tobacco ;  it  is  running  a  neck-and-wreck  race 
with  syphilis  and  alcohol  for  supremacy.  No  athletic  or  scholar- 
ship test  has  ever  been  made  in  which  non-smokers  did  not  excel 
the  smokers ;  a  similar  comparison  would  militate  against  progeny. 

Dr.  Frankel-Hochwart,  of  Berlin,  Germany,  in  an  article  in  the 
Deutsche  MediziniscJie  Wochenschrift  of  December,  1911.  relating 
to  several  thousand  cases  in  his  clinic,  emphasizes  the  fact  learned 
from  his  experience,  that  "the  localization  of  the  toxic  action  of 
nicotine  is  very  much  like  that  of  syphilis."  These  observations  are 
along  the  line  more  especially  of  nervous  diseases,  brain  diseases. 

Hesse,  in  1907,  made  similar  observations  in  tobacco  intoxica- 
tion ;  Huchard  and  Bunge  confirm  these  clinical  data.  Much  ex- 
perimentation with  tobacco  has  been  done  to  ascertain  the  cause  of 
the  increase  of  arteriosclerosis  and    heart    disease,    the    so-called 


AT^COHOL    AND    TOBACCO  231 

"hardening  of  the  arteries,"  also  the  cause  of  interruption  of  func- 
tion and  nutrition,  leading  to  mental  perversion,  insanity,  sudden 
deaths  and  the  many  palsies.  The  earliest  observation  on  this  line, 
and  which  establishes  beyond  doubt  the  deleterious  action  of  to- 
bacco upon  the  arteries,  is  that  of  Isaac  Adler,  demonstrating  har- 
dening in  the  end  arteries  of  rabbits  as  a  result  of  feeding  them 
with  a  tea  made  of  tobacco.  Boveri  confirmed  these  results  by  giv- 
ing this  tea  by  stomach  tube,  and  caused  damage  at  the  base  of  the 
aorta  in  ten  out  of  sixteen  rabbits,  while  Baylae  on  the  same  line 
got  the  same  results  in  each  of  eight  rabbits  into  which  tobacco  tea 
was  injected  into  veins  or  under  the  skin.  Jebrowsky  and  AV.  E. 
Lee  obtained  the  same  results  in  other  rabbits  by  making  them 
inhale  tobacco  smoke.  A  great  number  of  experimenters  with  to- 
bacco in  this  country  and  Europe  obtained  results  so  akin  to  these 
that  no  other  conclusion  can  be  entertained.  The  general  conclu- 
sion is  that  a  toxic  principle  in  the  tobacco  is  the  cause  of  arterio- 
sclerosis. What  more  prevalent  toxin  is  present  than  nicotine  or 
other  tobacco  toxins? 

Chewing,  more  than  smoking,  through  absorption  and  hemolysis, 
also  causes  an  acidosis  of  the  blood  which  increases  blood-pressure, 
strains  the  heart,  impairs  the  kidney's  function,  precipitates  the  soluble 
calcium  into  calcium  carbonate,  whose  granules  find  lodgment  in  the 
lattice  framework  of  the  media  and  produces  the  arteritis  nodosa 
of  arteriosclerosis.  The  liigli  blood- pressure  will  account  for  some 
of  the  flights  of  genius  and  descents  into  iniquity  of  some  great 
minds  otherT\dse  blameless.  Tobacco  toxcDtiia  is-  more  to  blame  than 
alcohol.  A  man  usually  knows  when  he  is  drunk,  but  rarely  knows 
when  he  is  tobacco  inebriated. 

Dr.  Ludwig  Jankau,  of  Miinchen.  carried  on  experiments  and 
observations  in  his  nose  and  throat  clinic  through  a  period  of  three 
years  before  issuing  his  brochure  ^'Der  Tabak,"  in  which  he  pours 
a  deluge  of  evidence  against  tobacco  using.  A  society  of  scientists 
and  physicians  worked  with  him  and  confirmed  his  investigations. 

That  tobacco  is  a  causative  factor  in  heart  and  blood-vessel  dis- 
eases is  apparent  in  this — that  tobacco  is  promptly  excluded  in  the 
treatment  in  all  diseases  of  the  heart  and  arteries. 

Dr.  Hirsehfelder,  of  Johns  Hopkins  University  Medical  School, 
author  of  a  classic  treatise  on  Diseases  of  the  Heart  and  Aorta, 
says,  "Tobacco  should  be  absolutely  excluded  in  both  organic  and 
functional  cases.'"  A.  Abrams,  of  California,  places  tobacco  non- 
use  ahead  of  alcohol  in  both  prevention  and  treatment  of  heart  dis- 
>ea:ses.  Bovaird,  of  the  Columbia  University  Medical  School,  New 
York,  is  equally  emphatic  in  demanding  immediate   abstinence  in 


232  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

all  heart  afTeetions.  Similar  quotations  of  eminent  authors  could  be 
continued  ad  infinitum — and  the  users  will  say  ad  nauaeami.  Dawn  is 
coming.  If  abstinence  aids  to  cure,  why  not  total  abstinence  to  pre- 
vent? Nowhere  would  the  ada^j^e  of  ounce  of  prevention  and  pound  of 
cure  be  more  appropriate.  All  alienists  also  recofj:nize  that  in  the  in- 
sane, heart  and  blood-vessel  diseases,  congenital  or  acquired,  prevail. 

Experiments  made  with  plants  demonstrate  that  solutions  of 
poisonous  substances,  accidentally  or  intentionally  introduced  into 
the  interior  of  the  ovaries  of  plants,  mar  their  form  and  even  change 
their  character.  Wisconsin  University  has  a  field  lecturer  making 
investigation  and  experiment  in  this  line.  Can  man  saturate  his 
germ  with  poisons  and  escape  so  great  a  condemnation  ?  Sterility 
is  preferable  to  inferiority  or  imbecility. 

A  neuropathic  inheritance  is  often  a  nicotine  inheritance.  In 
Switzerland  idiots  and  imbeciles  are  called  Bausch-Kinder,  ".jag  chil- 
dren." In  this  country  they  might,  with  equal  propriety,  be  called 
Rauch-Kinder  or  "smoke  kids."  If  this  recognition  has  become  so 
apparent  that  it  has  reached  the  stage  of  popular  jesting,  should  it  not 
arouse  the  serious-minded?  The  Western  World  is  shocked  at  the 
burning  of  widows  on  the  funeral  pyre  of  the  husbands  in  India. 
We  are  slowly  consuming  on  the  pyre  of  tobacco  beautiful  boys 
in  the  prime  of  life  and  the  vigor  of  manhood,  father's  pride,  mother's 
darlings.  We  turn  pale  at  the  mention  of  the  "Yellow  Peril"  in  the 
East,  while  a  yellow  peril  greater  than  the  entire  Mongolian  horde  is 
menacing  our  youth  and  our  race.  Race  came  from  ' '  the  beginning, ' ' 
race  should  extend  far  beyond  the  eternity  of  "the  beginning."  into 
the  eternity  of  the  future,  ever  advancing,  never  receding. 

Temples  and  tombs  survive,  but  the  earth  is  fertile  with  the  bones 
of  extinct  races.  No  monument  is  so  favored  of  God  as  that  which 
in  His  image  continues  achievement  in  His  name,  through  Race 
Betterment. 

Discussion. 

The  Cigarette 

Miss  Lucy  Page  Gastox.  Anti-Cigarette  Leaprue.  Chicago,  Illinois. 
Recently  a  returned  missionary  from  China  said  that  it  was  im- 
possible for  the  Missionaries  of  the  Cross  to  go  so  far  into  the  in- 
terior of  that  great,  giant  land  that  the  cigarette  missionaries  were 
not  there  before  them.  That  is  what  they  themselves  call  "cigar- 
ette" missionaries.  They  make  the  claim  that  by  the  introduction 
of  cigarettes  they  are  helping  the  people  to  free  themselves  from 
the  curse  of  opium.  The  American  Tobacco  Company,  and  the 
British  American  Tobacco  Company,  and  the  different  organizations 


ALCOHOL  AND  TOBACCO  233 

that  are  preying  upon  China  today,  estimated  that  they  could  afford 
to  give  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  cigarettes  free  to  every  man, 
woman  and  child  to  upward  of  four  hundred  millions  of  population 
in  China.  They  did,  and  now  there  are  hundreds  of  factories  pouring 
forth  their  products  in  that  country.  There  is  an  organization  being 
formed  in  China  by  Dr.  Wu  and  other  patriots  to  combat  the  evil, 
which  is  only  second  to  the  opium  habit.  Do  you  people  know  that 
the  opium  addict  will  smoke  a  cigarette  at  the  close  of  his  debauch 
for  the  added  pleasure  that  it  gives? 

That  is  the  product  that  is  in  the  hands  of  the  immature  youth 
of  this  fair  America.  In  this  Race  Bette'rment  Conference  I  wish 
there  might  be  some  ringing  protest  that  would  reach  every  nook 
and  corner  of  this  land,  warning  the  people  against  the  dangers  from 
this.  Ninety  per  cent  of  the  high  school  boys  and  the  college  stu- 
dents today  are  addicted  to  cigarettes  or  to  some  form  of  tobacco, 
and  because  tobacco  in  some  form  is  the  vice,  the  popular  vice,  of 
good  men,  it  is  only  the  most  incidental  mention  that  is  given  to 
this  question. 

But,  friends,  what  can  we  do  about  it — this  question  that  we  are 
struggling  with  at  our  headquarters  at  the  Woman's  Temple  in  Chi- 
cago and  that  our  paper.  The  Boy  magazine,  the  official  organ  of 
the  league,  is  dealing  with?  Today  we  are  undertaking  to  organize 
a  force.  The  strength  or  the  charm  of  organization  to  youth  is  well 
known.  We  have  a  plan  of  organization  that  should  be  introduced 
in  every  community  in  the  country.  There  seems  to  be  something 
about  this  anti-cigarette  movement,  this  "A.  C.  L."  button,  that 
arouses  the  heroic  element  in  the  young  American. 

Today  the  prohibition  movement  is  the  thing,  but  it  is  only  part  of 
the  thing  that  is  needed.  What  we  need  today  is  a  great  inspira- 
tional campaign  for  total  abstinence,  not  forgetting  tobacco  and  the 
other  drugs  that  this  good  Doctor  from  Alabama  brought  to  the 
front.  We  ought  to  have  in  every  community  a  clean-life  movement. 
Anti-Cigarette  League  stands  not  only  for  anti-cigarette  league  but 
for  a  Clean  Life — yes,  a  Christian  Life,  a  Consecrated  Life.  We  have 
in  our  movement  a  thing  that  we  can  go  into  public  schools  with. 
There  is  a  great  opportunity  for  a  getting  together  on  that.  People 
think  I  am  loony,  you  know,  on  this  cigarette  question.  Well,  it  is 
time  somebody  was.  I  see  in  this  Conference  an  opportunity  to 
reach  out  and  do  all  of  the  things  that  are  needed. 

A  minister  of  Chicago  who  is  very  active  in  law  enforcement 
work  in  civic  affairs  stated  to  me  in  our  headquarters  at  the 
Woman's  Temple  one  day,  "Miss  Gaston,  some  of  us  have  never 
gotten  to  the  point  of  total  abstinence  of  cigarettes  and  things  like 


234  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFEKENCE    ON    KACE    BETTERMENT 

that."  He  said,  "AVhy,  really,  1  would  not  care  to  iutroduce  a  total 
abstineiRH'  pledge  into  my  ehurcli."  He  said,  "The  leading  mem- 
bers of  my  church  have  wine  on  their  sideboards  and  beer  in  their 
cellars,"  and  he  said,  "Other  than  the  children,  who  will  do  any- 
thing that  they  are  asked  to  do,  I  don't  believe  there  would  be  half 
a  dozen  who  would  sign  a  total  abstinence  pledge. ' '  It  was  not  very 
long  after  when  that  iiian  came  into  our  headquarters  and  said, 
"Miss  Gaston,  what  do  you  think  has  happened?"  I  replied,  "What, 
Doctor?"  "Why,"  he  said,  "you  know  my  little  boy,  Robbie?"  I 
said,  ' '  Yes. "  "  Well, ' '  he  said,  ' '  I  found  he  was  smoking  cigarettes. ' ' 
"But,"  I  said,  "be  careful,  Doctor,  now.  Don't  get  hysterical." 
*Yes,"  he  said,  "but  when  a  thing  like  that  comes  right  into  your 
own  home,  you  have  to  wake  up,"  and  he  said,  "It  was  one  of  the 
boys  of  our  own  Sunday-School  who  w^as  teaching  him  to  smoke  out 
in  the  alley,  and  his  sister  found  it  out."  "What  did  you  do,  Doc- 
tor?" I  said.  "Oh,  I  sent  the  boy  away  and  told  him  to  keep  off 
the  premises."  I  said,  "What  I  think  you  ought  to  do  would  be  to 
organize  a  work  in  your  church  against  the  cigarette." 

In  New  York  City  I  was  doing  work  among  the  boys  of  the  Postal 
Telegraph  Company.  About  one  hundred  of  those  boys,  from  homes 
of  all  nationalities,  joined  our  league.  I  spent  about  an  hour  every 
night,  from  5.30  to  6.30,  among  those  messenger  boys — gamblers, 
drinkers,  all  kinds  of  boys.  One  night  a  Hungarian  boy  came  to  me 
and  said,  ' '  Miss  Gaston,  I  want  to  sign  for  life  against  tobacco,  but, ' ' 
he  said,  "I  don't  want  to  take  the  temperance  pledge."  (We 
have  the  temperance  pledge  on  the  anti-cigarette  blank.)  I  said, 
"Why  not,  Frank?"  He,  a  seventeen-year-old  boy,  said,  "We  are 
Hungarians  and  we  have  wine  every  night  for  dinner  at  our  house 
and  I  don't  think  it  Avould  be  very  easy  for  me  to  see  the  others 
drinking  and  I  not  drink,  but,"  he  said,  "I  want  wings  on  my  but- 
ton." We  put  a  little  red  ribbon  on  the  button  to  indicate  total 
abstinence  for  life  from  both  liquor  and  tobacco.  A  boy  can  join 
until  he  is  twenty-one.  That  boy  signed  up  for  both.  The  last  thing 
he  came  to  me  and  I  said,  "Well,  Frank,  how  did  you  get  along 
without  your  wine  last  night?"  and  he  said,  "Well,  my  brothers 
never  did  a  thing  to  me,  but  my  father  never  said  a  word. ' '  I  said, 
"Frank,  I  believe  your  father  was  proud  to  have  a  boy  who  stood 
for  what  he  believed  to  be  right.  Are  you  sorry  you  signed  up?" 
"No,"  he  replied,  "and  I  am  going  to  stick  to  it  as  long  as  I  live." 

We  are  not  giving  the  boys  and  the  girls  today  a  chance  to  have 
their  blood  stirred  by  any  great  splendid,  heroic  moral  reform.  We. 
have  the  plan  and  I  w^ant  to  invite  you  all  to  help  us. 


ALCOHOL  AND  TOBACCO  235 

Discussion. 

The  Cigarette-Smoking  Hero  of  Fiction 
Dr.  Amanda  D.  Holcomb. 

Because  of  m}^  blind  mother,  I  am  obliged  to  read  a  good  deal  of 
fiction,  and  to  select  what  she  desires.  I  read  the  best  fiction  I  can 
find.  In  that  fiction  I  find  the  purest,  sweetest,  most  ennobling  hero 
smoking  cigarettes.  I  believe  this  one  thing  has  a  very  strong  influ- 
ence on  the  best-reared  boys  and  perhaps  girls.  I  tried  to  investi- 
gate this  subject.  I  am  informed  that  there  are  only  two  magazines 
in  the  world  that  are  absolutely  independent,  that  cannot  be  bought 
and  are  not  bought  by  the  tobacco  trust.  In  many  instances  it 
seems  to  me  that  the  writer  of  these  pieces  of  fiction  did  not  put 
that  cigarette  into  the  hero's  mouth,  but  that  it  was  interjected  in 
the  publishing  offices.  I  should  like  to  know  more  about  this  and 
what  we  ought  to  do. 

Discussion. 

Magazine  Advertising  of  Tobacco 

S.  S,  McClure,  President  S.  S.  McClure  Company,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

My  name  is  S.  S.  McClure,  of  McClure' s  Magazine.  I  did  not 
hear  this  address,  except  the  last  two  or  three  words.  Now,  then, 
I  have  heard  many  times  about  newspapers  and  magazines  being 
controlled  by  the  trusts.  Last  year  there  was  a  meeting  in  Madison. 
Wis.,  of  people  to  discuss  that  question.  Professor  Ely,  of  Madi- 
son, is  here  with  us  today. 

Now,  there  is  much  loose  thinkiug  on  this  question.  Magazines 
are  controlled  by  the  necessity  of  paying  their  expenses  and  making 
some  money.  If  a  magazine  were  controlled  by  the  trust  and  it  did 
not  suit  its  subscribers  and  advertisers,  it  would  fail.  It  is  subject 
to  exactly  the  same  economic  laws  that  obtain  in  every  other  busi- 
ness. The  main  support,  the  life  blood,  of  a. magazine  is  the  confi- 
dence of  and  the  monej^  from  its  subscribers,  upon  which,  secon- 
darily, is  based  the  revenue  from  its  advertisers. 

Now  I  know  the  magazine  business  very  thoroughly,  and  I  de- 
plore the  present  quality  of  most  of  the  magazines.  I  left  the  maga- 
zine business  two  years  ago,  since  which  time  the  magazines  have 
not  improved.  But  no  magazine  and  no  newspaper  can  prosper  if 
it  is  the  organ  and  the  servant  of  any  institution,  financial  or  com- 
mercial, or  of  any  trust  or  of  any  business  like  that.  Such  a  maga- 
zine ceases  to  have  revenue  and  ceases  to  have  influence.  When 
people  supposed  that  Mr.  Morgan,  whom  I  greatly  honored  and  re- 
spected, owned  the  New  York  Sun,  which  he  did  not,  the  New  York 
Sun  lost  a  large  share  of  its  influence. 


236  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

No  publication  may  have  what  makes  a  publication  live  if  it  is  sub- 
ject to  outside  control.  The  reason  is  this,  that,  after  all,  every  pub- 
lication depends  upon  pleasing  the  people.  If  it  does  not  please  the 
people,  the  advertiser  does  not  find  that  it  pays.  It  has  to  have  the 
support  of  the  people.  Now  if  it  tries  to  please  a  particular  interest, 
it  cannot  please  the  people. 

I  heard  that  remark  about  the  publisher  putting  a  cigarette  into 
the  mouth  of  a  hero  in  the  office.  He  does  not,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
I  have  often  taken  them  out  of  their  mouths.  The  editor,  the  pub- 
lisher, generally  takes  things  as  he  finds  them.  When  a  chap  like 
Richard  Harding  Davis  writes,  the  hero  smokes  a  pipe — almost  all 
of  them  smoke  a  pipe.  I  had  certain  rules  about  McClure's  Maga- 
zine. One  was  this,  that  nobody  except  Rudyard  Kipling  could  say 
"damn"  in  McClure's  Magazine.  I  did  not  like  anybody  smoking 
in  McClure's  Magazine.  1  did  not  like  any  picture  of  smoking  in 
McClure's  Magazine.  But  if  they  had  these  pictures,  it  is  not  be- 
cause of  the  trusts  or  of  this  or  of  that;  it  is  simply  because  of  the 
general  taste  of  the  public. 

Dr.  E.  G.  Lancaster,  President  Olivet  College,  Olivet,  Mich.:  Isn't 
it  true  that  the  tobacco  advertisements  are  so  valuable  to  a  live 
magazine  that  they  cannot  do  without  them  financially  ? 

S.  S.  McClure:  That  is  not  true;  that  is  not  true  at  all.  It  is 
not  half  true.  All  advertisements  are  valuable  to  the  magazine  in 
the  way  of  money.  The  advertising  in  magazines  has  grown  a  great 
deal  less  than  it  was  a  few  years  ago,  so  that  many  magazines  that 
a  few  years  ago  would  refuse  tobacco  advertisements  are  now  ac- 
cepting them.  Some  of  them  hate  to  accept  them,  but  they  all  do 
it,  they  all  accept  them — just  as  Harper's  Weekly  for  many  years 
accepted  whiskey  advertisements,  when  other  magazines  would  not. 
Magazines  won't  take  whiskey  advertisements  and  patent  medicine 
advertisements,  but  their  morality  is  just  to  the  point  where  they  will 
take  tobacco  advertisements. 

Discussion. 

A  League  of  Employers 

]\Jel.vil  Dewey. 

There  are  many  people  who  feel  strongly,  in  this  race  bettennent 
effort,  that  the  tobacco  evil  ought  to  be  combated  as  the  opium  evil 
is  combated.  Psychology  teaches  us  that  the  human  mind  is  in- 
capable of  seeing  in  any  right  light  the  evil  of  a  habit  of  which  it 
is  the  victim.  The  liquor  user  smiles  at  the  facts  presented  by  those 
who  are  opposed  to  liquor.     We  hate  to  say  things  when  we  know 


AX.COHOL  AND  TOBACCO  -237 

all  our  personal  friends  are  hit.  It  comes  back  to  us.  A  negro 
clergyman  who  was  asked  why  he  did  not  preach  about  chicken 
stealing  in  his  church,  said  that  it  would  create  so  much  prejudice 
in  his  congregation  he  did  not  feel  like  taking  up  the  topic. 

I  have  this  practical  suggestion  to  make  in  regard  to  tobacco. 
In  talking  with  Dr.  Kellogg,  he  suggested  that  an  outcome  of  the 
Conference  ought  to  be  a  national  league  of  employers  who  would 
refuse  to  take  into  their  offices,  as  I  have  for  many  years,  a  boy  who 
uses  tobacco  or  liquor  or  profanity  or  vulgarity.  I  have  had  hun- 
dreds of  cases  where  a  man  says,  "I  won't  do  it  in  official  hours. 
You  don't  mean  to  say  you  wish  to  interfere  with  my  personal  lib- 
erty?" "Not  in  the  least,"  I  always  answer,  "but  you  must  not 
interfere  with  my  personal  liberty,  and  a  part  of  my  liberty  is  to  be 
free  from  the  annoyance  of  tobacco,  and  the  people  who  go  about 
our  offices  shall  be  free  from  that  annoyance."  I  have  had  many 
cases  where  young  men  have  given  up  their  use  of  tobacco  because 
they  wished  the  position,  and  their  wives  have  come  back  and 
thanked  me  heartily  for  breaking  them  of  the  habit,  so  that  the  men 
had  no  desire  to  return  to  it. 

Then  we  run  into  this  difficulty,  that  so  many  of  our  physicians 
are  tobacco  users.  It  is  almost  unheard  of  for  a  man  who  is  a  drink 
addict  or  addicted  to  opium  or  tobacco  to  share  in  a  campaign  against 
it.  Many  of  our  clergymen  also  use  tobacco.  I  have  known  delicate 
women,  with  high  ideals,  to  go  to  a  communion  service  and  be  physi- 
cally sickened  and  nauseated  by  the  odor  of  stale  tobacco  on  the  gar- 
ments of  the  priest  officiating.  [Voices,  "Shame!"]  It  is  a  shame, 
and  when  one  goes  back  to  the  question  of  professing  the  religion 
of  Jesus,  it  seems  like  sacrilege  that  one  should  be  a  user  of  tobacco. 

Now  if  we  face  frankly  this  question,  we  see  that  while  it  is  a 
widespread  evil  and  many  of  our  friends  whom  we  prize  in  the  high- 
est degree,  whose  feelings  we  would  be  very  sorry  to  hurt,  are  ad- 
dicts of  this  habit,  we  still  recognize  that  it  is  a  strong  factor  in 
making  a  race  of  runts.  If  we  would  begin  with  a  league  of  em- 
ployers who  should  say  as  a  matter  of  economics  and  of  practical 
business  wisdom,  "We  will  not  employ  in  our  o^ces  or  in  certain 
places  any  young  man  who  uses  tobacco,  liquor,  profanity  or  vul- 
garity," it  would  help  immensely.  For  the  boy  who  wants  to  get  on 
in  the  world,  if  he  knew  a  thousand  employers  in  America  would  ab- 
solutely refuse  to  have  him  in  their  employ,  it  would  help  him  to  take 
that  attitude,  and  as  a  practical  example,  it  would  be  easier  to  com- 
bat the  evil.  I  wish  we  could  prohibit  in  the  magazines  and  all  pub- 
lications the  advertising  of  tobacco.  I  believe  the  time  is  coming 
when  we  will  recognize,  as  we  have  with  the  opium  habit,  that  it  is 


288  KIRST    NATIONAIi    CONFERENCE   ON    RACE    liETTERMENT 

a  thiiitr  that  is  pulliiiji'  down  the  race.  We  ought  to  push  it  into  the 
background  as  persistently  as  we  can. 

This  does  not  appeal  to  us  as  it  ought  to,  because  we  are  so 
familiar  with  it.  But  just  stop  for  a  moment  and  consider:  If  a 
person  went  into  the  street  car  or  public  elevators,  and  burned  some 
chemical  that  gave  off  a  fume  that  the  chemist  told  us  was  as  poison- 
ous as  they  tell  us  the  fumes  of  tobacco  are,  there  would  be  a  mob. 
The  burning  would  be  stopped.  As  it  is,  we  go  to  the  best  hotels  of 
the  country  and  are  put  into  rooms  where  the  mattresses  and  the 
carpets  and  the  hangings  of  the  room  are  redolent  with  an  odor 
that  would  not  be  tolerated  from  anything  else  in  the  w^orld.  But 
we  are  used  to  this. 

My  suggestion  is  the  suggestion  of  the  law.  We  should  control 
the  sale  of  tobacco,  as  the  French  do,  and  make  it  no  longer  an  ob- 
ject for  the  small  dealers  to  induce  the  boy  to  become  a  smoker.  A 
woman  has  just  as  good  a  right  to  smoke  as  a  man,  and  we  find  in 
the  women's  clubs  of  the  great  cities  that  the  European  habit  is 
spreading,  more  and  more  women  are  smoking,  but  I  believe  that 
men  who  respect  women  in  the  highest  degree  feel  that  there  is  some- 
thing lowering  in  it  to  womanhood.  In  the  Lake  Placid  Club  we 
have  put  our  foot  squarely  down.  Whatever  a  woman's  social  posi- 
tion or  wealth,  she  cannot  smoke  at  the  Lake  Placid  Club.  We  feel 
that  while  she  has  as  good  a  right  to  smoke  as  the  men,  it  is  pulling 
down  the  standard,  and  we  will  not  tolerate  it.  Let  us  put  our  feet 
squarely  against  that  growing  habit  of  American  women  and  girls  to 
smoke. 

Miss  Lucy  Page  Gaston :  May  I  add  one  word  on  that  last  point. 
Since  the  first  of  August,  1913  [to  January.  1914],  at  our  head- 
quarters in  Chicago,  we  have  had  over  sixty  thousand  applications 
for  our  cure  of  the  cigarette  and  tobacco  habit.  Of  that  number 
quite  a  good  manj^  were  women  who  applied  for  the  cure.  So  the 
women  today  are  smoking. 

Voice :  Here  is  a  good  place  for  another  ' '  single  standard, ' '  if  you 
please. 

Discussion. 

The  Non-Smokers'  Protective  League  of  America 
Dr.  Charles  G.  Pease. 
My  topic  is  the  "Harm  of  Tobacco-Poisoned  Atmosphere."  The 
poisonous  character  of  tobacco  smoke  is  not  generally  appreciated. 
People  know  that  the  florist  employs  tobacco  smoke  to  destro}'-  the 
animal  life  in  the  greenhouse,  but  they  make  no  application  of  that 
knowledge  to  the  tobacco  smoke  in  public  places,  as  affecting  the 


ALCOHOL  AND  TOBACCO  239 

human  race.  Surely,  if  a  poison  is  great  enough  to  destroy  the  ani- 
mal life  in  the  greenhouse  plants,  it  will  do  some  harm  to  the  human 
family. 

The  poisons  in  tobacco  smoke,  or  quite  a  number  of  them,  have 
been  enumerated  by  Vohl  and  Eulenberg  and  others.  I  will  not 
attempt  to  name  them  now,  on  account  of  the  hour,  but  I  would 
refer  you  to  the  United  States  Dispensatory  and  the  article  on  to- 
bacco therein.  Smoking  in  public  is  a  violation  of  a  constitutional 
right  of  individuals  to  breathe  pure  atmosphere.  I  will  read  here 
the  declaration  of  the  Non-Smokers'  Protective  League  of  America, 
which  I  represent: 

First:  "That  the  right  of  every  person  to  breathe  and  to  en.joy 
fresh  and  pure  air,  uncontaminated  by  unhealthful  and  disagreeable 
odors  and  fumes,  is  one  of  the  inalienable  rights  guaranteed  by  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  and  the  Constitution  and  the  Laws  of 
the  Land." 

Second:  "That  tobacco  smoking  in  public  and  from  our  public 
places  is  the  direct  and  positive  invasion  of  this  right,  that  it  is 
dangerous  to  the  public  health  and  comfort,  offensive  and  annoying 
to  individuals,  and  an  intolerable  evil  in  itself.  We  do,  therefore, 
pledge  ourselves  first  to  encourage  and  insist  on  the  enforcement 
of  all  public  laws,  ordinances,  rules  and  regulations  prohibiting  or 
restricting  tobacco  smoking  in  public  and  to  secure  the  enactment 
of  any  other  laws,  ordinances,  rules  and  regulations  which  may  be 
or  become  necessary  for  such  purpose,  and  to  cooperate  with  Boards 
of  Health,  Police  Officers  and  all  Executive  and  Administrative  Offi- 
cials and  Departments  to  secure  full  and  effective  enforcement 
thereof." 

Third :  "  To  secure  the  cooperation  of  all  persons  in  control  of 
buildings,  halls,  elevators,  hotels,  restaurants,  theatres,  street  ears, 
railway  cars,  sleeping  cars,  dining  cars  and  other  places  provided  for 
the  use  of  the  general  public,  to  prohibit  tobacco  smoking  therein,  and 
to  limit  and  restrict  it  so  that  only  those  who  indulge  in  the  habit 
may  be  required  to  inhale  tobacco  fumes." 

Fourth:  "To  create  a  wholesome  public  opinion,  and  to  en- 
courage individuals,  whose  rights  and  comforts  are  disregarded  by 
tobacco  users,  to  insist  upon  proper  respect  for  such  rights,  and  to 
protect  the  same  from  invasion  to  the  fullest  extent  guaranteed  by 
the  Constitution  and  the  Laws  of  the  Land." 

We  issue  a  legal  opinion  in  leaflet  form  which  indicates  the  right 
to  use  force,  if  necessary,  in  terminating  this  most  persistent  Jiui- 
sance.    Our  League  is  composed  of  some  of  the  most  prominent  men 


240  FIRST   NATION^VL    CONFERENCE   ON    RACE    BETTERMJ3NT 

in  this  country.  We  desire,  through  the  medium  of  this  League,  to 
accomplish  the  purposes  that  we  have  started  out  to  accomplish. 

In  New  York  City  we  have,  through  the  Public  Service  Com- 
mission, which  gives  us  a  hearing  upon  our  application,  the  exclusion 
of  tobacco  smoking  from  our  cars  and  stations,  from  the  rear  plat- 
forms of  cars  and  from  the  four  rear  seats  in  convertible  cars  in 
summer  time.  We  are  on  the  way,  I  believe,  to  a  still  better  order 
of  things  there.  The  United  Cigar  Stores  Company  endeavored  to 
nullify  our  victory  through  securing  72,000  signatures  to  a  petition 
which  they  issued  asking  for  smoking  cars  upon  the  elevated  rail- 
way structure  and  upon  the  surface  lines  or  compartments  therein. 
We  combated  that,  and  defeated  the  Company.  I  should  like  to 
read  here  some  portion  of  our  brief,  which  we  handed  in,  as  it  will 
be  helpful  to  others.     We  claim: 

"First,  that  to  require  street  railroad  corporations  to  maintain 
a  nuisance  or  for  city  corporations  to  maintain  a  nuisance  would  be 
a  violation  of  a  principle  of  law,  and  opposed  to  the  provisions  and 
guarantee  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  to  the  Constitu- 
tion of  our  Land.  The  right  to  make  laws  and  to  prohibit  smoking 
in  public  places  was  taken  to  the  highest  court  in  Alabama  and  was 
there  sustained.  To  show  also  the  poisonous  character  of  tobacco 
fumes:  There  was  a  case  in  Alabama,  Hudler  versus  Harrison  26 
S.  O.  Rap,  294,  123  A.  L.  A.  292,  where  the  fumes  from  a  tobacco 
dry  house  made  the  people  in  a  residence  a  little  distance  away 
very,  very  ill.  The  highest  court  stated  in  its  opinion  that  that  dry 
house  was  a  nuisance  and  compelled  it  to  be  closed." 


CHILD  LIFE 

THE  BAD  BOY 

Hon.  Jacob  A.  Riis    (deceased),  The  Jacob  A.  Riis  Neighboriiood  Settle- 
ment, New  York,  N.  Y. 

They  brought  the  kid  into  police  headquarters  between  two 
policemen,  bound.  I  was  there  and  saw  him  come.  I  don't  believe 
in  all  my  twenty-five  years  in  that  place  in  New  York  City  as  a 
newspaper  reporter  that  I  had  ever  seen  a  ruffian  who  bore  the  ear- 
marks of  it  so  plainly  upon  his  face  and  over  it  as  did  that  kid.  He 
was  all  smeared  over  with  blood  and  had  great  bumps  on  his  head 
where  the  policemen  had  struck  him.  He  had  not  been  idle,  appar- 
ently, for  the  men  bore  marks  of  his  fists;  their  clothes  were  torn 
down  their  backs.  They  were  the  tAvo  angriest  policemen  I  had  seen 
in  a  long  while.  They  passed  me  in  the  hallway  and  I  took  notice 
of  the  fellow.  I  knew  of  him  by  reputation.  He  came  from  the 
neighborhood  of  "Hell's  Kitchen,"  a  lad  about  eighteen  or  nineteen 
years  old,  a  husky  fellow.  They  took  him  into  the  detective's  office, 
the  headquarters.  There  they  measured  him,  photographed  him. 
indexed  him,  hung  his  photograph  in  the  Rogue's  Gallery,  did  all 
the  things  they  could  to  make  him  more  sullen,  if  possible,  than  when 
he  had  first  appeared.  When  they  had  held  him  up  before  the  as- 
sembled detectives,  then  they  brought  him  again  through  the  hall- 
way on  the  way  to  the  jail  and  to  the  gallows,  as  they  said,  by  way 
of  the  Jefferson  Market  Police  Court.  That  was  the  police  verdict 
on  the  kid. 

As  he  passed  me  in  the  hall,  the  sunlight  fell  into  that  fellow's 
face — into  the  eyes  of  the  kid — and  something  there  made  me  sud- 
denly turn  and  go  along.  I  think  the  soul  in  me  saw  the  soul  of  the 
kid,  and  owned  it  for  kin.  "We  walked  doAvn  Bleecker  Street  and  I 
talked  to  the  policemen.  They  told  me  what  he  was,  what  I  already 
knew,  and  then  I  turned  to  him  and  said  some  pleasant  words.  He 
gave  me  one  of  the  most  vicious  scowls  I  had  ever  seen,  and  he  told 
me  to  hold  my  tongue  and  attend  to  my  own  business.  And  I  did 
just  that.  I  said  no  more.  Walking  so,  we  came  to  Broadway, 
which  we  had  to  cross  in  order  to  get  onto  the  East  side,  to  the  Jef- 
ferson Market  Court.  In  those  days  the  cable  cars  ran  on  Broadway. 
I  don't  know  whether  or  not  Battle  Creek  has  ever  had  experience 
with  cable  cars,  but  we  had  them  for  a  little  while  in  New  York.  As  I 
now  look  back,  it  seems  to  me  the  one  thing  I  sum  it  all  up  in  is 
just  this:  They  were  never  normal;  they  were  either  jammed,  stand- 

241 


242  FlUST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

ing  on  the  street  iiiimovjible,  oi-  else  tliey  were  nmiiing  away— one 
or  the  other.  They  were  jammed  when  we  reached  Broadway,  and 
we  stopped  with  the  prisoner  between.  They  started  across  the 
street,  but  just  as  soon  as  they  put  their  feet  upon  the  other  tracks, 
there  came  a  warning  cry  a  little  farther  up  the  street  that  made 
them  step  back  quick  out  of  the  way  of  a  runaway  car.  What  hap- 
pened then,  was.  I  suppose,  in  the  flash  of  one  or  two  seconds.  To 
me,  it  seems,  looking  back,  as  if  it  were  half  an  hour.  I  can  see  that 
car  come  rolling  down  the  street  with  the  speed  of  a  race  horse  or  a 
cyclone,  and  the  motorman  trying  to  brake  with  the  grip  of  despair, 
and  ringing  the  bell  on  the  platform  with  his  foot,  trying  to  clear 
the  way  a  little,  his  eyes  bulging  with  a  kind  of  stare,  as  he  looked 
down  on  the  track  in  front  of  him.  I  followed  his  eyes  and  saw  the 
thing  that  frightened  him  and  my  heart  stopped  for  the  longest 
period  I  think  I  can  remember.  For  right  in  the  middle  of  that 
car  track  was  a  little  toddling  baby  with  yellow  curls,  and  its  little 
face  showing  pain.  The  car  was  only  ten  or  fifteen  feet  away  at 
the  time  I  saw  it,  and  the  little  baby  hand  was  held  up  as  if  to  stop 
it.  I  caught  just  a  fleeting  glimpse  of  a  frantic  woman  on  the  side- 
walk, the  mother  evidently  trying  to  reach  out  and  save  it,  and 
three  or  four  men  holding  her.  The  child  was  irretrievably  lost. 
I  turned  away  so  as  not  to  see  it.  Everything  turned  black  before 
my  eyes,  because  I  had  little  children  of  my  own  at  home.  But  just 
as  I  did,  I  heard  another  cry,  and  just  at  that  moment  I  Icnew  the 
''kid"  had  taken  to  his  heels  and  run.  It  seemed  an  age  before  the 
light  came  back  to  me,  and  I  fell  mechanically  in  the  wake  of  that 
car  to  see  the  mangled  remains  of  the  child,  but  the  street  was  per- 
fectly clear.  There  was  nothing  there  and  when  I  came  entirely  to 
myself,  there  stood  the  kid  alongside  of  me,  with  the  baby  in  his 
arms,  safe  and  sound,  setting  it  down  upon  the  sidewalk  and  dis- 
engaging its  little  baby  hands  from  his  big,  rough  finger.  He  had 
just  about  one  chance  in  a  million  of  saving  his  own  life,  doing  what 
he  did.  While  the  rest  of  us  stood  like  so  many  fools  looking  on. 
good,  square  citizens  all  of  us,  who  had  had  no  encounter  with  the 
police,  the  kid — then  indexed,  you  know,  in  the  Rogue's  Gallery, 
at  that  very  moment  on  the  way  to  jail  and  the  gallows,  according 
to  the  police — jumped  and  risked  his  own  life  ten  thousand  times  in 
saving  that  child.  He  made  the  longest  jump  I  ever  heard  of,  in 
doing  it,  because  that  was  the  beginning  of  a  new  life  for  the  kid. 
He  not  only  jumped  across  the  street,  but  jumped  clean  out  of  the 
old  life  into  the  new.  When  I  last  heard  of  the  kid  he  was  a  trusted 
workman  in  a  factory  Avith  a  wife  and  baby  of  his  own  at  home  to 
keep  in  a  straight  way.     You  see,  friends,  I  didn't  make  a  mistake 


CHILD  LIFE  243 

when  I  had  seen  something:  in  that  fellow's  eye — the  image  of  God 
that  is  in  all  of  us,  the  thing  we  call  manhood  and  womanhood  when 
it  grows  up  and  gets  a  chance,  if  it  ever  gets  a  chance.  The  kid 
had  never  had  any  chance  at  all  over  in  "Hell's  Kitchen."  He 
came  out  all  right  in  that  chance.    A  man  he  came  out. 

Why  am  I  telling  you  that?  In  the  first  place,  because  the  kid 
was  the  worst  boy  I  ever  knew  in  all  my  experience,  and  I  have 
known  many,  all  of  them  in  my  own  city ;  and  in  the  second  place, 
because  I  want  you  to  go  home  from  this  Conference  with  a  true 
note  of  it  all — regeneration,  not  degeneration,  is  the  note.  Regenera- 
tion along  the  first  and  only  real  line,  better  babies,  born  into  a 
better,  brighter  world,  made  better  and  brighter  by  the  hope  and 
faith  and  the  skill  and  the  devotion  that  they  inspire. 

We  have  heard  friends  here  talk  about  heredity.  The  word  has 
rung  in  my  ears  until  I  am  sick  of  it.  Heredity,  heredity.  There 
is  just  one  heredity  in  all  the  w^orld  that  is  ours — we  are  children 
of  God,  and  there  is  nothing  in  the  whole  big  world  we  cannot  do 
in  His  service  with  it.  That,  friends,  is  what  we  are  here  for.  Re- 
generated, reborn,  as  the  world  was  when  it  was  born  into  the  under- 
standing at  last  of  the  Commandment  that  we  love  one  another 
unto  the  service  of  the  practical. 

We  talk  here  about  insanity.  In  the  old  toAvn  in  which  I  was 
brought  up — in  Denmark — there  lived,  200  years  ago,  a  Bishop,  who 
will  be  remembered  to  the  last  day,  because  he  sang  some  of  the 
sweetest  songs  in  the  Danish  tongue,  hymns  that  began  with  men 
and  women,  trouble  and  suffering,  the  very  brink  of  the  day,  to  the 
last.  That  was  the  service  he  performed.  There  was  in  that  time 
in  that  day,  among  the  preachers,  curiously  enough,  one  of  those 
yellow,  vicious,  jaundiced  souls.  He  came  to  the  Bishop  and  said: 
"It  is  easy  for  you  to  sing  of  heaven  and  glory  and  happiness,  for 
you  have  no  trouble ;  you  live  in  a  fine  house,  you  have  everything 
that  man's  soul  could  wish,  but  what  about  us?"  And  the  Bishop 
said:  "Come  along,"  and  he  led  him  upstairs,  two  or  three  stories 
up,  to  an  attic  room,  and  he  opened  the  door,  and  there,  clamped  to 
two  iron  bolts  in  the  wall,  with  chains,  was  his  son,  his  only  son,  a 
raving  maniac.  That,  friends,  was  how  they  dealt  with  insane  pa- 
tients at  that  time.  The  iron  bolts  are  still  there.  I  remember  very 
well  in  my  childhood  how"  they  put  them  into  a  big  place  behind  the 
fence,  in  which  we  boys  pulled  out  the  knotholes  and  looked  through 
and  shuddered  at  those  glooms  behind  the  fence. 

That  was  the  way,  friends,  we  treated  insanity  even  in  my  child- 
hood, and  see  what  we  do  today,  in  New  York  City,  in  my  own  town, 
in  the  span  of  fifty  years  since  that  venerable  man  who  has  presided 


244  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

over  your  deliberations  liere,  Dr.  Stephen  Smith — since  he  broke 
the  past  as  chairman  of  the  Citizens'  Council  of  Hygiene  in  the  early 
'60 's.  See  what  a  great  change  has  happened  since  then  in  my  city. 
In  the  last  fifty  years  we  have  rehoused  the  population  that  lived 
in  our  tenement  houses,  more  than  a  million  and  a  quarter.  They 
lived  often  in  an  environment  in  which  all  the  influences  made  for 
unrighteousness  and  tended  to  the  development  of  the  worst 
instincts  of  the  young.  We  found  pretty  nearly  four  hundred  thou- 
sand of  dark,  sunless,  windowless,  airless  bedrooms  in  those  tene- 
ment houses.  We  got  rid  of  three-quarters  of  them.  The  other 
fourth  we  will  get  rid  of  before  this  Congress  has  met  three  times 
more  in  Battle  Creek.  In  that  day,  when  Dr.  Stephen  Smith  pre- 
sided over  the  early  deliberations  of  the  citizens  in  my  city,  we  were 
afraid  of  the  coming  of  cholera.  That  is  why  that  council  of  hy- 
giene was  organized.  In  that  day  the  death  rate  in  my  city  was 
thirty  in  a  thousand  of  the  living  every  year.  Last  year,  the  year 
that  has  just  closed,  in  my  city  it  was  something  over  thirteen.  That 
means  that  in  the  interval  we  have  so  amended  things,  in  the  biggest 
city  of  our  land,  that  there  would  have  died  in  1913  one  hundred 
thousand  more  people  than  actually  did  die  if  the  old  death  rate 
had  been  maintained  with  the  present  big  population.  These  are 
some  of  the  things  that  we  have  done. 

We  have  added  a  thousand  kindergartens  to  our  public  schools, 
and  if  there  are  any  here  who  do  not  know  what  that  means  in  the 
education  of  the  children  of  the  people,  I  pity  them.  Within  the  last 
ten  or  dozen  years  we  have  made  more  than  four  hundred  play- 
grounds in  schools  and  streets  everywhere  for  the  children.  There 
Avas  not  one  before  that  time.  We  have  now  seventy  social  settle- 
ments in  my  city  that  are  morning,  noon  and  night  looking  after 
the  lost  neighbor.    There  was  not  one  twenty-five  years  ago,  friends. 

Babies — we  have  heard  a  great  deal  about  babies  here.  It  is  all 
a  matter  of  loving  care,  friends,  but  don't  misunderstand  me.  The 
emphasis  is  upon  the  loving  care.  We  find  in  the  streets  and  gutters 
and  sewers  of  our  city  every  year  something  like  three  hundred  or 
so  of  foundlings,  of  outcast  babies  that  nobody  wants.  We  used  to 
send  them  to  Randall's  Island  to  the  Babies'  Hospital  and  there  they 
died.  The  mortality  among  the  outcast  babies,  the  foundling  babies, 
was  one  hundred  per  cent  right  straight  along.  None  of  them  sur- 
vived. We  explained  it  as  w^e  could  by  saying  that  they  started  out 
Avith  a  bad  heredity,  the  heredity  of  the  gutter  or  ash-barrel,  and  a 
cold  night  is  not  conducive  to  the  long  life  of  any  baby.  We  tried 
every  conceivable  way  upon  the  Island  to  mend  this,  but  it  would 
not  work.    It  was  finally  not  the  doctors'  efforts  with  their  knowl- 


CHILD  LIFE  245 

edge  of  science  that  mended  it,  but  it  was  the  ett'orts  of  the  mothers 
of  my  town.  There  are  two  bodies  there  known  as  the  State  Chari- 
ties Aid  Association  and  the  Association  for  Improving  the  Condi- 
tion of  the  Poor. 

A  lot  of  women  connected  with  those,  mothers  themselves,  one 
day  decided  that  that  scandal  was  no  longer  to  be  borne,  so  they 
Avent  to  the  city  and  begged  for  some  of  those  infants  to  experiment 
W'ith.  The  city  gave  them  some.  For  eight  years  they  experimented 
with  those  infants  and  in  that  time  they  had  sent  to  them  one  thou- 
sand babies.  These  were  the  babies  among  whom  the  mortality  used 
to  be  100  per  cent.  In  the  first  year  they  reduced  the  death  rate 
among  those  babies  to  one-half;  the  next  year  to  one-third.  They 
went  upon  the  assumption  that  every  baby  in  the  w^orld  is  entitled  to 
the  care  of  one  mother 's  arms  and  if  it  cannot  have  that,  it  is  cheated. 
And  they  proved  their  contention.  The  first  year  they  saved  one- 
half  the  babies  and  the  next  year  they  saved  two-thirds,  and  the 
third  year  at  the  same  rate.  By  the  eighth  year,  they  had  reduced 
the  mortality  among  those  babies  to  11  per  cent,  which  was  a  great 
deal  less  than  the  general  infant  mortality  in  the  city.  They  were 
picked  mothers,  you  see.  The  rich  mothers  are  not  always  the  wise 
mothers,  by  a  good  deal,  you  know. 

You  see,  friends,  what  it  is  we  are  doing.  Have  you  recently 
read  the  parable  of  the  good  Samaritan  ?  That  is  what  we  are  doing. 
We  are  finding  the  helpless  on  the  roadside  and  we  are  caring  for 
them,  binding  up  their  wounds,  pouring  in  oil  and  wine.  But  we 
are  doing  more  than  that,  friends,  nowadays.  We  are  policing  the 
road  to  Jericho  so  there  shall  not  be  any  more  of  the  kind  of  rob- 
bery and  assault  that  left  a  man  lying-  helpless  on  the  roadside. 

And  are  we  done?  No.  Thank  God,  there  is  something  to  do 
yet.  Don't  let  that  discourage  anybody.  Let  us  be  glad  that  we 
have  a  chance  to  work  with  the  Almighty,  because  that  is  emphat- 
ically what  we  are  doing  on  that  road.  The  whole  thing  is  just 
climbing  a  mountain,  friends.  You  go  up,  up,  and  the  farther  you 
go  up  the  mountainside,  the  more  you  see  of  the  landscape.  You  are 
always  improving,  therefore,  for  every  time  you  set  two  things  right, 
there  are  five  or  six  or  eight  or  ten  that  remain  still  to  be  made 
right.    Let  us  be  glad.    The  work  won't  give  out  in  this  generation. 

Now,  I  came  to  talk  to  you  about  the  bad  boy.  My  position  on  the 
bad  boy  is  very  simple,  very  emphatic,  very  direct.  I  believe  with 
the  Eastern  schoolmaster,  who  said  that  there  were  different  degrees 
of  good  boys,  but  bad  boys,  he  didn't  know  of  any.  There  are,  dear 
friends,  not  any  who  are  deliberately  bad,  but  plenty  whom  we  make 
bad.    Even  then  the  boy  would  rather  be  good  than  bad,  as  one  of 


246  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

them  said,  ii"  he  was  i>iven  a  chance.  That  chance  is  the  environment 
whicli  it  is  our  business  to  provide. 

Let  me  tell  you  of  one  bad  boy  of  my  personal,  close  acquaintance. 
I  am  the  boy.  I  ranked  as  a  bad  boy  when  I  went  to  school  and  a 
good  reason  why.  I  was  taken  to  school  first  by  an  angry  house- 
maid who  thrashed  me  down  the  street,  hammering  the  pavement 
all  the  way  down.  I  was  all  the  time  bawling,  yelling  and  I  didn't 
want  to  go  to  school.  On  the  step  of  the  school  stood  the  teacher 
and  she  reached  out  one  long,  skinny  arm,  grasped  me  by  the  neck, 
yanked  me  into  the  schoolhouse,  then  down  into  the  cellar,  then  over 
the  edge  of  a  hogshead  that  stood  there,  then  put  the  lid  on,  then 
snarled  through  the  bunghole.  That  was  the  way  they  dealt  with 
bad  boys  in  that  school.  I  saw  there  was  no  chance  to  get  out  till 
I  ceased  howling,  and  I  ceased  howling  then  and  there.  Then  at  re- 
cess she  introduced  me  to  a  sow  with  pigs  in  the  yard.  She  showed 
me  the  ear  with  two  long  slits,  and  said  that  was  because  the  sow 
was  lazy,  reaching  the  shears  up  by  my  ears,  zip. 

The  Latin  school  was  founded  in  1859  and  it  had  all  the  tradi- 
tions of  those  old  days.  I  no  more  fitted  into  that  place,  well,  than 
I  would  fit  into  Kingdom  Come,  I  suppose.  Now,  beside  me  was 
another  boy  of  exactly  the  same  mind,  and  we  were  exactly  of  the 
same  size,  well  matched.  We  never  could  get  it  settled  which  boy 
could  put  it  over  the  other  one.  We  left  before  the  university  days 
came,  and  the  school  was  glad  to  get  rid  of  us.  The  other  lad, 
Hannes,  went  into  business  and  became  a  very  successful  business 
man.  He  is  today  a  member  of  the  Upper  House  in  the  Parliament, 
from  the  old  town  itself — and  with  good  reasons.  He  is  a  splendid 
citizen,  I  came  over  here — and  do  you  see  what  kind  of  a  scalawag 
I  became  here?  Some  years  past  I  went  back  to  meet  forty  of  my 
classmates.  They  were  doctors,  lawyers,  clergymen,  fine  as  silk,  all  of 
them,  and  we  were  the  two  black  sheep  they  were  glad  to  get  rid  of. 
That  day  I  saw  the  King  confer  an  honor  on  the  other  boy  because 
he  had  been  the  head  of  the  citizens'  committee  that  had  labored  to 
restore  the  ancient  Cathedral  that  was  being  rebuilt.  It  was  the 
occasion  of  my  going  home.  King  Christian  had  conferred  that  very 
same  honor  upon  me  three  or  four  years  before.  That  is  the  rib- 
bon I  wear  in  my  coat  now.  When  I  looked  down  the  buttonholes 
of  all  the  rest  of  the  boys,  these  solemn  men  who  had  come  from  our 
school,  I  was  surprised  that  there  were  only  two  ribbons  in  the  whole 
lot,  and  they  were  worn  by  Hannes  and  myself.  You  see,  friends,  we 
were  the  two  bad  boys. 

Now  take  the  boy  here,  take  the  boy  who  lives  in  a  tenement 
house  in  the  city,  in  the  environment  that  makes  for  unrighteous- 


CHILD  LIFE  24:  i 

ness,  perfectly  hopeless,  underfed,  stunted,  boxed  up  at  night  in  one 
of  those  terrible  sleeping  rooms  I  spoke  about,  without  light  or  air 
or  anything.  There  was  a  neighbor  of  mine,  who  in  her  back  yard 
made  a  pile  of  sand, for  her  children  to  play  in  when  they  came  home 
from  school  and  they  played  there  and  the  cat  and  the  kittens  and 
the  dog  were  with  them,  and  they  had  a  very  happy  time — except 
that  there  was  always  an  ancient  feud  between  the  dog  and  the  kit- 
tens. Whenever  their  backs  were  turned  and  the  dog  could  grab  a 
little  kitten,  he  would  try  to  kill  it,  bury  it  in  the  sand,  and  get  rid 
of  it.  One  day  they  were  too  late  to  protect  it  and  they  found  a 
dead  kitten  in  the  sand.  I  was  in  that  house  when  the  little  girl 
came  racing  in  with  it  in  her  apron  with  her  eyes  all  flashing  with 
anger  and  she  said,  "Mamma,  there  is  a  perfectly  good  cat  .spoiled." 
Hundreds  of  perfectly  good  children  are  spoiled  in  that  kind  of 
tenement  house.  That  is  how  we  make  bad  boys.  Then  we  turn 
them  into  the  street  and  there,  until  ten  years  ago,  we  had  no  play- 
ground, none  whatever.  What  is  an  American  boy,  anywaj^,  but  a 
little  steam  boiler  with  the  steam  always  hot.  The  play  of  that  boy 
is  his  safety-valve.  Sit  on  it,  hold  it  down,  and  bang!  goes  that 
boiler.  We  have  formerly  provided  no  outlet  for  their  natural  steam, 
and  bang!  went  the  boy  every  time.  I  am  afraid  it  is  not  so  dif- 
ferent in  the  country,  either,  for  when  the  good  boy  has  to  get  up 
at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  to  do  the  chores,  I  cannot  imagine  the 
kind  of  sentiment  in  that  little  lad's  mind,  but  I  can  easily  imagine 
why  he  gets  aM-ay  from  the  farm — and  sometimes  goes  to  the  devil, 
too. 

In  our  school  we  have  eliminated  the  old-time  hogshead  and  pig- 
sty, but,  friends,  we  are  not  out  of  the  woods,  and  we  will  not  be 
out  of  the  woods  until  we  make  our  schools  places  fpr  boys  and  girls 
to  be  fitted  for  the  work  of  the  life  they  are  to  live — where  we  teach 
our  boys  not  to  be  ashamed  of  overalls  and  rough  hands,  and  to  pre- 
fer the  job  of  an  honest  mechanic  to  standing  behind  a  counter  in 
a  boiled  shirt  and  earning  six  dollars  a  week  and  looking  nice.  I 
know  what  I  am  talking  about.  I  learned  the  carpenter's  trade 
where  our  girls  learn  home-making  and  housewifery  or  where  men 
and  women  are  moulded,  with  college  in  the  far  background.  There 
are  entirely  too  many  good  mechanics  spoiled  to  make  very  poor 
professors,  friends. 

So  with  the  home  and  the  play  and  the  school.  Is  it  any  wonder 
the  boy  turns  out  bad?  But  what  do  we  mean  by  bad,  anyway? 
Did  I  tell  you  the  story  of  how  I  came  into  Portland,  Me.,  and  found 
the  town  all  excited  about  a  young  Irishman  who  had  been  com- 
mitting a  number  of  robberies?     They  had  arrested  him,  a  boy  of 


"248  P'lRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

fourteen,  for  stealiiiu'  a  handbag'.  Tliis  })articnlar  hag  contained 
sixty-eight  dollars.  They  asked  me  to  come  out  and  look  at  the  lad. 
I  wish  I  had  had  Judge  Lindsey  there;  he  would  have  been  an 
expert  on  that  lad.  I  saw  the  finest  boy  I  ever  saw  in  my  born  days, 
brimful  of  fun.  I  asked,  "What  did  he  do  with  the  money?"  be- 
cause when  you  can  find  out  what  the  boy  does  with  the  money  he 
steals,  you  can  then  get  a  line  on  what  is  really  in  him.  First  he 
summoned  two  pals  and  they  divided  it  up  and  got  one  beautiful  big 
feed.  Then  they  bought  a  bugle  to  make  music — and  couldn  't  blow  it. 
Then  they  threw  away  all  the  rest,  excepting  that  each  one  kept  a 
ten-dollar  gold  piece  in  his  pocket.  And  what  do  you  suppose  he 
did  with  that  last  ten-dollar  gold  piece?  He  took  seven  dollars  and 
a  half  of  it,  went  up  to  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  and 
bought  a  membership  ticket  there.     Where  now  is  your  bad  boy? 

The  Children's  Aid  Society,  in  the  last  sixty  years,  have  sent 
seventy  thousand  and  more  boys  out  of  the  slums  of  the  cities  to  the 
Western  plains,  where  they  have  a  chance  to  grow  up.  If  you  could 
see  the  army  of  clergymen,  lawyers,  doctors  and  splendid  nice  play- 
grounds we  have  turned  out  of  the  slums  of  my  city,  and  two  straight 
governors — good  governors,  too,  both  of  them.  About  four  per  cent 
of  all  the  boys  went  to  the  had ;  about  four  per  cent  of  any  number 
of  boys  anywhere  goes  to  the  bad,  anyhow,  from  general  neglect,  that 
is,  running  wild.     They  were  taken  too  late,  I  presume. 

Now  we  have  good  playgrounds  and  the  pedagogue  is  at  work 
trying  hard  to  class  and  enroll  the  boys'  play  into  team  play,  into 
group  play,  and  heaven  knows  what  other  kind  of  play.  I  say,  let 
them  run  and  let  the  boy  have  a  show  of  his  own — hands  off  the  lad 
except  for  overseeing  his  play,  otherwise  you  may  see  him  run  to 
the  gang.  See  to  it,  but  keep  away  from  him,  and  let  him  have  it 
and  let  him  run  it.  Let  him  kick  up  his  heels  in  perfect  aimlessness 
and  drop  in  a  giggling  heap  somewhere,  and  if  he  wants  to  fight,  let 
him  fight.  Sometimes  a  black  eye  and  a  bloody  nose  is  a  means  of 
grace,  you  know.  What  boy  is  there  that  is  worth  his  salt  unless  he 
has  a  good  fight  every  day  or  as  often  as  he  needs. 

What  mistakes  we  grown  folks  make,  but  we  think  •vre  can  lay 
down  rules  for  everything.  You  have  heard  it  these  last  few  days, 
laying  down  rules  for  everything.  Happily  the  rules  won't  hold. 
The  youth  is  always  renewed  with  just  so  much  badness  in  every 
generation  to  keep  it  from  souring  or  from  petrifying.  The  bad 
boys  have  always  slipped  up.  There  is  almost  always  a  mistake — 
and  we  are  the  mistake,  not  the  boy.  I  hope  we  shall  have  him  with 
us  always,  to  sharpen  our  wits  on  and  our  consciences  on.  And  let 
me  tell  you,  you  women  know  perfectly  well  how  to  deal  with  him. 


CHILD  LIFE  249 

The  men  don't  know  always.  I  think  men  are  the  greatest  misfits 
in  dealing  with  bad  boj^s,  that  ever  were — including  myself.  I  had 
one,  and  I  didn  't  know  how  to  deal  with  him  at  all,  but  my  wife  did. 
The  women  know.  You  believe  in  that  bad  boy.  and.  ten  to  one,  yes 
ninety-nine  to  one,  he  will  come  out  right. 

What  things  would  the  world  have  done  in  all  the  ages  but  for 
the  boy  who  did  not  fit  in?  He  was  fitted  bad,  and  so  went  out  to 
find  the  place  where  he  did  fit  in  and  broke  half  the  task  upon  which 
the  whole  world  has  been  following  behind  in  his  wake,  to  a  better 
and  a  brighter  and  a  happier  day.  Henry  Ward  Beecher  said  of 
himself  that  the  only  time  he  stood  at  the  head  of  his  class  was  when 
the  class  deserted  him.  That  was  my  experience,  and  I  remember 
very  well — but  I  won't  tell  you  about  that.  That  night  when  I  dis- 
covered that  Hannes  and  I  wore  the  ribbons  alone  of  the  crowd  of 
us  old  classmates,  I  went  to  have  dinner  with  him  and  sitting  across 
the  table,  it  came  to  me  suddenly,  the  thing  worked  out  in  my  mind 
and  I  looked  fixedly  at  him  and  said,  "Hannes,  has  it  occurred  to 
you?"  and  Hannes  stopped  me  with  an  imperious  wave  of  his  hand 
and  turned  around  and  said  to  his  boy,  ' '  Fritz,  why  don 't  you  go  out 
and  tend  to  your  business?"  Fritz  went  out  and  as  the  door  fell 
to  behind  him,  Hannes  said,  "Yes,  it  has.  I  am  not  going  to  have 
him  here  because  he  is  at  that  end  of  the  bench  now."  When  Gen- 
eral Grant  was  President  one  day,  in  a  sudden  panic,  he  wrote  to 
West  Point  and  asked  them  how  things  stood  with  his  boy  Fred, 
who  was  down  there.  Word  came  back  from  West  Point,  "Don't 
you  worry.  He  stands  better  in  everything  than  you  ever  stood  in 
anything."  You  have  all  known  those  bad  boys,  friends.  They  are 
not  bad.  They  are  just  on  the  fence,  and  haven't  made  up  their 
minds  on  which  side  to  get  off. 

Let  me  tell  you  of  my  own  little  boy  at  home  when  he  was  five 
years  old.  He  peeled  off  the  la.bel  on  the  ammonia  bottle  and  we 
found  it  pasted  on  his  door,  and  it  said,  "William  Riis  very  strong." 
Just  about  that  time,  one  day,  he  went  to  his  mother  and  said, 
"Mamma,  would  you  be  very  mad  if  I  was  to  be  a  burglar  when  I 
grow  up?"  "Oh,"  she  said,  "a  burglar! — and  you  might  get  ar- 
rested." "Well,"  he  said,  "well,  all  right  then,  I  will  be  a  sailor," 
and  she  pleaded  with  him  not  to  be  a  sailor.  She  said,  "You  have 
one  brother  who  is  a  sailor  and  shall  I  sit  out  here  and  think  of  you 
on  a  stormy  night  on  the  deep  black  sea?"  And  he  said,  "What 
shall  I  be?  A  fellow  must  be  something  when  he  grows  up.  He 
can't  always  be  nothing."  She  said,  "Would  you  like  to  be  a  little 
minister.  We  never  had  a  little  minister  in  the  house,  and  wouldn't 
it  be  so  nice?"  and  his  face  went  right  under  a  black  cloud.     He 


250  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    RKTTKRMENT 

didn  't  like  it  for  a  cent,  but  he  left  his  mother  and  after  a  while  he 
came  over  and  said,  "Well,  all  right,  all  right,  if  I  can't  be  a  burg- 
lar and  you  won't  let  me  be  a  sailor,  then  I  will  be  a  minister."  The 
lad  was  simply  on  the  fence,  not  having  made  up  his  mind  on  which 
side  to  get  off,  and  our  business  was  to  help  him  get  off  on  the  right 
side. 


Acting  Chairman  Rev.  C.  C.  Creegan,  D.D. 

I  scarcely  know  what  to  say  about  the  next  speaker.  He  lives  in  the 
largest  city  in  America  that  has  the  reputation  of  being  above  the  clouds.  It 
is  nearer  heaven  than  any  other  large  city  that  I  have  any  knowledge  of  any- 
where in  the  world,  and  I  have  seen  pretty  nearly  all  the  large  cities  in  the 
world.  But  there  are  some  things  about  Denver,  if  I  am  not  very  greatly  mis- 
taken—and I  lived  the:-e  two  years— some  things  that  do  not  exactly  remind 
you  of  heaven.  And  if  there  is  any  one  man  in  all  the  Rocky  Mountains  that 
the  saloon-keeper,  the  white-slave  cadet  and  all  the  bad  men  and  bad  women, 
if  there  are  such  out  there,  have  no  use  for,  one  they  hate  a  good  deal  worse 
than  they  do  the  devil,  that  man  is  the  one  who'  is  going  to  speak  to  us.  If 
there  were  no  other  reason  under  the  sun  for  my  loving  this  man,  it  would 
be  because  of  the  enemies  he  has  made.  I  want  to  tell  you  that  no  living  man 
can  go  into  the  jungle  of  the  beast,  as  he  has  done,  and  not  be  thoroughly 
hated  by  all  unclean  men  and  all  unclean  women.  I  am  rather  inclined  to 
believe  that  no  man  has  any  business  to  call  himself  a  refonner,  probably  no 
business  to  call  himself  a  full-fledged  Christian  in  this  twentieth  century,  if 
everybody  is  saying  soft  and  beautiful  things  about  him.  "Woe  unto  you 
when  all  men  speak  well  of  you." 

THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD 

Judge  Ben  B.  Lindsev,  Juvenile  Court,  Denver,  Colorado. 

I  am  sure  it  is  a  privilege  and  an  honor  to  come  back  to  Battle 
Creek — under  somewhat  different  auspices  from  those  that  originally 
brought  me  here.  Yet  I  am  not  complaining  about  those,  for  I  found 
that  sometimes  it  pays  to  get  sick  if  you  can  come  to  Battle  Creek 
and  to  Doctor  Kellogg.  I  am  sure  it  is  also  a  privilege  to  be  here  at  this 
splendid  Conference.  I  did  suffer  in  not  being  here  through  the  days 
of  those  wonderful  discussions,  a  sample  of  which  we  have  just  heard 
from  my  dearly  beloved  friend,  and  your  friend,  Mr.  Eiis,  who  was 
the  inspirer  of  my  own  young  manhood.  I  remember  so  well,  when 
writing  the  story  of  the  ''Beast  and  the  Jungle,"  of  getting  back 
the  copy  from  the  editor  one  day  and  of  finding  that  he  had  cut  out 
a  whole  page  that  I  had  devoted  to  Mr.  Riis.  It  told  about  hoAv  I 
stopped  in  a  drug  store  one  day  and  picked  up  a  book  called,  "How 
the  Other  Half  Lives,"  and  how  I  began  to  get  interested  in  these 
great  problems.     T  complained  of  the  liberty  the  editor  had  taken 


CHILD  LIFE  251 

Avith  my  manuscript.  He  said  they  weren't  publishing  the  story  for 
the  sake  of  giving  me  an  opportunity  to  throw  bouquets  at  my  friend. 
But  now,  my  friends,  I  am  not  hampered  by  any  editors  and  I  am 
sure  the  Chairman  will  not  interfere  when  I  express  nw  deep  appre- 
ciation to  be  here  under  these  auspices  in  the  presence  of  such  an 
audience,  upon  this  platform  with  two  glorious  men,  who  have  done 
so  much  for  this  country  and  for  you,  and  for  me — Doctor  Kellogg  and 
Jacob  Riis.  I  assure  you  it  is  a  privilege,  and  I  am  also  honored,  far 
beyond  my  deserving,  to  share  with  Mr.  Riis  the  honors  of  this 
evening  in  discussing  the  so-called  "Bad  Boy."  I  know  Mr.  Riis 
agrees  with  me,  that  "there  ain't  no  such  thing."  I  accept  the  creed 
of  the  Hoosier  poet  who  expressed  it  for  us  through  the  lips  of  a 
little  child : 

"I  believe  all  ehilliiii's  dood  if  da's  only  understood. 
Even  the  bad  'uns,  'pears  to  me,  is  just  as  dood  as  they  can  be." 

And  we  have  come  to  find  it  so. 

There  is  a  difference  in  the  two  titles,  however,  assigned  us.  I 
am  given  the  more  favorable  opportunity,  perhaps,  when  I  find  on 
this  program  assigned  to  me,  not  the  "Bad  Boy,"  but  "The  De- 
linquent Child."  That  possesses  a  deep  meaning  and  significance, 
and  it  is  this :  It  is  the  concession  of  the  state,  it  is  a  declaration  by 
the  state,  the  acceptance  by  the  state,  of  the  creed  I  have  described. 
The  child  is  not  bad,  but  conditions  are  bad — things  are  bad. 

That  recognition  in  a  state  came  first  in  a  law  passed  in  April, 
1899,  in  the  state  of  Colorado,  and  June  1st,  1899,  in  the  state  of  Illi- 
nois. These  laws  recognized  the  so-called  "bad  boy"  no  longer, 
but  rather  the  bad  things  that  got  him.  It  was  the  declaration  of 
the  state  that  it  would  no  longer  fight  boys  or  girls,  but  it  would 
fight  bad  things,  if  you  please.  It  was  a  big  step  forward,  funda- 
mentally, that  came  from  out  there  in  the  West  to  join  with 
that  other  great  reform  accepted  first  in  Massachusetts,  when  its 
first  probation  law  in  1868  had  been  passed.  It  calls  upon  men  and 
women  to  help  rather  than  hurt  in  dealing  with  tliose  who  are 
stricken  with  bad  things. 

And  so  from  that  day  down  to  date,  out  of  this  great  reform 
spreading  over  the  Middle  West  and  then  circling  the  globe, 
has  come  the  new  influence,  the  new  power,  the  new  force,  coming 
into  the  lives  of  men  while  they  are  children.  It  is  a  force  differing 
from  that  of  violence.  Not  that  the  days  of  the  old-time  force  have 
passed  away,  but  rather  have  we  come  to  recognize  new  forces.  How 
curious  it  is  that  it  took  us  so  long  to  wake  up  to  the  possibility  of 
the  forces  of  patience,  of  kindness,  of  understanding,  of  sympathy. 


252  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

And  the  last  is  the  diviiiest  instniniontality  in  all  the  world  in  the 
hands  of  the  skilled  when  it  conies  to  the  ills  of  the  human  soul. 
Under  the  new  justice,  that  recop:nizes  the  child  as  a  ward  rather 
than  a  criminal,  the  state  has  come  to  help  and  not  to  hurt,  to  up- 
lift and  not  to  decade,  to  love  and  not  to  hate.  It  is  a  big  step 
forward  in  the  great  struggle  for  justice,  rather  than  for  law,  for 
law  was  not  always  justice.  Do  you  think  so  ?  Hardly.  If  we  could 
go  back  to  a  proceeding  within  a  century  in  the  Old  Bailey  Court  in 
the  great  city  of  London,  we  might  find  before  the  bar  of  justice 
five  little  boys,  all  under  fourteen  years  of  age.  The  youngest  only 
twelve,  and  that  boy  the  chief  culprit.  We  listen  to  the  examination 
of  the  officers.  "Little  boy,  you  stole  a  shawl  from  the  house  you 
entered.  What  did  you  do  with  that  shawl  ? "  "  Took  it  to  the  pawn 
brokers,  sir."  "What  did  you  do  that  for?"  "To  get  money,  sir." 
And  after  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Riis  a  moment  ago,  bent  upon  find- 
ing out  what  the  boy  did  with  the  money,  in  this  way  proceeded: 
' '  What  did  you  do  with  the  money  ? ' '  said  the  officer.  ' '  Went  to  the 
Punch  and  Judy  show, ' '  said  the  little  boy. 

Just  like  that  little  boy  brought  to  court  the  other  day  for  taking 
the  gunny  sacks  and  the  cement  sacks  from  the  barn  to  sell  to  the 
rag  man  to  get  money  to  go  to  the  moving  picture  show.  Not  the 
best  way,  surely,  to  get  money  to  go  to  the  show. 

But  oh,  my  friends,  what  a  difference  there  is  in  the  method  em- 
ployed by  the  state  in  handling  such  cases.  The  mother  of  that  little 
boy  of  twelve  came  to  the  Old  Bailey  to  plead  with  the  judge  to  help 
save  her  boy.  But  the  judge,  in  the  formality  of  the  time,  explained 
that  under  the  law — the  law,  if  you  please — he  was  not  there  to  deal 
with  the  boy,  but  rather  wath  the  thing  he  did,  and  that  was,  break- 
ing and  entering,  taking  something  that  did  not  belong  to  him,  which 
was  an  invasion  of  the  sanctity  of  property.  It  was  a  rule  that  had 
come  down  to  us  through  feudalism,  attended  with  all  its  respect 
for  property  rights,  with  corresponding  disregard  for  human  rights. 
The  court  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  boy,  but  rather  with  the  thing 
he  did.  It  could  not  help  the  boy.  So  there  followed  the  sentence 
from  the  bench  that  each  of  the  little  prisoners,  all  under  fourteen 
years  of  age,  be  taken  to  the  Tyborne  Prison,  and  before  the  rise 
of  the  next  day's  sun  that  they  be  hanged  by  the  neck  till  they  were 
dead,  dead,  dead,  and  may  God  have  mercy  on  their  souls.  That  was 
not  a  thousand  years  ago.  It  was  1833,  on  an  October  day.  It  was 
not  a  lawyer  or  a  judge,  but  a  schoolmaster  Avho  thought  less  of  law 
and  more  of  justice,  whose  appeal  to  the  Home  Secretary  wrung 
an  unwilling  commutation  of  that  sentence  from  death  or  life  im- 
prisonment to  fifteen  years  of  hard  labor — for  a  little  boy  of  twelve 


CHILD  LIFE  253 

who  took  an  old  shawl !  Those  of  us  who  have  the  accounts  of  the 
frightful  conditions  then  existing  in  the  prisons  may  well  doubt 
whether  it  was  a  mark  of  consideration  that  the  sentence  was  com- 
muted and  may  have  almost  wished  that  they  had  been  consigned  to 
a  merciful  death,  rather  than  to  those  hell  holes  where  souls  were 
seared  and  bodies  degraded. 

It  had  been  only  a  short  time  before  when  they  cut  their  heads 
off  and  put  them  on  the  gibbets  above  London  Bridge  to  terrorize 
the  "wharf  rats,"  as  they  called  the  children  of  that  day,  into  right- 
eousness. But  they  did  not  terrorize.  Crime  increased,  and  finallj^ 
down  through  the  years,  as  pity  took  the  place  of  vengeance,  as  un- 
derstanding took  the  place  of  violence,  we  began  to  mitigate  the 
penalty. 

But  we  forgot  the  fundamental  thing,  that  only  within  a  decade 
or  so  has  been  recognized  by  the  state,  and  that  was  simply  this: 
The  child  was  the  ward  of  the  state.  The  child  indeed  was  the  state 
and  the  state  was  the  child.  When  we  saved  the  child,  we  simply 
saved  ourselves.  Then,  my  friends,  came  the  first  step  in  the  new 
justice,  that  brought  this  child  before  the  bar,  not  as  the  real  cul- 
prit, but  rather  as  one  who  was  the  victim  of  a  real  culprit  and  that 
culprit  was  rather  the  state  itself — society  itself,  if  you  please. 

It  was  not  so  recognized  until  within  the  last  ten  or  fifteen  years. 
A  community  responsibility  for  the  child  was  but  little  considered 
or  tolerated.  I  found  it  so  in  my  own  experience,  from  that  very 
first  ease  I  used  to  tell  about — or  among  the  first — when  the  district 
attorney  had  asked  for  five  minutes  to  dispose  of  a  case  of  burglary, 
and  I  looked  about  to  find  the  burglar,  but  I  saw  nothing  of  the 
kind.  There  had  been  ushered  in  three  little  boys.  The  grouchy 
officer  had  said,  almost  under  his  breath,  "Sit  down  there.  I  guess 
you  didn't  give  us  the  hot  foot  that  time."  And  lined  up  before  the 
bench  in  the  formal  fashion  of  a  criminal  law  as  I  faced  them  there, 
that  day,  I  beheld  not  men,  but  boys,  twelve  to  fifteen  years  of  age. 
These  were  the  burglars.  They  certainly  didn't  look  it.  In  the 
center  of  the  group  of  three  was  a  little  tow-headed,  freckle-faced 
boy  all  frazzled  out  at  the  elbows  of  his  little  coat  and  the  knees  of 
his  trousers  and  indeed  some  other  places  thereabouts.  He  dug  his 
fist  into  his  dirty  face  and  began  to  whimper  out  excuses.  But  in- 
stead of  pleading  "not  guilty,"  as  he  might  be  expected  to  do,  the 
little  fellow,  with  a  sort  of  determination  and  independence  that 
we  have  since  come  to  love  and  mark  as  a  good  sign,  rather  than 
impertinence,  said  through  his  tears,  "Oh,  I  ain't  no  burglary."  And 
I  explained  in  simple  terms  that  burglary  was  breaking  and  enter- 
ing.   Then  that  little  boy  began  his  own  defense,  that  became  classic, 


254  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

it'  not  iiidtHHl  historic,  in  the  annals  of  our  court.  He  hadn't  any 
laywer  to  defend  him.  He  said,  "Jud^e,  I  live  down  by  the  railroad 
tracks  where  dese  yuys  live,  and  they  said  there  was  watermelons 
in  those  box-cars."  I  have  often  said  there  was  not  a  lawyer  at  the 
Denver  bar  who  could  have  started  with  a  more  powerful  appeal 
than  that,  for  it  did  strike  a  responsive  chord  in  the  bosom  of  the 
judge,  reminding  him  of  some  other  days.  As  I  was  forcibly  re- 
calling that  other  occasion  when  I  sought  to  sympathize  with  the  little 
rascal,  without  justifying  any  wrong,  of  course,  he  turned  to 
me  somewhat  suddenly  and  said,  "Jedge,  when  you  was  a  kid,  didn't 
you  ever  swipe  a  watermelon?"  And  from  force  of  habit  or  that 
sort  of  self-righteousness,  perhaps,  that  protects  us  sometimes,  I  did 
what  the  lawyers  do  when  justice  is  not  on  their  side.  They  have 
a  way  of  side-stepping  the  real  issue,  of  resorting  to  the  technicalities 
of  the  case.  And  I  said,  "You  little  rascal,  it  is  against  the  rules 
of  the  court  to  cross-examine  the  Judge." 

And  in  this  Conference  on  Race  Betterment,  I  want  to  cross-ex- 
amine you,  in  behalf  of  this  prisoner  at  the  bar,  right  here,  for  he 
is  a  type  of  nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  children  hauled 
up  into  the  courts  every  year  in  this  country.  Do  you  know  what 
that  means?  It  means  nearly  two  million  in  a  generation  of  child- 
hood. What  can  we  do  about  it?  You  think  you  are  going  to  de- 
crease it  by  courts  here  and  there,  but  courts  cannot  do  it  all.  They 
never  will,  and  they  ought  not  to.  It  is  a  pity  that  we  have  to  resort 
to  such  an  instrumentality.  It  is  better  than  the  old  jails,  of  course, 
and  the  criminal  court. 

But  to  return  a  moment  to  that  little  boy,  and  take  the  lesson  from 
him  in  the  concrete,  through  his  tears.  I  explained,  of  course,  to  that 
little  boy  that  because  the  subject  of  temptation  was  watermelons, 
was  not  any  excuse  for  larceny.  But  it  seemed  he  had  other  de- 
fenses in  reserve.  He  said,  "Judge,  when  we  got  down  there  and 
got  into  those  box-cars,  we  didn't  find  any  watermelons."  And  I 
said,  "Look  here,  little  boy,  you  found  something  or  you  would  not 
be  in  court."  He  said,  "Do  I  have  to  tell?"  I  said,  "Yes,  you  have 
to  tell."  "Well,  if  I  have  to  tell,  it's  like  this:  When  we  got  in 
there  and  didn't  find  no  watermelons,  Ikey  said,  'There  is  some- 
thing good  in  those  boxes.'  Yes  you  did,  Ikey,  you  needn't  say  you 
didn't!  Then  we  found  something  that  looked  like  figs.  We  got 
out  something  that  looked  like  something  good  and  we  drank  a 
whole  bottle  full  and  it  was  California  Fig  Syrup,  it  was."  With 
some  indignation  at  the  smiles  that  broadened  and  rose  into  titters 
and  passed  around  the  room,  he  concluded  with  great  feeling,  "And 
I  think  we  have  suffered  enough."    Well,  I  said  I  thought  so,  too. 


CHILD  LIFE  255 

That  plea  was  not  alone  for  the  gang,  but  for  all  boys  and  girls  that 
have  suffered  enough,  not  only  from  fig  syrup  in  that  case,  but  from 
other  things.  I  waited  for  that  to  sink  in — ^not  the  fig  syrup,  but  the 
eloquence.  The  trouble  Avas  the  fig  syrup  was  not  prescribed  in 
bottle  doses  and  the  gang  had  not  stopped  to  read  the  directions. 
You  know,  Mr.  Riis,  that  is  one  of  the  faults  and  failings  of  the  gang. 
It  is  a  thoughtless  institution,  without  any  direction  except  that  fur- 
nished by  the  policeman  who  was  there  that  day  to  condemn.  He 
was  the  old  type  of  policeman,  happily  passing  away. 

I  believe  a  policeman,  as  Mr.  Riis  has  shown  us,  could  and  should 
be  a  social  factor,  as  he  is  coming  more  and  more  to  be.  I  have 
known  a  whole  neighborhood  to  be  changed  by  changing  the  police- 
man. There  was  a  bad  gang  there  and  the  whole  thing  was  changed. 
We  didn't  change  the  gang.  We  changed  the  policeman.  That  was 
all.  So  much  for  the  power  of  personality,  if  you  please — the  soul- 
to-soul,  and  heart-to-heart,  dealing  with  human  beings,  rather  than 
with  the  mere  things  they  do.  A  policeman  of  the  old  type  glared  at 
the  little  boy  as  if  he  wanted  to  eat  him  up,  and  the  boy  glared  at 
him  as  if  he  wanted  to  throw  a  brick.  One  policeman  said  to  me, 
*'He  w^as  stealing  lumber  from  the  builders'  pile  where  they  were 
putting  up  a  warehouse,  and  every  time  I  come  in  sight,  he  sees 
me  coming,  and  yells,  'Jigger  de  bull,'  and  everybody  runs  and  I 
can't  catch  'em."  I  asked  the  district  attorney  what  "jigger" 
meant.  He  said  it  had  a  familiar  sound  of  a  bug  he  knew  down  in 
Missouri  when  he  was  a  boy.  The^n  I  learned  one  of  the  first  of 
the  many  lessons  I  had  to  learn  from  the  child :  for  we  have  much 
to  learn  from  the  child,  who  teaches  us  unconsciously,  perhaps, 
but  nevertheless  effectively.  I  asked  the  boy  what  jigger  was,  and 
he  said,  "That's  the  guy  that  watches  for  de  cop  and  snitches 
to  de  gang."  Don't  forget,  that  was  a  peculiar  duty  to  the  gang 
— not  to  the  policeman,  but  to  the  gang,  at  tha  approach  of  danger 
to  give  the  signal  and  everybody  scoot.  He  said,  "If  you  told  on  a 
boy,  you  snitched  on  him."  That  was  against  their  law.  It  was 
quite  as  real  as  ours.  Indeed,  I  found  that  our  law,  "Thou  shalt  not 
steal,"  had  a  poor  chance  with  the  first  commandment  of  the  gang, 
"Thou  shalt  not  snitch.    You  will  get  your  face  smashed  if  you  do." 

Now,  my  friends,  what  did  we  face  here?  We  faced  the  case  of 
all  society.  You  could  not  try  it  in  five  minutes.  Don 't  forget  that. 
No  more  than  the  doctor  could  protect  the  community  against  the 
plague  just  by  treating  each  patient  stricken  down  with  a  fever. 
He  might  better  go  beyond  the  hospital  even  if  it  led  him  to  the 
swamp  lands  beyond  the  city,  to  find  the  condition  that  affects  all 
the  people.     So  our  thought  is  for  all  children,  for  this  boy  was  not 


256  FIRST    NATIONAI,    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

nuu'li  different  from  others.  His  environment  was  different.  Mr. 
Riis  lias  taught  us  that  perhaps  better  than  any  other  man  in  this 
country,  in  his  battle  against  the  slum  and  the  fight  for  the  play- 
ground. One  of  the  early  cases  that  came  to  my  court  was  a  little 
gang  of  bedraggled,  dripping  boys  that  a  policeman  had  dragged 
out  of  the  only  "swimming-pool"  in  town,  down  by  the  railroad 
track.  Some  prudish  people  couldn't  stand  it  to  see  little  boys  in 
that  unfortunate  state.  As  I  gazed  out  of  the  court  house  windows 
I  saw  two  big  fountains,  gurgling  up  their  artificial  showers.  Sport- 
ing down  below  were  little  boys  of  brass  and  iron  clad  in  a  coat  of 
paint.  It  was  shocking,  but  did  not  shock  any  prudish  people.  I 
found  on  investigation  it  cost  us  several  thousand  dollars  a  sum- 
mer to  have  those  fountains,  and  I  said  to  myself,  if  this  town  can 
pay  several  thousand  dollars  a  summer  for  artificial  fountains  for 
boys  of  brass  and  iron,  it  can  pay  something  for  boys  of  flesh  and 
blood.  So  the  judgment  of  the  court,  in  that  case,  was  not  that  they 
be  sent  to  jail.  I  said.  "Kids,  you  better  go  swimming  in  the  foun- 
tain since  there  is  no  swimming-pool."  You  know  sometimes  a 
community  needs  a  jar  and  a  jolt,  to  be  waked  up.  Mr.  Riis  gave 
it  to  them  in  New  York  and  he  taught  some  of  us  to  do  it  in  some 
other  cities.  The  police  did  not  think  I  meant  it.  When  they 
brought  the  bedraggled,  dripping  little  kids  into  court  again,  ex- 
pecting we  would  send  them  to  jail,  I  smiled  into  the  faces  of  the 
kids  and  the  policemen,  and  the  verdict  of  the  court  was,  "Kids, 
back  to  the  fountain."  The  smile  on  the  face  of  the  kids  was  an 
interesting  contrast  to  the  frown  that  covered  the  visage  of  the  offi- 
cer, who  did  not  understand.  But  in  time — when  the  community 
woke  up  to  the  fact  that  it  was  not  the  child  that  ought  to  be  before 
the  bar  of  justice,  but  the  community — we  had  seven  public  baths 
in  the  park  and  one  great  big,  splendid  public  bath  in  the  town, 
and  we  didn't  need  to  jail  any  more  boys  for  that  sort  of  thing. 

A  little  boy  had  been  in  jail  ten  days  for  taking  lumber.  I 
visited  his  back  yard.  There  I  saw  the  lumber  converted  into  an 
elevated  railroad.  He  pointed  it  out  enthusiastically  to  me.  The 
judge  was  now  his  friend  and  not  an  avenger.  And  there  was  a 
soap  box  on  wheels,  the  first  contribution  to  the  rolling  stock  of  this 
remarkable  railroad.  But  the  unfortunate  thing  about  it  all  was 
that  the  soap  box  was  stolen  from  the  corner  grocery  and  the  lum- 
ber from  the  builders'  pile,  still  it  was  not  the  first  railroad  that 
had  been  stolen !  The  remarkable  thing  about  it  was  that  the  cul- 
prit had  been  in  jail.  Did  you  ever  hear  of  a  case  like  that?  I 
never  had.  If  you  had  the  patience  to  pursue  with  me  "the  beast 
through  the  jungle,"  you  may  recall  that  I  had  to  try  the  political 


CHILD  LIFE  257 

gang  for  stealing  a  railroad,  a  real  railroad,  and  before  we  finislied 
that  case,  the  man  who  had  had  the  most  to  do  with  stealing  that 
railroad  came  a  good  deal  nearer  getting  to  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States  than  he  did  in  jail.  We  had  a  great  deal  of  difficulty  in 
keeping  him  out  of  the  Senate. 

But,  my  friends,  we  went  beyond  the  court  down  to  the  railroad 
track,  out  into  the  streets,  and  alleys,  and  we  found  that  the  only 
place  to  play  was  there  where  the  wheels  went  round  and  something 
w^as  doing,  doing  all  the  time.  But  when  the  community  felt  the 
jar  and  the  jolt,  and  waked  up  on  the  question  of  the  public  play- 
ground, that  sort  of  lawlessness  decreased  more  than  one-half  in 
six  months.  And  it  was  so  much  better  and  cheaper  than  that  jail 
we  had  used  as  our  remedy  for  delinquency.  We  are  waking  up, 
my  friends.  With  this  fact  has  come  the  "Boy  Scouts"  and  the  boy 
clubs,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  don't  forget  the  Camp  Fire  girls,  as  I 
see  Brother  Gulick,  their  director,  sitting  here.  I  don't  say  much 
about  the  girls  and  we  haven't  much  on  the  program  about  them, 
but  it  is  not  because  we  want  to  neglect  the  girls,  but  because  they 
are  so  much  better  than  the  boys.  One  boy  said  to  me  once,  "How 
could  they  get  in  trouble?  If  they  throwed  a  rock,  they  couldn't 
hit  anything  anyhow."  And  I  know  a  very  dear  little  boy 
whose  sister  had  violated  the  law  of  the  gang — or  rather  did  not 
know  what  it  meant  and  had  told  on  him.  He  was  very  indignant, 
and  I  said,  "Jimmy,  what  do  you  think  of  girls?"  "Oh,"  he  said, 
"they  were  just  born  as  a  joke  on  the  boys."  And  there  was  that 
other  little  girl  whom  I  spoke  to  once.  I  said,  "Jennie,  how  do  you 
make  it  out  that  we  have  about  twenty  little  boys  in  court  to  one 
little  girl."  With  that  feminine  determination  not  to  be  outdone 
even  by  the  boys  in  demanding  suffrage  and  a  few  other  things  these 
days,  she  said,  "That's  nothin';  one  bad  girl  is  worse  than  twenty 
bad  kids  any  day."  However  that  may  be,  we  are  now  getting  deep 
into  this  case.  It  leads  into  what  is  sometimes  called  the  sociology 
of  this  case,  to  the  home  and  the  parents  in  the  home  or  that  ought 
to  be  there.  The  mother  of  one  of  our  little  prisoners  worked  all 
day.  The  father  was  on  a  bed  of  pain  right  in  the  last  stages  of 
lead  poisoning,  that  came  from  sixteen  years  of  work  in  the  mills 
amid  the  poisonous  fumes  and  gases  of  a  great  industry.  And  he 
was  only  one  of  a  hundred  thousand  fathers  stricken  down  by  occu- 
pational disease  evers^  year  in  this  country.  Now  how  are  you 
going  to  prevent  delinquency  unless  you  put  a  father  and  a  mother 
in  the  home  and  keep  them  there.  They  are  the  natural  judges,  if 
you  please,  to  look  after  the  child.  How  are  you  going  to  reduce 
delinquency  when  six  hundred  and  fifty  little  children  were  made 

(10) 


258  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONPEHENCK    ON    RACU';    l?KTTKRMENT 

oi-pliiiiis  l)y  exi)l(»sions  in  coal  mines  in  one  or  two  counties  in  our 
state  within  four  years.  Sixteen  thousand  children  made  orphans 
in  a  few  years  in  three  or  four  states  in  this  nation  from  explosions 
in  coal  mines,  a  large  part  of  which  could  have  been  avoided,  ac- 
cording- to  the  government  reports,  if  they  had  used  the  right  kind 
of  safety  appliances.  You  can't  get  rid  of  delinquency  unless  you 
put  the  child  in  the  bosom  of  the  home  and  the  father  and  mother 
there  to  look  after  him.  Don't  forget  that.  That  means  that  Denver 
had  to  get  into  politics,  because  we  could  not  change  conditions  un- 
less we  could  change  laws,  and  we  couldn't  change  laws  unless  Ave 
got  into  politics.  Then  you  might  go  to  a  home  and  find  no  father 
there  at  all.  In  one  home,  the  man  was  a  deserter  from  wife  and 
child.  There  are  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  deserters  every  year 
— more  than  from  any  army  in  times  of  war,  more  dangerous  than 
deserters  in  times  of  war.  But  here  is  the  story  of  one  of  the  thou- 
sands of  suffering  mothers  every  year  in  this  country.  The  father 
had  gone  to  the  gambling  den,  the  dive,  the  brothel.  We  pray, 
"Lead  us  not  into  temptation,  but  deliver  us  from  evil,"  and  then 
do  nothing,  if  you  please,  to  answer  our  own  prayers.  Men  are  be- 
set by  temptation  on  everf  hand.  Husbands,  fathers  and  sons  go 
down  to  ruin  every  year,  that  a  certain  type  of  business,  if  you 
please,  may  flourish.  And  then  those  of  us  who  hold  up  our  hands 
and  cry  against  the  evils  that  threaten  to  undermine  the  American 
home  are  rebuked  for  interfering  with  business  and  knocking  the 
town,  if  you  please. 

The  lesson  from  the  child  is  that  it  is  all  children  up,  all  children 
down,  and  I  am  my  brother's  keeper.  No  home  is  safe  unless  all  homes 
are  safe,  in  the  final  analysis.  We  owe  a  duty  to  one  another.  We  find 
that  in  the  sociology  of  the  case.  It  is  a  long  story  that  I  cannot  follow 
now.  But  the  fight  for  industrial,  social  and  economic  justice  in 
this  country  is  a  fight  for  the  child.  Don't  forget  that.  There  is 
no  child  problem  that  is  not  a  parent  problem.  Don't  forget  that. 
And  there  isn't  any  parent  problem  that  is  not  a  social,  economic 
and  industrial  problem.     Don't  forget  that. 

Then  there  is  the  psychology  of  the  case.  We  are  dealing  with 
human  souls.  We  are  here  no  longer  to  save  the  old  shawl.  We 
are  not  here  to  save  the  gunny  sacks  except  as  a  secondary 
purpose  of  our  work.  We  are  here  to  save  the  boy.  But 
how  long  it  took  us  to  put  the  boy  above  the  gunny  sack!  Hun- 
dreds of  years !  That  means  that  we  must  deal  with  him  and  un- 
derstand him.  Now.  friends,  we  are  looking  into  his  soul.  No  matter 
how  calloused  or  covered  up  it  may  be  by  bad  environment, — ^much  op- 
portunity for  evil  and  none  for  good, — down  in  every  human  soul  we 


CHILD  LIFE  259 

know  there  is  the  image  of  God,  as  I  heard  Mr.  Riis  say  once,  if  we 
only  know  how  to  bring  it  out.  That  becomes  one  of  our  great  duties 
in  the  home,  in  the  school,  in  the  church.  These  are  the  great  institu- 
tions upon  which  our  civilization  must  depend ;  these  are  the  founda- 
tion stones  upon  which  it  all  rests.  We  in  homes  and  schools  owe  a 
duty  to  the  citizenship  of  this  country,  by  discharging  well  their 
functions  toward  the  childhood  of  the  nation.  That  means  that  we 
must  know  how  to  put  our  lessons  over. 

Sometimes  the  appeal  comes  unconsciously  from  the  soul 
of  the  child.  I  asked  a  little  boy,  "You  will  always  do 
right?"  I  was  speaking  to  a  group  of  petty  pilferers  about  my 
table.  "Yes."  he  said,  "I  will  do  right."  I  said,  ."Why  will  you 
do  right?"  He  said,  "Oh,  de  cop  will  get  me."  "Yes,  he  will  if 
you  keep  it  up,"  I  said.  The  next  little  boy,  after  struggling  and 
fighting  with  himself,  finally  gave  the  same  answer  in  a  different 
way.  "I  would  get  a  licking.  I  got  two."  "Yes,  I  suppose  you 
deserved  them,"  I  said,  "but  there  is  a  better  reason  for  doing  right." 
The  next  boy  said,  "I  will  get  in  jail."  "But  there  is  a  better 
reason  than  that."  As  I  appealed  to  the  next  little  boy,  who  was 
a  tow-headed,  freckle-faced  little  fellow,  I  said,  "What  is  it?"  He 
said,  "I  would  go  to  hell."  Well,  my  friends,  we  must  know  how 
to  teach  these  children  to  do  right  because  it  is  right,  and  not  be- 
cause they  will  get  in  jail  if  they  don't  do  right.  You  can't  trust 
any  citizen  who  has  been  reared  with  the  artificial  restraints  ever 
above  his  head;  in  the  home  it  is  the  nag  and  the  lash,  and  from 
the  bench  of  the  court,  the  bars  and  stripes.  Not  that  these  things 
are  not  necessary,  as  one  poison  is  an  antidote  for  another  poison, 
and  therefore,  poisons  are  necessary,  but  there  is  another  restraint 
and  that  is  the  restraint  that  is  self-imposed,  that  comes  through  the 
human  heart,  through  the  divine  speaking  in  the  soul  of  the  Small 
Voice  to  the  conscience  and  commanding  man  to  stand  up  in  the 
face  of  temptation  and  difficulties  and  do  right  because  it  is  right; 
to  be  willing  to  suffer  for  the  right.  When  we  get  that  kind  of 
citizenship,  the  days  of  graft,  the  days  of  the  shame  of  cities,  wall 
then  pass  away  and  there  will  be  less  need  for  the  artificial  re- 
straint, for  the  boy  who  does  not  learn  his  lesson  right,  any  more 
than  did  little  Jimmie  whom  I  used  to  tell  about.  I  saw  him  a  few 
days  after  he  attended  Sunday-school  and  I  said,  "Jimmie,  what  do 
you  think  of  Sunday-school?"  "Oh,"  he  said,  "it's  de  place  where 
all  de  little  kids  go  and  dey  gives  up  a  penny  and  don't  get  nothin' 
back."  I  said,  "You  little  rascal,  you  learn  tilings  there  that  you 
ought  to  know."  "Yes,"  he  said,  "learned  about  de  angels  that 
have  wings  just  like  de  chickens  but  those  guys  didn't  learn  me 


260  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

whetlier  tlu\v  Inid  eogs  or  not."  It  iii;iy  not  have  been  altogether 
the  fault  of  little  Jimmie  or  the  Sunday-school,  but  little  Jimmie 
was  like  some  men.  The  lesson  had  fallen  on  deaf  ears.  He  saved 
his  precious  pennj^  for  the  sake  of  the  candy  he  could  get  at  the 
corner  grocery.  He  had  no  conception  yet  of  those  values  that  con- 
cern the  hmnan  soul,  the  spiritual  values.  We  must  know  how  to 
endow  men  while  they  are  children  with  the  spiritual  values.  They 
are  not  to  be  measured  in  dollars  and  cents  or  material  things. 
Here  is  where  we  sometimes  fail.  The  child  grows  up  to  be  that 
man  in  the  world  of  business  who,  because  he  is  more  intelligent,  is 
simply  more  dangerous;  who  is  a  practical  man,  and  through  his 
injustice  robs  thousands  and  thousands  of  people — the  big  sinner 
in  society,  the  big  crook  in  society,  who  is  too  sharp  to  get  caught, 
gets  away  with  the  goods  and  goes  unwhipped  of  justice.  Let  us 
learn  how  to  make  the  school  and  church  most  effective  so  as  to 
give  our  children  their  greatest  heritage,  that  sort  of  equipment 
that  means  moral  and  industrial  efficiency,  so  that  in  the  future 
we  will  have  citizens  who  will  last,  not  only  over  night,  but — as  I 
used  to  say  to  the  boy  that  I  sent  to  the  reform  school  alone — a 
week,  a  month,  a  year,  forever.  So  much  for  the  psychology  of  this 
case.  We  in  the  courts  are  merely  trying  to  help  the  home, 
the  school  and  the  church;  for  every  little  child  that  goes  astray 
means  simply  there  has  been  a  failure  somewhere  along  the  line, 
not  altogether  with  the  Sunday-school  or  the  home  perhaps,  or  the 
school,  but  because  of  certain  conditions  in  society  that  we  permit 
to  flourish  and  exist  and  make  no  effort  to  cure. 

Then  there  is  the  physiology  of  the  case.  Of  this  I  might  speak 
just  a  few  words  in  closing.  It  was  never  better  illustrated  than  by 
a  certain  little  "Mickey,"  a  little  Irishman,  who  came  to  my  court 
years  ago  after  his  trouble  with  the  police.  He  was  a  boy  who  brought 
the  witnesses  up  before  the  Governor  and  the  Legislative  Committee 
to  tell  the  evils  of  the  jails  and  the  brutalities  that  have  been  visited 
upon  the  youth  in  those  days  of  struggle  for  the  Detention  Home 
School  to  supplant  the  jail  for  children.  Mickey  came  in  a  few  days 
after  a  successful  light  to  say,  "Jedge,  didn't  I  help  yer  get  that 
law  through?"  I  said,  "Yes,  you  did,  Mickey.  We  could  not  have 
gotten  it  through  without  your  help."  "Well,"  he  said,  "where 
do  I  come  in?"  For  a  moment  I  couldn't  understand  just  what  he 
meant  until  he  explained.  He  said,  "Jedge.  do  you  know  big  Peter- 
son?" I  said,  "Yes,  I  laiow  Peterson."  Peterson  was  a  big  police- 
man w^ho,  when  he  couldn't  catch  the  right  boy,  arrested  Mickey 
on  general  principles.  He  said,  "Jedge,  that  law  only  keeps  kids 
out  of  jail  under  fourteen  years  old."    He  looked  at  me  quizzically 


CHILD  LIFE  261 

and  said,  "Did  I  ever  tell  you  I  was  fifteen?"  I  said,  "Yes,  you 
did,  Mickey,  come  to  think  of  it."  He  said,  "Can  you  do  me  another 
favor?  Can  you  forget  that?"  He  added,  "If  this  legislature  can 
keep  kids  out  of  jail  under  fourteen  years  old,,  it  can  set  my  age 
back  two  years  and  I  am  thirteen  from  now  on."  And  he  said, 
"Jedge,  the  law  don't  help  me  a  bit  until  this  trouble  blows  over. 
I  think  I  will  join  the  navy."  I  said,  "You  better  see  the  recruit- 
ing officer."  He  said,  "I've  been  down  to  see  that  guy  and  he 
said,  '  Say,  kid,  go  eat  some  more. '  ' '  That  flippant  remark  of  the  re- 
cruiting oifieer  had  more  truth  than  flippancy  in  it. 

This  brings  us  to  the  final  head  under  which  I  like  to  discuss  the 
problem  of  delinquene.y  and  to  which  we  must  come  if  we  are  going  to 
save  the  child.  Doctor  Kellogg  has  told  us  and  he  is  telling  the  people 
of  this  country  that  what  a  man  is  depends  largely  upon  what  he 
eats.  He  has  been  telling  us  that  and  other  men  have  been  telling 
us  that.  We  in  the  courts  are  not  going  to  decrease  delinquency 
permanently  unless  we  remember  the  lessons  of  this  Conference. 
"What  the  child  is,  depends  upon  how  well  he  is  nourished, — what 
he  eats, — how  well  he  is  clothed  and  what  Idnd  of  parents  he  has 
and  how  free  they  are  from  diseases  before  he  comes  into  this  world. 
That  is  the  phj^siology  of  the  case.    We  cannot  neglect  that. 

So,  my  friends,  let  me  at  this  Conference  on  Race  Betterment 
•impress  upon  you  as  best  I  can,  after  more  than  fifteen  years  in  a 
children 's  court  in  a  city  of  a  quarter  of  a  million  people  and  some 
experience  in  the  children 's  courts  of  every  city  in  this  nation,  that  we 
cannot  save  this  child  that  comes  to  the  court  unless  we  save  all  the 
children  that  do  not  come  to  court.  They  are  all  mixed  up  together  in. 
the  same  problem.  They  are  all  our  children.  Don't  forget  that. 
Their  salvation  depends  upon  how  v/ell  we  solve  their  problems 
under  the  sociology  of  the  case,  the  psychology  of  the  case  and  the 
physiology  of  the  case.  The  sociology  of  the  case  means  the  great 
social,  industrial  and  economic  problems  that  concern  the  home  and 
the  parent  in  the  home.  The  psychology  of  the  case  means  the  ever- 
lasting soul,  that  divine  instrument,  if  you  please,  upon  which  we 
are  called  to  play.  It  was  a  master  teacher  who  said  that  skill  in 
handling  marble  is  as  nothing  compared  to  the  skill  in  handling 
men,  and  the  best  time  to  handle  men  surely  is  in  childhood  and 
youth,  when  character  is  plastic  and  can  be  molded  as  clay  in  the 
potter's  hand.  We  are  putting  our  prisons  in  charge  of  skilled 
men  and  women.  My  friend,  Tom  Tynan,  at  the  head  of  our  Colo- 
rado penitentiary,  said  four  years  ago,  "Lindsey,  you  have  been 
sending  hundreds  of  boys  to  these  prisons  alone  without  officers  and 
without  handcuffs,  and  never  lost  a  prisoner.  Why  can't  we  do  some- 


2()2  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

thiug  by  trusting  men?''  We  said  we  believed  it  could  be  done.  Men 
are  only  children  grown  up !  And  so,  my  friends,  when  a  man  like 
Tom  Tynan  puts  hundreds  of  convicts  upon  the  road  camps  in  our 
state  without  the  emblems  of  degradation  or  the  restraint  of  vio- 
lence, he  brings  out  the  godlike  image  rather  than  that  of  hell  itself. 
Why,  I  am  told  he  does  not  even  have  to  have  a  firearm  in  camp 
and  he  has  less  escapes  than  he  had  in  the  old  days.  He  came  to 
see  me  one  day  and  said,  "Lindsey,  we  have  had  to  get  a  gun  in 
the  road  camp."  I  said,  "What  on  earth  has  happened?"  "Oh, 
he  said,  "the  infernal  natives  are  robbing  the  convicts  and  we  had 
to  get  a  gun  to  keep  them  off. ' ' 

After  all  in  this  world  there  are  only  people.  There  are  the  eternal 
currents  of  good  and  evil.  Our  work  on  earth  is  to  fight  evil  and  not 
men  and  to  encourage  good  in  men. 


THE  DEPENDENT  CHILD 

Dr.  Gertrude  E.  Hall,  Director  Biu-ean  of  Analysis  and  Investi.ffation, 
Department  of  State  and  Alien  Poor,  State  Board  of  Cliarities,  Albany, 
N«w  York. 

All  children  are  naturally  dependent  upon  their  parents  and 
guardians,  for  it  is  characteristic  of  the  human  species  that  its  young- 
are  born  more  helpless  and  remain  dependent  longer  than  the  young 
of  any  other  spedies.  When,  however,  parents  die  or  try  to  dispossess 
themselves  of  their  children,  and  to  make  others  responsible  for  their 
physical  and  moral  welfare,  the  children,  if  accepted  as  public  or 
private  charges,  become  thereby  what  is  technically  known  as  "de- 
pendent children."  The  several  states  treat  dependent  children  in 
various  ways.  Some  place  them  in  institutions,  others  send  them  to 
foster  homes  and  asylums,  while  still  others  have  a  system  of  home  re- 
lief or  so-called  "pensions  for  dependent  mothers."  Each  system  is 
criticized  by  thoughtful  observers,  for  it  is  said  that  the  indoor  method 
of  relief  "institutionalizes  the  children;"  that  in  the  placing  out  to 
work  "undesirable  children  are  sometimes  transferred  in  large  num- 
bers to  communities  where  they  later  become  social  burdens;"  and  that 
the  "pension"  system,  unless  wisely  applied,  "leads  to  corruption  and 
the  pauperization  of  families." 

The  recognized  defects  of  child-caring  work  warrant  us  in  analyz- 
ing its  results.  Both  as  individuals  and  as  a  nation  we  should  give 
serious- study  to  this  problem,  for  it  is  one  of  the  largest  that  con- 
fronts public  and  private  charity  today ;  it  involves  the  investment  of 
millions  of  dollars  annually,  and  decides  the  destinies  of  thousands  of 


CHILD  LIFE  263 

the  states'  future  citizens.  Charities  for  children  are  always  popular, 
for  no  philanthropic  theme  appeals  so  strongly  to  the  hearts  and 
'  pocketbooks  of  right-minded  persons  as  the  promotion  of  the  hap- 
piness and  welfare  of  little  children.  But  the  impulse  to  give  liberally 
in  response  to  appeals  should  not  be  followed  without  first  weighing 
the  good  and  the  harm  that  may  result  therefrom.  The  efficacy  of 
methods  of  relief  should  not  be  measured  in  terms  of  so  much  food 
and  clothing,  but  broadly  in  those  of  child,  race  and  social  welfare. 
The  problem  is  therefore  to  know  what  conditions  make  it  necessary 
for  children  to  be  supported  outside  their  homes,  what  kind  of  chil- 
dren are  becoming  dependent,  what  effect  their  previous  life  had  upon 
them,  and  also  the  influence  of  the  institutional  or  other  new  environ- 
ment provided.  We  should  know  whether  our  children,  like  Romulus 
and  Remus,  the  first  dependent  Roman  children,  grow  up  to  be  kings 
and  rulers,  if  not  of  others,  at  least  of  their  own  hearts,  or  whether 
they  tend  to  swell  the  ranks  of  unskilled  labor,  or  even  of  vagrancy 
and  vice. 

A  special  study  along  this  line  is  in  progress  in  New  York  State 
and  while  it  is  far  from  completed,  some  of  the  indications  are  signifi- 
cant. First,  as  to  the  causes  of  dependency,  not  more  than  half  are 
legitimate  causes,  such  as  the  illness  or  death  of  one  or  both  parents, 
and  even  some  of  these  catastrophies  might  have  been  averted,  as.  for 
example,  deaths  due  to  industrial  accidents  and  dissipation,  and  ill- 
ness from  communicable  disease.  The  other  causes  of  dependence  are 
desertion  of  parents,  improper  guardianship,  destitution,  illegitimacy 
and  the  intemperance  of  parents.  The  desertion  of  parents  amounts 
to  twenty-five  per  cent  of  the  causes  so  far  studied,  and  reflects  a 
weak  phase  of  family  life.  This  unfortunate  condition  is  by  no  means 
confined  to  the  poor,  for  certain  boarding  schools  patronized  by  the 
rich  are  said  to  have  as  large  a  percentage  of  children  who  are  sent 
away  from  their  homes  because  of  marital  troubles  and  separations,  as 
occur  among  the  class  of  dependent  children.  One  means  to  lessen 
the  amount  of  child  dependency  and  misery  would  be  to  strengthen 
home  life  in  America  and  exalt  its  sanctity. 

The  children  proposed  for  commitment  should  also  be  studied  and 
compared  with  other  children,  for  if  we  are  to  care  for  the  children 
of  others,  we  must  know  what  manner  of  children  they  are.  before  we 
can  wisely  decide  on  the  best  method  of  training  them.  Our  studies 
in  New  York  State  indicate  that  only  one-half  of  the  dependent  chil- 
dren we  have  examined  and  tested  mentally  are  up  to  normal  standard. 
More  than  twenty -five  per  cent  are  a  year  retarded,  nine  per  cent  two 
years  retarded,  eight  per  cent  three  years  retarded,  and  seven  per' 


26-i  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

cent  more  than  three  years  retarded.  Most  of  this  seven  per  cent 
grroup  are  feeble-minded,  although  they  are  found  in  an  institution 
Avhich  intends  to  receive  only  normal  children.  This  is  a  rather  bad 
showing  considering  that  we  are  speaking  of  one  of  the  best  groups 
of  dependent  children,  for  this  paper  does  not  deal  at  all  with  the 
large  quota  of  delinquent  and  defective  children.  It  would  seem  that 
the  dependent  child  is  not  on  the  average  a  satisfactory  child,  and 
that  it  is  desirable  racially  to  have  a  better  breed  of  children  than  he 
represents. 

We  pass  now  to  a  study  of  the  effect  upon  the  parent  and  his 
child  of  the  acceptance  of  that  child  as  a  public  or  private  charge. 
Supposing  the  parent  has  neglected  his  child  and  the  public  assumes 
its  care,  society  seems  thereby  to  side  in  with  the  parent  and  say: 
"Why,  yes,  you  may  neglect  your  child  altogether.  We  will  support 
it.  Spend  all  your  money  on  yourself."  Or  even  if  the  parent  is 
required  to  pay  a  weekly  stipend,  it  is  not  a  wholesome  thing  to  re- 
lieve him  from  moral  responsibility  for  his  child's  upbringing.  If, 
however,  the  parent  is  good  but  needy,  the  breaking  up  of  the  home, 
which  has  frequently  been  advised,  is  a  serious  matter,  for  the  effort 
to  keep  a  family  together  acts  as  a  moral  tonic  on  the  parent,  whereas 
nothing  in  the  world  will  recompense  a  child  for  the  loss  of  his 
mother's  love.  A  few  more  clothes  or  a  little  more  to  eat  will  not 
requite  him. 

We  must  admit  that  some  parents  are  intemperate,  cross,  unwise, 
neglectful  and  vicious.  In  these  cases  the  removal  of  one  group  of 
children  probably  means  that  others  will  be  born,  and  this  shows  that 
the  removal  of  children  from  the  home  does  not  really  solve  the  prob- 
lem, but  only  aggravates  it.  As  a  temporary  expedient  the  child  i^ 
snatched  as  a  brand  from  the  burning,  but  radical  social  measures  are 
needed  to  prevent  such  vicious  homes. 

Another  type  of  home  is  poor  and  ignorant,  but  not  vicious.  Often- 
times social  workers,  born  to  higher  social  development,  cannot  under- 
stand these  homes  of  retarded  civilization  Avhich  are  found  here  and 
there,  as  for  example  the  Jackson-Whites  within  thirty  miles  of  New 
York  City,  and  exclaim:  "This  is  too  bad,  it  must  not  continue." 
But  one  of  the  first  things  a  eugenics  investigator  comes  to  realize  is 
that  in  this  nation  which  claims  to  be  so  advanced  and  civilized,  there 
are  nevertheless  communities  which  are  still  in  the  age  of  barbarism. 
Their  food,  raiment,  tools,  moral  ideas  and  general  knowledge  are 
those  of  barbarians.  If  this  condition  existed  only  in  a  few  families, 
we  might  perhaps  hold  that  these  families  should  be  broken  up.  But 
there  are  thousands  of  such  families,  mostly  healthy,  contented  with 


CHILD  LIFE  265 

their  lot,  doing  little  harm  except  petty  thieving,  who  live  out  their 
lives  in  some  mountain  retreat  or  secluded  valley,  making  baskets, 
living  on  cornmeal  and  pork,  inured  to  cold  and  scanty  clothing.  It 
would  seem  to  be  a  sounder  policy  to  bring  the  school  and  the  church, 
social  centers  and  a  better  paying  industry  to  these  people,  than  to 
place  them  forcibly  in  an  altogether  different  environment  to  which 
they  are  not  yet  adapted. 

It  w'ill  be  no  easy  task  to  improve  the  race  to  the  point  where  there 
will  be  few  or  no  dependent  children,  but  the  elimination  of  the  de- 
pendent child  will  be  one  of  the  best  indices  of  superiority  in  our 
national  stock  and  in  our  civilization.  This  country  of  ours  is  big 
enough  and  rich  enough  so  that  every  family  ought  to  find  room 
enough  to  live,  and  be  sure  of  steady  employment  at  a  living  wage, 
so  that  the  little  home  groups  can  be  kept  together,  and  the  parents 
can  see  the  reward  of  their  hard  toil  and  faithfulness  in  the  vigor  and 
virtue  of  their  children.  A  child,  more  than  one  dreams,  forms  his 
whole  philosophy  of  life  and  the  universe  before  he  is  six  or  seven 
years  old.  Who  feels  more  trusting  and  confident  of  the  Heavenly 
Father's  love  than  the  little  child  chanting  his  evening  prayer  at  his 
mother's  Imee?  His  faith  in  God  is  built  by  analog}^  on  his  faith  in 
this  mother 's  love.  Beneficent  home  life  is  a  national  institution  which 
must  be  sacredly  preserved.  Society  should  take  measures  to  prevent 
the  grinding  poverty  and  discords  which  wreck  some  homes,  and 
thereby  create  a  better  parenthood  and  neighborhood  life,  so  that 
the  problem  of  the  dependent  child  may  be  eliminated  as  far  as 
possible.  American  civilization  must  be  built  on  sound  home  life,  on 
devotion  of  parents  to  their  offspring,  on  respect  of  children  for  their 
parents,  and  finally  on  the  protection  of  the  home  by  philanthropic 
agencies  and  by  the  state  itself. 


EDUCATION  FOR  PARENTHOOD 

Dr.  Ltdia  a.  DEVnjBiss,  Director  Better  Babies  Bureau,   Woman's  Home 
Companion,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

Without  exception,  all  the  vitally  important  papers  presented 
so  far  at  this  Conference  have  borne  directly  or  indirectly  upon  edu- 
cation for  parenthood.  Every  evil  discussed,  every  remedy  sug- 
gested, should  be  known  to  the  men  and  women  who  -yvould  do  their 
duty  to  society  as  parents.  But  those  of  us  who  are  engaged  in 
public  health  educational  work,  those  of  us  who  try  to  leaven  life 
in  our  big  cities,  our  towns,  even  our  country  districts,  with  what 
might  be  termed  popular  knowledge  on  sanitation  and  hygiene,  know 


200  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

that  more  simple  means  must  be  taken  to  I'oach  the  average  man 
and  woman,  the  average  parental  conscience. 

The  mother  or  father  who  will  pass  over  sensational  headlines 
in  the  dail}'  papers  dealing  with  problems  of  eugenics  and  euthenics, 
regarding  such  material  as  thought  for  scientific  minds  only,  will 
drink  in  slowly,  but  fully,  less  spectacular  ideas  brought  to  their 
attention  through  the  medium  of  their  OAvn  children,  or,  what  we 
might  better  term  parental  pride.  The  man  who  does  not  know 
his  child,  naturally  thinks  it  fit.  He  finds  that  it  is  unfit,  abnormal, 
subnormal,  only  when  he  is  forced  to  compare  it  with  the  children 
of  other  men.  He  does  not  think  of  himself  as  an  unfit  parent  until 
he  realizes  that  he  has  brought  forth  offspring  physically  and  men- 
tally unfit  to  stand  comparison  with  the  children  of  his  neighbors. 

The  average  man  does  not  pay  much  attention  to  the  children 
of  his  neighbors,  whether  they  be  better  or  worse  than  his  own. 
He  does  not  go  to  public  gatherings  where  he  will  hear  talks  on 
life,  hygiene,  parenthood.  Nevertheless,  he  has  a  certain  instinctive 
pride  in  the  child  which  he  has  brought  into  the  world.  For  that 
reason,  if  he  hears  of  what  is  commonly  known  as  a  "baby  show." 
he  is  not  averse  to  having  his  child  washed,  curled  and  beruffied, 
and  taken  by  his  wife  to  be  compared  with  the  children  of  his  neigh- 
bor. If  the  child  wins  a  prize  at  the  baby  show,  the  father  is  properly 
puffed  up.  If  the  baby  fails  to  win  a  prize,  he  has  the  ready  excuse 
— it  was  merely  a  matter  of  beauty,  of  dimples,  of  influence,  of 
prejudice,  on  the  part  of  the  judges,  altogether  a  matter  of  opinion. 
He  does  not  take  the  decision  very  seriously.  But  the  fact  remains 
that  he  did  want  to  know  how  his  child  stood  by  comparison  with 
others. 

Upon  this  instinct,  upon  this  very  primitive  method  of  reaching 
the  unthinking  parent,  there  has  been  founded  a  movement  which 
promises  to  do  a  great  deal  toward  the  betterment  of  the  human 
race.  This  movement  has  been  worked  out  in  various  forms  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  country,  but  it  is  most  commonly  known  now  as 
the  Better  Babies  Campaign. 

During  the  past  year  at  least  one  hundred  thousand  babies  have 
been  examined  for  physical  and  mental  development,  as  part  of  this 
campaign  for  race  betterment.  The  parents  of  these  babies  have 
been  taught  that  the  unfit  child  is  not  a  visitation  of  Providence, 
but  the  natural  result  of  ignorance  or  sin.  They  have  also  learned 
that  in  this  day  of  scientific  care  of  children,  practically  every  baby 
can  be  made  a  better  baby  if  properly  and  intelligently  brought  up. 
Tens  of  thousands  of  these  parents  have  had  their  first  lesson  in 
child  hygiene,  their  first  instruction  in  the  important  branch   of 


CHILD  LIFE  267 

medical  science  known  as  infant  feeding.  There  are  one  hundred 
thousand  better  babies  in  America  today  because  of  this  instruction 
received  by  parents.  More  important  still,  one  hundred  thousand 
babies  have  been  started  right. 

The  first  step  has  been  taken  in  teaching  them  respect  for  their 
bodies.  With  each  successive  year  these  children  will  leaam  more 
about  their  bodies,  the  care  of  the  body,  the  functions,  and  the  right 
use  of  the  functions,  sex  hygiene  and  sex  relations,  on  a  clean  Imowl- 
edge  of  which  the  greatness  of  this  nation  will  be  founded.  The 
work  which  these  awakened  parents  have  begun  will  be  carried  on 
by  the  teachers  in  the  schools,  by  social  workers  in  settlement  houses, 
in  welfare  clubs  and  in  social  centers. 

As  Medical  Director  of  the  Better  Babies  Bureau  of  the  Woman's 
Home  Companion,  it  is  my  privilege  to  tell  something  of  this  work, 
how  it  has  been  promoted  and  placed  upon  a  solid  foundation  by 
those  who  believe  it  a  vital  factor  in  the  betterment  of  family  life 
in  America. 

The  scheme  of  the  Better  Babies  Contest  is  extremely  simple. 
Babies  are  scored  by  physicians  for  physical  and  mental  develop- 
ment, and  a  dozen  or  more  clear  questions,"  printed  in  connection 
with  these  results,  show  Avhat  influence  breeding  and  care  have  had 
on  the  child's  condition.  The  mental  tests  are  the  Simon-Binet  tests. 
The  weight  and  measurements  are  taken  and  then  compared  with 
standards  furnished  by  authorities  in  Europe  and  America.  The 
physical  examination  is  made  according  to  schedule  furnished  by 
pediatrists  and  men  who  have  had  long  experience  in  examining 
children  at  clinics  and  dispensaries. 

The  person  least  interested  is  the  child  examined,  but  parents 
are  aroused,  not  only  to  the  condition  in  which  the  child  is  found, 
but  to  the  realization  of  the  wa^ong  they  have  done  society  and  the 
child,  in  a  union  which  results  in  subnormal  or  abnormal  offspring, 
the  propagation  of  the  unfit.  In  this  way  the  Better  Babies  Con- 
test is  working  in  its  correlative  features,  talks  by  physical  expertS; 
diagrams  and  literature,  toAvard  Education  for  Parenthood. 

In  the  Better  Babies  Movement,  the  Woman's  Home  Companion 
does  not  lay  claim  to  originality.  Before  the  Better  Babies  Bureau  was 
fonned.  a  dozen  agencies  at  different  points  of  the  country  had  at- 
tempted, in  rather  scattered  fashion,  to  conduct  the  work.  The  editors 
of  the  magazine  do  claim,  however,  that  by  giving  proper  and  dignified 
publicity  to  the  plan  through  its  pages,  which  reach  over  a  million 
homes  every  month,  it  has  accomplished  in  six  months  the  work 
which  the  race  betterment  organizations,  without  a  mouthpiece, 
would  have  taken  years  to  accomplish.    It  has  assisted  social  workers 


2G8  FIRST    NAT1(,)NAL    CONFEHKNCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

all  over  the  country  to  start  these  contests  and  to  reach  parents  by 
this  very  simple  method  of  education  in  hygiene  and  supplying,  with- 
out cost,  the  literature  needed  for  the  contests,  and  encouraging  con- 
tests by  donations  of  medals,  certificates,  and  cash  awards. 

The  growth  of  the  Better  Babies  Bureau  has  been  one  of  the 
marvels  of  the  publication  world.  It  was  organized  in  March,  1913, 
to  supply  the  score  cards,  literature  about  contests,  and  to  answer 
queries  from  contest  managers,  usually  officials  of  state  and  county 
fairs.  Within  a  few  months  the  fair  officials  made  up  but  a  small 
part  of  the  men  and  women  interested  in^  this  movement  for  race 
betterment.  Club  women  and  public-spirited  citizens  wanted  to 
know  how  to  hold  a  Better  Babies  Contest.  Physicians  asked  for 
information  about  judging  and  scoring  of  babies.  Mothers  desired 
instruction  in  the  care  and  feeding  of  their  babies.  "How  can  I 
bring  my  baby  up  to  the  standard  of  a  prize  winner?"  was  a  com- 
mon question.  Three-fourths  of  the  mail  proves  that  the  writers  have 
received  no  education  for  parenthood. 

At  last,  the  public  recognizes — what  educators  have  known  for  a 
long  time — that  the  subject  of  parenthood  should  be  made  one  of 
the  vital  subjects  in  a  young  man's  and  a  young  woman's  prep- 
aration for  life.  You  will  notice  that  I  do  not  say  motherhood,  im- 
portant as  that  is,  but  parenthood,  which  includes  good  motherhood 
and  good  fatherhood.  We  are  inclined,  perhaps,  to  lay  too  much 
stress  on  the  education  for  motherhood,  forgetting  that  a  perfect 
child  must  have  a  good  father  as  well  as  a  good  mother. 

It  is  a  sorry  state  of  affairs  when  a  great  public  school  system 
entirely  ignores,  or  overlooks,  education  for  parenthood.  Pro- 
gressive educators  and  a  few  parents  have  recognized  this.  But 
between  our  great  political  school  boards,  who  know  little  and  care 
less  about  eugenics  and  euthenics,  and  the  great  mass  of  American 
citizens,  who  are  indifferent,  those  who  know  the  crying  need  of 
education  for  parenthood  are  sometimes  discouraged  at  the  slow 
progress  of  introducing  this  and  allied  subjects  into  our  great  public 
school  curriculum. 

The  Better  Babies  Contests  are  filling  in  this  great  gap  in  a  won- 
derful way.  We  cannot  say  to  parents,  "You  are  not  a  good  mother 
and  father,"  or  "You  could  be  a  better  mother  and  father."  They 
would  resent  this,  and  justly,  too,  but  we  can  reach  their  hearts  and 
their  pride  through  their  babies.  Wlien  fond  parents  bring  their 
babies  to  the  contest  to  be  scored,  love  casts  a  softening  veil  over 
infantile  defects.  They  believe  that  their  particular  baby  will  most 
certainly  take  all  the  medals  and  the  certificates  in  sight.  When 
a  doctor  points  out  baby  defects  which  they  did  not  know  existed. 


CHILD  LIFE  269 

their  pride  is  touched.  They  are  alive  immediately  to  the  necessity 
of  knowledge  that  they  may  remedy  these  defects.  The  parent  is 
now  ready  for  a  course  of  education  for  better  parenthood.  He  will 
come  of  his  own  free  will  to  the  educators  for  this  knowledge  of 
which  he  feels  a  real  and  crying  need. 

Every  contest  is  unlike  every  other  contest.  Each  has  its  own 
little  tragedies  and  its  humorous  side.  I  learn  much  from  each  con- 
test I  am  privileged  to  attend.  One  Western  mother  of  a  prize  win- 
ner told  us  a  very  interesting  story.  From  childhood  she  herself  had 
been  delicate  in  health,  and  she  knew  through  bitter  experience  the 
humiliation  and  sorrow  of  the  child  who  cannot  play  like  other  chil- 
dren. She  resolved  that  her  baby  should  be  spared  this  suffering  if  it 
lay  within  her  power.  From  the  very  inception  of  this  new  little  life, 
she  placed  herself  under  the  intelligent  direction  of  her  doctor.  She 
exercised  regularly,  followed  the  proper  diet,  kept  herself  free  from 
worry  and  in  the  best  possible  condition.  At  birth  her  child  was  a 
normal  child.  The  same  intelligent  care  has  been  given  him  every 
day  of  his  life.  As  a  result  this  one-time  invalid  is  not  only  the  proud 
mother  of  a  prize-winning  baby,  but  her  own  health  is  established. 
It  is  more  than  a  coincidence  that  our  prize  babies  are  in  almost 
every  instance  babies  who  have  been  fed  regularly,  who  have  had 
plenty  of  fresh  air  and  sleep,  and  whose  mothers  have  followed,  to 
the  best  of  their  ability,  the  schedule  for  the  scientific  care  of  babies 
laid  down  by  leading  pediatrists. 

In  contrast  to  this  baby  is  one  scored  at  a  contest  in  a  great 
Western  stock-raising  state.  The  father  of  this  baby  was  a  promi- 
nent and  wealthy  ranch  owner  and  breeder  of  fine  stock.  He  had 
made  the  trip  to  the  state  fair  to  enter  his  blooded  stock  and  had 
won  many  first  ribbons.  Learning  that  there  was  a  baby  contest  at 
the  fair  grounds,  he  decided  to  enter  his  little  son.  A  few  days  later 
the  physicians  were  engaged  in  re-examining  the  highest  scoring 
babies,  when  the  wife  of  the  man  whose  stock  was  taking  prizes  at 
'the  stock  show  approached  the  doctors  nervously:  "I  did  not  get  any 
card  to  bring  my  baby  back  for  re-examination,  but  I  thought  that 
as  we  were  strangers  here,  it  might  have  gone  astray,  so  we  just 
brought  our  baby  down  to  see  if  it  was  not  wanted  for  this  final  ex- 
amination." It  had  never  occurred  to  these  parents  that  their  child 
might  not  have  come  up  to  the  standard  required  for  the  re-examina- 
tion. The  doctor,  thinking  perhaps  the  card  had  gone  astray,  ran 
through  the  score  cards  of  the  previous  examination  until  she  found 
written  in  stern  figures  the  tale  of  this  baby's  failure  to  qualify. 
Flabby  flesh,  slightly  bowed  legs  and  inability  to  concentrate,  were 
among  the  points,  indicating  that  the  mother  was  overworked  and 


270  FIRST    NATIONAIi    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

the  l)aby  undornoiirislied.  A  dull  Hush  overspread  the  man's  face, 
"Come  on,"'  he  said,  "we  are  goini^-  to  see  the  best  doctor  ri^ht  now 
and  find  ont  what's  wrong."  The  family  doctor  in  his  home  town 
might  have  suggested  nndernonrishment  and  been  laughed  at. 
The  mother  might  have  poured  her  worries  into  unhearing  ears. 
But  when  a  group  of  judges,  expert  authorities,  scored  his  child  far 
below  his  live  stock,  this  father  received  a  lesson  which  struck  home. 
He  learned  that  straight  legs  are  as  important  in  boys  as  in  mules, 
and  that  ability  to  concentrate  is  a  sign  of  high  breeding  in  humans 
as  well  as  in  horses.  Let  us  hope  that  this  father  and  mother  w^ill 
carr}""  the  gospel  of  better  babies  back  to  their  Wyoming  home. 

At  these  contests  even  the  brief  conferences  betw^een  mothers  and 
doctors  develop  a  surprising  change  in  the  mental  attitude  of  the 
former.  For  the  first  time  they  seem  to  recognize  the  scientific  value 
of  the  contest.  Maternal  pride  and  confidence  give  w^ay  to  maternal 
anxiety.  Some  of  the  women  w^ho  enter  the  contest  smiling  and  con- 
fident and,  perhaps,  feeling  just  a  trifle  superior,  at  the  close  of  the 
contest  turn  to  the  doctor  nervously,  "Even  if  my  baby  doesn't  win 
a  prize,  you'll  let  me  have  his  score  card,  won't  you?  I  want  to  take 
him  to  our  doctor  right  away  and,  if  there  is  anything  wrong,  I  want 
to  know  how  to  make  him  better."  So  another  mother  is  started 
on  the  road  tow'ard  liberal  education  in  parenthood. 

I  hope  that  most  of  you  have  seen  some  of  the  examinations  con- 
ducted here  at  the  Battle  Creek  contest.  One  of  my  pleasantest  duties 
at  this  Conference  has  been  to  assist  in  the  final  re-scoring  of  the 
baby  candidates  for  the  medals.  Nearly  six  hundred  children,  five 
years  and  under,  of  Battle  Creek  and  vicinity,  had  been  examined  by 
the  local  doctors.  A  number  of  the  highest  scoring  children  in  each 
class  were  brought  back  for  the  final  contest.  An  interesting  inci- 
dent was  that  of  a  little  boy  scored  by  one  of  the  Sanitarium  doctors 
and  given  a  total  of  940  points  out  of  the  possible  1.000,  or  94  per 
cent.  Taking  a  fresh  score  card,  another  physician  and  I  scored  this 
boy  again.  When  our  score  was  totaled  it  w-as  found  that  we  had' 
also  given  him  940  points.  This  proves  that  scoring  babies  can  be 
made  accurate  and  scientific. 

The  indirect  results  of  the  Better  Babies  contest  are  perhaps 
greater  than  the  direct  results.  Parents  w^ho  have  had  their  children 
in  1913  contests  will  not  need  to  be  urged  to  enter  their  babies  in 
the  1914  contest.  Thousands  of  visitors  w^ill  carry  the  news  of  Better 
Babies  to  every  part  of  the  country.  Women  and  men  like  to  be  in 
style.  There  is  every  indication  that  parenthood  is  going  to  be  more 
fashionable  once  again. 

There  is  a  commonly  accepted  belief  that  the  marriage  ring  be- 


CHILD  LIFE  271 

stows  the  gift  for  parenthood  magically — works  a  miracle  of  under- 
standing in  the  newly  wedded  couple.  The  divorce  court,  the  juve- 
nile court,  the  reformatories,  the  homes  for  defective  children, 
thoroughly  disprove  this  theory.  We  train  our  citizens  for  every 
other  worth-while  profession.  Is  it  not  the  most  glaring  incon- 
sistency to  fail  to  train  them  for  the  most  important  profession  of 
all — Parenthood  ? 

There  has  been  great  agitation  over  the  question  of  introducing 
certain  phases  of  education  for  parenthood  into  the  public  schools. 
Most  of  this  has  been  due  to  misrepresentation  and  ignorance  of 
methods  to  be  used.  It  is  better  if  certain  phases  can  be  taught  in 
the  home,  better  for  the  child  and  better  for  the  parents,  but  these 
subjects  are  not  taught  in  the  homes,  and  very  few  parents  possess  the 
requisite  scientific  knowledge  to  teach  them  successfully.  If  more 
parents  will  attend  the  lectures  planned  by  those  having  this  phase 
of  the  work  in  charge,  much  of  the  now  existing  prejudice  will  be 
overcome. 

To  have  a  home,  with  all  that  word  implies,  we  must  have  a 
mother  and  a  father  endowed  with  talent  by  their  Creator  and 
trained  in  the  use  of  their  talents  by  their  educators.  We  must  have 
a  certain  economic  independence,  or,  in  other  words,  our  legislators 
must  secure  to  a  great  army  of  American  citizens,  men  toiling  with 
hand  and  brain,  an  equitable  share  of  the  product  of  their  labor,  in 
order  that  they  may  be  able  to  support  homes  and  children.  And 
last,  and  most  important,  we  must  have  that  love  and  harmony  be- 
tween man  and  wife  without  which  truly  healthy  and  beautiful  chil- 
dren are  not  possible. 

In  the  past,  education  for  parenthood  has  been  a  system  of  don't'sv 
repression,  negation.  Ignorance,  and  morbidity,  and  crime  have 
been  the  natural  outcome  of  these  pernicious  teachings.  The  new 
education  for  parenthood  will  be  characterized  by  its  scientific 
foundation,  its  clarity,  its  sacredness,  its  loveliness,  and  its  holiness. 
This  is  the  work  to  which  we  have  set  our  hand.  If  we  begin  with 
Better  Babies,  in  a  few  years  there  will  be  Better  Boys  and  Girls', 
Better  Men  and  Women— BETTER  PARENTS. 

In  conclusion,  I  should  like  to  present  a  few  concise  thoughts  for 
parents : 

There  is  no  man  so  manly  as  the  man  with  the  tender  heart  of  a 
woman;  there  is  no  woman  so  womanly  as  a  woman  with  the  cour- 
age of  a  man.  We  prate  about  the  "eternal  womanly,"  when  we 
mean  only  the  expedient  feminine. 

A  man  cannot  sow  his  wild  oats  alone.  He  must  sow  them  at  the 
expense  of  some  other  mother's  carefully  nurtured  daughter. 


272  FJllST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

xVs  a  stream  canuot  rise  above  its  source,  so  a  uatiozi  cannot  rise 
above  the  potential  greatness  of  its  mothers. 

The  mother  who  risks  her  life  to  produce  a  child,  surely  does  as 
great  service  for  the  state  as  the  man  who  kills  another  mother's 
son  in  defense  of  it,  and  she  ought  to  be  so  recognized,  and  pen- 
sioned if  in  need. 

Only  a  mother  knows  the  worth  of  a  man.  She  alone  knows  what 
it  costs  to  produce  a  man. 


BETTER  BABIES 


RoBBixs  GiLMAX,  Head  Worker  University  Settlement   Scciety,  New  York, 
N.  Y. 

Better  babies  are  but  a  means  to  an  end.  That  end  is  the  object 
for  which  we  are  gathered  here — race  betterment.  However,  race 
betterment  is  not  necessarily  synonymous  with  better  babies. 

The  remarkably  widespread  and  apparently  intelligent  grasp  of 
the  underlying  ideas  of  the  science  of  Eugenics  augurs  well  for  the 
future  of  our  race.  The  seed  of  the  eugenic  ideal,  which  was  sown 
so  broadcast  by  the  First  International  Eugenics  Congress  held  in 
London  a  year  ago  last  summer,  seems  to  have  fallen  on  fertile  soil 
where  it  has  germinated  and  already  brought  forth  good  fruit.  When 
a  popular  interest  can  be  aroused  in  taking  better  care  of  ourselves 
for  the  sake  of  bringing  into  this  world  better  children,  or  in  so 
taking  care  of  our  children  that  they  may  bring  forth  better  children, 
the  dim  dawn  of  a  better  civilization  may  truly  be  said  to  have 
broken.  There  are  unmistakable  signs  of  an  ever-deepening  popu- 
lar interest  in  race  culture,  and  that  not  by  scientists  alone  but  by 
fathers  and  mothers,  both  actual  and  prospective.  This  interest 
manifests  itself  in  various  ways,  and  while  all  of  its  manifestations 
may  not  have  been  the  result  of  conscious  efforts  toward  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  eugenic  ideal,  nevertheless  they  represent  the  first  glow 
of  color  in  the  dim  dawn.  One  of  the  most  practical,  if  not  scientific, 
phases  of  popular  interest  in  the  underlying  principles  of  Eugenics 
is  the  many  Baby  Health  Contests  that  are  being  held  throughout 
our  broad  land  today ;  they  tend  to  lay  stress  on  race  culture,  which 
is  wholesome. 

The  ordinary  "Better  Babies"  Contest  brings  to  the  mind  a  com- 
posite idea  made  up  of  a  very  few  elements — healthy  babies,  com- 
petition and  prizes.  There  are  other  ideas,  fundamental,  important, 
and  consequently  enduring, — which  I  \vish  to  bring  out  briefly  in  this 
paper, — that  resulted  from  a  contest  held  at  the  University  Settle- 


CHILD  LIFE  273 

ment  last  May  in  the  heart  of  the  most  congested  section  of  New 
York  City. 

Concisely  stated  they  are : 

(1)  The  relative  unimportance  of  the  healthy  babies  in  a  contest. 

(2)  The  need  of  offering  two  prizes  in  addition  to  those  for  per- 
fect health. 

(3)  The  inadequacy  of  a  national  conference. 

At  the  expense  of  seeming  to  make  a  paradoxical  statement,  I 
wish  to  say  that  I  think  the  healthy  babies,  and  especially  the  prize 
winners,  in  a  contest  are  the  least  important  part  of  the  contest.  This 
is  so  simply  because  health,  whether  in  baby  or  adult,  represents  a 
satisfactory  present  state  or  condition,  and  unhealth  or  ill  health  calls 
for  attention.  Therefore,  the  babies  which  need  no  immediate  care 
should  not  absorb  our  time  and  attention  while  there  are  sick  or  un- 
Avell  babies  to  be  looked  after.  One  of  the  most  important  phases, 
therefore,  of  a  Baby  Health  Contest  is  the  detecting  of  unhealthy 
babies,  which  because  of  their  unhealth  need  care  and  proper  nursing 
for  the  purpose  of  fitting  them  for  the  race  of  life — to  start  them  off 
with  the  least  possible  handicap.  After  a  careful  record  has  been 
made  of  the  names  and  addresses  of  the  imperfect  babies  entered  in 
a  contest,  and  their  homes  have  been  visited,  and  further  and  more 
careful  examinations  have  been  made,  they  should  then  become  the 
special  care  of  the  municipality  or  private  baby  welfare  organiza- 
tion, and  the  first  great  result  of  your  contest  has  been  achieved, 
"Without  any  lengthy  clarification,  you  can  easily  see  that  without 
having  had  the  contest,  without  having  offered  your  prizes,  you 
would  no  doubt  have  never  found  that  this  need  for  the  care  of  these 
below-par  babies  existed. 

Another  important  phase  of  a  contest  is  its  educational  side ;  I 
mean  that  side  of  it  which  gets  people  to  talking  about,  to  thinking 
about,  and  reading  about  better  babies.  One  of  New  York's  most 
conservative  newspapers  headed  a  column  article  "Babies  All  the 
Rage"  during  our  contest  last  spring.  When  the  press  of  the  cos- 
mopolitan city  of  New  York  carry  for  a  week,  as  most  important 
stuff,  something, — not  a  murder,  nor  a  divorce,  nor  a  kidnapping,  nor 
the  mysterious  disappearance  of  a  prominent  person, — that  subject 
has  become  of  unusual  interest  to  the  reading  public.  Mothers,  old 
and  young,  and  even  prospective  parents,  were  interested  in  babies 
last  May  in  New  York.  Motherhood  seemed  to  take  on  a  more  im- 
portant aspect.  The  effect  of  arousing  so  much  talk  was  most  whole- 
some and  I  believe  could  never  have  been  produced  except  by  hold- 
ing a  Contest,  by  offering  prizes.  While  competition  was  keen,  and 
the  spirit  of  rivalry  rife,  and  the  desire  to  win  eager,  yet  these  paled 


274  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

into  insi^iiiHc'iiiu'e  beside  the  fact  that  fjjroni)S  of  mothers  gathered 
here  and  there  in  the  crowded  East  Side  of  New  York  and  wanted 
to  know,  "Was  this  good  for  the  baby,"  or  "I  wonder  should  I  do 
this,"  or  "Don't  do  that,  it  ain't  good  for  him,"  or  "Don't  face  him 
to  the  sun,  it'll  hnrt  his  eves,"  or  best  of  all,  "Have  you  seen  the 
nurse  at  the  Milk  Station  about  it  ? " 

Now  turning  to  the  babies  in  the  contest,  those  eligible  for  the 
prizes, — the  healthy  ones,— I  ask  this  question,  honestly.  What  does  it 
amount  to  to  find  a  perfect  baby  ?  Of  what  great  importance  per  se  ? 
If  the  contest  is  to  consist  in  finding  a  physically  fit  baby,  to  single 
out  one  from  100,  or  200,  or  even  1,000,  and  to  give  to  its  parents  the 
proud  distinction  of  bearing  such  a  prodigy,  and  incidentally  arous- 
ing bad  blood  in  the  parents  of  the  bab^^  who  came  so  near  to  win- 
ning but  didn  't.  then  I  say  let  us  have  very  few  contests.  As  a  social 
worker,  I  am  more  interested  in  the  possibility  of  an  imperfect  baby 
growing  up  into  fairly  fit  physical  manhood  or  womanhood  than 
in  searching  out  a  physically  perfect  baby  who  may  not  so  grow 
up.  but  above  all  am  I  interested  in  having  a  perfect  or  imperfect 
baby  grow  up  into  moral  and  spiritual  fitness  for  parenthood  and 
citizenship.  Temperamental  endowment,  or  better,  "emotional  con- 
trol," to  use  Doctor  Davenport's  words,  is,  from  the  social  stand- 
point, from  the  standpoint  of  the  society  of  tomorrow,  much  more 
important  than  physical  health,  important  as  that  most  certainly  is. 

To  make  a  Baby  Health  Contest  of  more  than  passing  importance 
it  therefore  should  be  followed  by  two  distinct  additional  examina- 
tions, one  into  the  environmental  conditions  surrounding  each  baby, 
and  another  into — as  far  as  we  are  with  our  present  knowlege  able 
to  gauge  it — the  possible  inheritance  that  the  baby  is  to  fall  heir  to. 

In  other  words,  I  think  that  each  contest  should  otfer  three  prizes : 
one,  as  at  present,  to  the  most  perfect  physical  baby ;  another  to  that 
baby  whose  parents  have  sought  to  keep  and  have  kept  his  environ- 
ment best,  and  the  other — and  possibly  the  most  important — to  the 
best  selected  parental  union,  to  the  baby  which  has  the  best  parents. 

In  examining  into  the  environmental  conditions  of  babies  en- 
tered in  a  contest,  we  may  find  very  direct  causes  why  a  certain 
baby,  or  a  number  of  babies,  did  not  win  or  stood  no  chance  of  win- 
ning. We  may  find,  for  instance,  that  the  mother  worked  at  some 
trade  or  occupation  during  pregnancy  which  sapped  her  vitality. 
This  might  have  been  made  necessary  to  supplement  inadequate  in- 
come. We  may  find  sanitation  of  home,  court  yard  or  street  to 
have  a  direct  bearing  on  the  ill  health  of  the  baby.  We  may  dis- 
cover that  on  account  of  midwife  or  physician,  or  through  lack  of 
instruction  and  care  of  mother  before  childbirth,  the  babv  comes  into 


CHILD  LIFE  275 

the  world,  or  soon  after  becomes,  handicapped.  Home  manufactnre 
may  have  filled  the  living  rooms  with  bad  air,  as  for  instance  es- 
caping gas,  with  a  tailor.  Such  things  have  prevented  an  otherwise 
normal  baby  from  being  normal.  Lodgers  in  the  family,  lack  of 
windows,  or  windows  opening  on  air  shafts,  or  on  a  swill  barrel 
where  flies  congregate,  or  a  defective  milk  supply  (if  bottle  fed)  — 
any  or  all  of  these  might  v/ell  be,  and  possibly  are,  the  causes  of 
many  babies  growing  u^  physically  imperfect.  As  a  result  of  this 
supplementary  examination  into  environment,  laws  might  be  en- 
acted which  would  materially  affect  for  good  the  health  of  genera- 
tions to  follow.  In  other  words,  the  measuring  of  a  baby  up  to  a 
fairly  perfect  physical  standard,  no  matter  by  whom  devised,  should 
not  be  the  end  and  aim  of  a  Better  Baby  Contest. 

Nor  should  we  stop  at  bettering  or  endeavoring  to  detect  adverse 
physical  conditions  in  their  possible  relations  to  ill  health  or  future 
growth.  "We  should  go  back  of  the  baby  and  ask,  "What  kind  of 
parents  have  you  ?  At  what  age  were  your  parents  married  ?  Have 
either  of  them  any  defect  in  vision,  hearing,  speech  or  teeth?  What 
are  the  diseases  to  which  there  has  been  liability  ?  Have  either  of 
them  undergone  any  surgical  operation  '  What  is  their  mental  abil- 
ity! In  what  condition  does  your  mother  keep  her  home,  herself, 
"your  sisters  and  brothers?  What  is  her  general  reputation  in  the 
community  ?  How  did  she  select  her  husband  ?  How  many  times  has 
she  been  pregnant?  Did  your  father  use  alcohol  before  marriage 
and  does  he  now  use  tobacco  and  in  what  form?  When  did  he  be- 
gin to  use  it?  Has  he  ever  had  specific  diseases,  especially  syphilis? 
Questions  should  be  asked  also  of  each  of  the  brothers  and  sisters 
of  the  baby,  and  information  sought  about  the  surviving  brothers 
and  sisters  of  the  father  and  mother.  Schedules  with  questions  along 
both  these  lines  of  investigation  have  been  prepared  through  the 
assistance  of  Doctor  Davenport  and  of  Professor  Chaddock  of  Co- 
lumbia University,  and  are  now  being  used  by  us  at  the  University 
Settlement  in  connection  with  our  recent,  contest. 

The  many  suggestions  we  hear  of  and  see  in  print  in  reference  to 
a  further  restriction  of  immigration,  because  of  the  menace  to  our 
racial  stock  in  the  influx  of  "foreigners,"  are  based  largely,  it  seems 
to  me,  upon  ignorance  of  facts  as  same  pertain  to  the  character  of 
our  immigrants.  Apart  from  the  perfectly  proper  restrictions  which 
are  at  present  incorporated  in  our  immigration  laAvs,  such  as  relate 
to  criminality,  physical  deformity,  impeeuniosity.  etc..  any  fur- 
ther restrictions,  merely  as  restrictions,  would  amount  to  selfishness 
on  a  national  scale.'  Race  Betterment  should  be  a  world-wide  slogan, 
not  an  isolated  American,  or  British,  or  German,  or  French,  attempt. 


276  FIRST    NATIONAL,    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

"Of  one  blood  hath  He  made  all  peoi)les. "  Let  ns  take  an  interna- 
tional stand  in  this  matter.  If  we  restrict  undesirables  from  our 
shores,  they  remain  on  some  other  shores.  If  we  prevent  certain 
peoples  from  coming  hither,  it  is  possible  that  we  shut  forever  the 
door  of  hope  in  their  faces ;  we  blight  their  spirits.  Under,  ordinary 
conditions  we  cannot  as  a  nation  meddle  with  or  suggest  changes  in 
another  nation's  internal,  political,  economic,  or  social  arrange- 
ments. We  have  no  right  to  say  to  England,  for  instance,  you  must 
cease  from  having  any  unemployed,  or,  you  should  give  women  the 
vote.  To  France  we  cannot  say  that  syndicalism  or  sabotage  must 
not  be  interfered  with,  when  the  workers  insist  upon  either.  How- 
ever, we  can  say  that  as  the  world  grows  smaller  in  circumference, 
due  to  improvements  in  means  of  travel  and  communication,  we  all 
must  get  together,  all  nations,  and  agree  that,  as  international  inter- 
course, so  to  speak,  becomes  easier  and  more  general,  each  nation 
is  to  a  large  extent  concerned  in  the  general  health  and  mental  and 
moral  stamina  of  all  others,  because  such  things  are  of  mutual  inter- 
est in  this  day  of  interchange  of  population. 

As  another  expedient  to  limit  immigration  into  this  country,  it 
has  been  suggested  that  agents  be  sent  to  all  foreign  countries  for 
the  purpose  of  inquiring  into  the  qualifications  of  prospective  immi- 
grants. It  is  said  that  such  a  system  would  not  be  a  very  difficult 
one  to  inaugurate,  and  I  am  perfectly  willing  to  grant  that  it  could 
easily  be  done.  But  what  is  its  objects  To  keep  from  our  shores  un- 
desirable aliens.  We  are  here  today  to  confer  on  Eace  Betterment. 
I  ask,  do  you  mean  the  American  race  (whatever  that  may  mean)  or 
do  you  mean  the  English-speaking  race — if  there  is  such  a  thing — 
or  the  Teuton  race,  or  the  Indo-Iramic,  of  which  latter  I  have  never 
heard.  It  is  not  so  much  a  question  of  what  w^e  do  mean  as  what 
we  should  mean.  My  humble  contention  is  that  when  we  speak  of 
Race  Betterment  we  should  include  within  our  meaning  all  the  na- 
tions of  the  w^orld,  the  human  race.  If,  when  thinking  of  Race  Bet- 
terment, we  simply  mean  the  United  States,  then  we  are  not  only 
parochial,  but  essentially  selfish. 

Coming  down  to  something  concrete,  I  not  only  believe  that  there 
is  room  for  race  improvement,  but  I  believe  that  some  immediate 
steps  should  be  taken  to  improve  it.  I  believe  that  because  of  ignor- 
ance, upon  which  ground  we  should  no  longer  excuse  ourselves,  and 
because  of  selfishness  on  a  national  scale,  which  we  should  be 
ashamed  to  offer  further  as  an  excuse,  we  have  allowed  conditions 
not  only  to  exist  but  to  grow  until  today  Ave  cannot  say  positively 
that  our  civilization  is  not  actually  threatened  with  rot  at  the  core. 
As  science  reveals  to  our  wondering  eve  the  marvelous  inter-relations 


CHILD  LIFE  277 

between  and  inter-play  of  forces  wh^cli  up  to  a  comparatively  short 
time  ago  we  thought  of  as  isolated  and  independent,  we  should  begin 
in  our  social  endeavor  to  coordinate  agencies  for  the  dissipating 
or  cohering  of  these  forces,  as  by  so  doing  they  may  be  made  to, work 
for  the  good  of  society  the  world  over.  "What  does  the  importation 
to  this  country  of  a  few  million,  more  or  less,  of  immigrant  unde- 
sirables amount  to  ?  What  is  that  as  a  burning  question  to  the  pres- 
ent-day almost  world-wide  extent  of  a  syphilitic  infection,  or  of 
inheritable  mental  deficiencj^  ?  "What  is  needed  is  a  world-wide  move- 
ment to  look  into  and  study  this  most  important  of  all  subjects,  be- 
cause it  lies  at  the  very  bottom  of  our  existence  or  civilization.  As  we 
grow  broad  in  our  vision,  as  we  expand  our  sympathies  so  that  they 
both  become  world-wide  in  extent,  we  will  see  that  what  is  needed 
is  a  concerted  action  by  the  civilized  nations  of  the  world  on  the 
subject  of  Race  Betterment.  World  movements  are  not  so  rare  to- 
day as  one  hundred  years  ago.  International  conferences  are  in  this 
day,  indeed,  quite  common,  and  it  is  with  this  belief  in  the  urgency 
of  the  matter,  and  in  the  practicability  of  the  scheme,  that  I  offer 
you  this  suggestion,  to- wit : 

That  this  Conference  set  in  motion  machinery  for  the  calling  to- 
gether of  delegates  from  all  the  leading  nations  of  the  world  for  a 
conference  to  discuss  ways  and  means  by  which  such  nations,  each 
acting  for  itself  but  for  the  good  of  all,  can,  through  governmental 
action,  or  otherwise,  better  the  ra^e  of  man  from  the  standpoints  of 
physical  health,  mental  attainments  and  moral  stamina.  This  would 
be  more  than  a  Eugenics  Congress,  although  eugenists  would  be,  it 
is  hoped,  delegates:  it  would  be  more  than  a  Health  Congress,  al- 
though doctors  would  be  in  attendance ;  it  would  be  more  than  an 
Ecumenical  Conference,  although  spiritual  leaders  would  be  there; 
it  would  be  more  than  a  Peace  Conference,  although  peace  advo- 
cates would  attend.  It  would  be  a  gathering  of  statesmen,  scien- 
tists, humanitarians,  and  government  officials,  all  optimists,  with 
national  and  international  barriers  knocked  down,  interested  in 
the  welfare  of  each  because  the  welfare  of  each  is  inseparable 
from  the  welfare  of  all.  Prison  reformer,  social  and  unemploy- 
ment insurance  advocate,  child  labor  expert,  the  missionary,  the 
teacher,  the  doctor,  the  social  worker,  physiologist,  psychologist — 
they  would  all  be  present  to  discuss  the  relationship  of  syphilis,  alco- 
hol and  tuberculosis  to  racial  betterment,  and  the  direct  and  indirect 
bearing  thereon  of  medicine,  education  in  matters  of  sex,  proper 
care  and  treatment  of  infectious  and  communicable  diseases,  mental 
deficiency,  housing  and  living  conditions,  city  planning,  hours  of 
labor  and  recreation.     And  above  all  would  such  a  Conference  dis- 


278  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

CUSS  tlie  positive  side  oL'  Race  Hettenuent;  eufj:eiiics  and  not  dys- 
genics ;  constrnctive  work  as  opposed  to  destructive ;  perfectibility 
and  not  deformity  or  defjeneration  or  disease. 


Discussion. 

Baby  Saving 
Edward  Buxxell  Phelps,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

I  believe  that  I  am  to  be  allowed  five  m.inutes  in  which  to  discuss 
the  problem  involving  in  this  country  the  annual  birth  of  possibly 
two  and  a  half  million  babies  and  the  annual  death  in  this  country 
of  probably  approximately  one  thousand  babies  a  day.  It  is  rather 
a  larg-e  subject  for  rather  a  short  time. 

One  of  the  basic  principles  of  race  betterment  is  "The  Saving  of 
Babies."  In  the  investigation  by  the  Interdepartmental  Committee 
of  the  British  Government  on  physical  deterioration  in  1904,  a  most 
expert  testimony  from  all  over  the  British  Empire  was  taken.  I  will 
summarize  in  three  or  four  lines  the  conclusions  regarding  a  very 
important  phase  of  the  whole  subject. 

The  deliberate  conclusion  of  the  specialists  who  testified  was, 
briefly  stated,  that,  ' '  as  though  Nature  were  giving  every  generation 
a  fresh  start,  something  like  eighty-five  per  cent  of  all  children  born 
in  the  world  are  born  physically  healthy,"  notwithstanding  the  ex- 
ceedingly popular  notion  to  the  contrary,  and.  furthermore,  that 
these  children  would  be  capable  of  living  a  normal  physical  exis- 
tence were  it  not  for  neglect,  poverty,  and  ignorance. 

It  seems  to  me  that  is  an  encouraging  start.  If  Nature  apparently 
wipes  out  the  so-called  slight  of  degeneration  and  with  that  wonder- 
ful kindliness  of  Providence,  of  God,  or  Nature — call  it  what  you  will 
— gives  the  child  at  least  for  a  moment  after  birth  a  fair  start,  an 
equally  good  start  with  all  the  other  babies,  what  remains  to  be 
done?  Why  simply  give  that  baby  what  God  intended  it  should 
have, — that  primary  article  of  food  for  which  alone  its  little  diges- 
tive organs  are  adapted, — mother's  milk, — plenty  of  air,  plenty  of 
water,  plenty  of  sunshine,  and  keep  out  of  its  stomach  for  the  first 
six  months  as  you  would  a  virulent  poison  any  semblance  of  solid 
matter.  I  finally  believe,  after  some  years'  study  of  the  statistical 
side  of  this  subject,  that  if  we  could  accomplish  this  much,  we  could 
cut  the  w^orld's  infant  mortality  rate  in  the  middle. 

The  milk  stations  and  the  various  other  agencies  that  have  been 
employed  for  the  betterment  of  infant  mortality  have  done  ad- 
mirable work  and  are   lowering   the   rate.     But  why  bother  with 


CHILD  LIFE  279 

minnows  when  whales  are  right  within  reach?  Twenty  million 
children  are  regularly  attending  the  public  schools  of  this  coun- 
try. At  least  one-fourth  of  that  number,  or  five  million  children, 
eventually  become  mothers.  Why  not  systematize  the  teachings  of  two 
or  three  or  four  fundamentals  of  motherhood  in  the  public  schools 
for  the  girls  between,  say,  eight  or  nine  and  fifteen  or  sixteen  years? 
Why  not  properly  put  before  them  moving  pictures,  manikins,  illus- 
trations, as  you  please,  and  teach  them  the  fundamentals  of  mother- 
hood, and  thereby  insure,  at  least  for  the  next  generation,  proper 
motherhood  for  our  two  and  a  half  million  babies  a  year. 

Discussion. 

Adolescence 

Dr.   E.  G.  Lancaster,  President   Olivet   College.   Olivet,  Michigan. 

There  is  one  thing  that  has  interested  me  particularly — because 
I  am  interested  in  child  study,  both  professional  and  otherwise — 
the  adolescent  period,  as  some  of  you  know.  Something  was 
said  here  about  the  study  of  adolescence.  I  had  a  brief  moment 
with  Doctor  Hoffman  in  regard  to  the  adolescent  suicide.  Much  has 
been  said  here  about  the  care  of  mothers  and  the  habits  of  fathers 
and  the  importance  of  good  breeding  of  children.  But  it  does  not 
make  any  difference  how  w'ell  the  child  is  bred  if  you  are  going  to 
rear  that  child  to  be  fifteen  or  eighteen  years  and  then  let  it  commit 
suicide  because  of  lack  of  sympathy,  because  no  one  understands  it, 
because  the  child  feels  that  it  has  tremendous  power  and  possibilities 
and  yet  no  opportunity  for  self-expression. 

This  has  been  brought  home  to  me  within  the  last  month  in  a 
very  appalling  way.  A  young  woman  of  great  promise,  whom  I  knew 
very  well,  committed  suicide  in  a  neighboring  city  this  vacation. 
I  do  not  know  the  cause,  and  presume  she  gave  none — no  cause  is 
usually  assigned  for  the  adolescent  suicide.  But  as  nearly  as  I  can 
find  out,  it  was  lack  of  appreciation. 

We  have  talked  a  great  deal  about  feeding  and  care  for  babies. 
After  quite  a  little  study  of  the  adolescent  period,  I  am  convinced 
that  the  period  from  twelve  or  thirteen  to  about  twenty  or  twenty- 
one,  or  possibly  later,  is  quite  as  delicate  a  period  for  the  child  to 
pass  through  as  the  first  year  and  a  half  of  its  life.  It  needs  the 
mother's  and  father's  sympathy  more  at  that  time.  Only  about  half 
of  them  are  alive  then,  as  you  know,  of  those  who  are  born,  but 
there  is  far  more  likelihood  at  that  time  that  that  child  will  do 
something  that  will  either  destroy  its  physical  life  or  its  moral  life 


280  FIKS^T    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

or  its  intellectual  life  than  there  is  at  any  other  period  of  its  ex- 
istence. I  know  of  no  more  terrific  arraignment  of  our  present  ig- 
norance and  civilization  than  the  fact  that  we  allow  a  large  number 
of  our  most  promising  boys  and  girls  to  commit  suicide  in  the  ado- 
lescent period  and  in  almost  every  instance,  as  I  have  said,  because 
no  one  understands  them.  They  have  no  friends  to  whom  they  can 
go  and  really  speak  out  their  heart. 


THE  AMERICAN  INSTITUTE  OF  CHILD  LIFE 

Dr.  Miller,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

During  the  Rooseveltian  administration  a  call  came  from  the 
President  for  a  Child  Welfare  Congress  to  be  held  at  Washington, 
D.  C.  Educators,  and  those  interested  in  the  welfare  of  the  child, 
came  from  all  over  the  country  in  response  to  this  call. 

As  the  result  of  that  meeting.  Child  Welfare  has  become  an  es- 
tablished fact.  There  have  been  two  practical  expressions  of  this 
interest.  First,  the  organization  of  the  Children's  Bureau,  under 
the  leadership  of  Mrs.  Julia  C.  Lathrop  in  the  Department  of  Labpr 
in  Washington ;  second,  but  not  as  generally  known  and  recognized, 
The  American  Institute  of  Child  Life. 

The  American  Institute  deals  with  the  normal  child,  almost  ex- 
clusively, and  the  work  is  formative  rather  than  reformative. 

The  purpose  or  end  for  which  the  Institute  is  working  includes 
two  things:  Equipped  Childhood  and  Efficient  Parenthood.  It  is 
the  one  institution  which  exists  "for  the  individual  parent,  for  help 
for  the  time  in  the  home,  drawing  parents  and  children  together. 

The  greatest  asset  of  the  nation  is  the  child,  and  it  is  the 
bounden  duty  of  the  home,  the  school,  and  the  state  to  conserve 
this  asset,  and  make  life  worth  while. 

The  Juvenile  Court  Record  of  July  says:  "When  you  save  a  man 
or  woman,  you  save  a  unit,  but  when  you  save  a  boy  or  a  girl,  you 
save  a  whole  multiplication  table." 

The  American  Institute  of  Child  Life  affiliates  with  over  sixty 
other  organizations  concerned  with  childhood,  from  which  the  In- 
stitute continually  draws  counsel  and  help,  and  with  which  it  is 
working  in  sympathetic  cooperation. 

As  representative  of  the  American  Institute,  I  am  here  with 
you  to  join  hands  in  every  constructive  movement  for  Race  Better- 
ment. 

Edward  J.  Ward,  advisor  of  Civic  and  Social  Center  Develop- 
ments, says,  ' '  The  American  Institute  of  Child  Life  is  the  expression 


CHILD  LIFE  281 

of  a  grand  idea.    It  aims  to  tell  the  future  what  we  expect  of  it." 

One  of  the  leading  problems  of  the  hour  is  the  twentieth-century 
child.  So  much  does  it  occupy  the  thoughts  of  men  that  nine  na- 
tions of  the  world  are  busy  with  the  solution,  and  are  taking  giant 
strides  to  open  ways  and  means  to  produce  "future  good  citizen- 
ship, future  right  relations  between  individuals  and  Nations,  be- 
tween human  entity,  societj^  the  state  and  the  Godhead." 

The  hardest  task  before  us  today  is  parenthood.  We  need  train- 
ing to  study  and  know  our  own  child. 

Plato  said:  "The  best  way  to  train  the  young  is  to  train  yourself 
at  the  same  time." 

The  pertinent  question,  "How  shall  Ave  put  the  results  of  child 
study  into  the  home  in  a  way  that  will  be  helpful  and  practical  to  the 
busy  mother?"  is  being  answered  through  the  work  of  the  Ameri- 
can Institute  of  Child  Life.  A  practical  educator  says  of  it:  "Here 
is  an  educational  institution  which  is  undertaking  in  a  very  definite 
and  practical  manner  to  establish  an  understanding  between  Ameri- 
can parents  and  American  children  which  will  improve  the  stand- 
ard of  the  home,  enrich  its  resources  and  contribute  in  a  large  and 
important  way  to  the  culture,  efficiency  and  moral  status  of  the 
coming  generation." 

No  one  person  can  be  said  to  be  author  of  the  movement,  but 
the  late  Doctor  Canfield,  of  Columbia  University,  Dr.  Melvil 
Dewey,  State  Librarian  of  New  York,  and  other  equally  well-known 
educators,  saw  visions  and  dreamed  dreams  over  this  inspiration 
until  they  finally  interviewed  Mr.  John  D.  Morris,  of  Philadelphia, 
a  practical  educational  worker,  and  asked  him  if  it  were  possible 
to  bring  the  ideas  before  parents  in  a  usable,  common-sense  manner. 
Thomas  R.  Patton,  of  Philadelphia,  a  wealthy  philanthropist,  fur- 
nished the  money  to  make  it  practical.  Doctor  Brumbaugh,  the 
Superintendent  of  the  Philadelphia  public  schools,  says  the  Ameri- 
can Institute  of  Child  Life  is  one  of  the  greatest  and  newest  ideas 
in  home  education. 

It  is  an  endowed  corporation  chartered  under  the  laws  of  the 
state  of  Pennsylvania  as  an  educational  institution,  without  profit, 
to  interpret  the  best  that  is  known  about  children  to  those  who 
love  and  care  for  them,  and  to  give  children  and  young  people  an 
appreciation  of  the  best  things  in  life,  and  to  equip  them  with  just 
the  right  material  for  their  individual  needs. 

The  scope  of  the  plant  is  such  that  it  is  believed  the  Institute 
will  mean  as  much  to  the  individual  parenthood  of  Americans  as 
the  Children's  Bureau  at  Washington  hopes  to  be  to  the  collective 
parenthood.     The   Institute   will   not   attempt  the   social   interests 


282  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

of  the  Bureau.     The  Bureau   cannot   undertake   the   personal   en- 
deavors of  the  Institute. 

The  American  Institute  of  Child  Life  approaches  the  work  of  a 
university.  A  competent  board  of  trustees  holds  the  funds.  Its 
work  is  directed  by  an  Administrative  Board  of  sixteen  organized 
scholars,  among  whom  are  President  G.  Stanley  Hall,  Judge  Ben 
B.  Lindsey,  Mary  E.  Woolley.  Joseph  Swain,  Ex-President  David 
Starr  Jordan,  and  Martin  G.  Brumbaugh. 


SEX  QUESTIONS 

PUBLIC   REPRESSION   OF   THE   SOCIAL   EVIL 

Graham    Taylor,   President    Chicago    School    of   Civics   and    Philanthropy, 
Chicago,  Illinois. 

Under  the  conspiracy  of  silence  and  secrecy  there  has  come  to  pre- 
vail a  system  of  commercialized,  segregated,  police-protected  vice,  the 
results  of  which  so  deteriorate  and  demoralize  the  very  stock  of  the 
race  that  there  is  little  use  of  thinking  of  race  betterment  without  at 
least  reckoning  with  these  sinister  and  everywhere  present  evils,  the 
elimination  of  which  must  be  a  primary  condition  for  any  formative, 
constructive  policy  for  race  betterment.  The  magnitude  of  this  system 
is  little  imagined.  It  is  only  guessed  at.  Its  proportions  are  estimated 
by  wild  guesses  of  numbers.  They  can  be  measured  to  a  degree  by 
the  areas  in  towns  and  cities  deliberately  given  over  to  it.  Here  and 
there,  now  and  then,  we  have  a  chance  to  estimate  the  magnitude  of 
this  evil  by  the  diseases  which  come  directly  from  it  in  our  hospitals, 
under  our  child  welfare  and  public  saving  efforts,  schools  for  the  blind, 
institutions  for  the  feeble-minded,  in  the  infirmaries  for  the  insane,  and 
by  the  victims  of  vice  whose  gruesome,  never-ending  procession  files 
through  our  police  stations  and  courts.  We  have  some  chance  to  esti- 
mate the  financial  investment  in  this  commercialized  vice  by  the  forms 
of  those  investments,  the  profits  that  are  made,  the  blackmail  that  is 
levied,  the  bribery  of  public  officials — all  counting  up  into  the  millions 
in  our  large  cities.  The  clandestine  type  of  this  evil  can  never  be  esti- 
mated and  possibly  can  never  be  directly  dealt  with.  More  and  more 
nowadays  a  larger  and  larger  number  of  men  and  women  who  have 
looked  to  see  and  know,  have  made  up  their  minds  that  commercialized, 
police-protected,  segregated  vice  can  and  must  be  suppressed. 

The  Mayor  of  Chicago,  by  the  authority  of  the  City  Council,  ap- 
pointed thirty  citizens  to  inquire  into  the  conditions  of  vice  in  Chicago 
and  to  report  to  the  City  Council  recommendations  as  to  public  policy. 
At  the  head  of  that  committee  was  Dean  Sumner,  at  whose  suggestion 
the  appointment  was  made,  backed  up  by  resolutions  of  the  United 
Ministers'  Meeting  of  the  city.  The  commission  was  very  representa- 
tive. It  had  upon  it  .judges  and  lawyers  and  doctors  and  business  men, 
men  of  affairs,  public  officials  and  teachers  and  social  workers,  clergy- 
men and  two  women.  They  worked  for  nearly  two  years  as  an  official 
body.  I  shall  not  try  to  tell  you  of  its  statistics,  but  I  will  of  its 
methods. 


28-1  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

None  of  us  knew  how  the  others  thought  of  it.  If  we  had  any 
theories,  we  kept  them  to  ourselves.  We  were  an  investigating,  not  a 
prosecuting  body.  We  had  our  sub-committees,  one  on  the  relation  of 
the  liquor  traffic  to  the  social  evil,  another  on  the  sources  of  supply  of 
\'ictims  of  the  vice,  another  on  the  relation  of  amusements  to  the  social 
evil,  and  so  on.  Each  sub-committee  prosecuted  its  own  inquiry,  of 
course,  under  the  direction  of  the  central  organization  and  the  chief 
investigator.  Investigations  were  made  fearlessly  and  absolutely  with- 
out regard  to  consequences.  Official  investigators  were  employed. 
Th«y  were  carefully  and  conscientiously  checked  up  by  investigators  of 
a  different  class.  When  the  evidence  was  gotten  in,  it  was  laid  before 
the  sub-committee  in  typewritten  form  with  affidavits,  and  sometimes 
supplemented  by  personal  interviews  with  the  victims  with  whose 
careers  or  destinies  the  facts  dealt.  These  sub-committee  reports  were 
turned  in  to  the  main  committee.  Every  word  of  every  sub-commit- 
tee's report  was  heard  by  the  main  committee  and  then  given  back  to 
the  executive  committee  and — only  after  the  most  careful  correlation, 
challenge,  checking  up,  and  verification — was  published.  I  do  not 
believe  up  to  that  time  in  the  history  of  the  world  any  such  frank, 
fearless  report  of  the  grim  and  terrible  facts  was  ever  dug  up  out  of 
the  common  earth  and  held  up  in  the  light  of  the  common  day  where 
everybody  could  see  it  and  where  a  large  proportion  of  the  citizens  of 
Chicago  had  to  see  it.  At  last  we  had  a  body  of  authenti- 
cated, verified,  authoritative  facts  that  no  one,  not  even  the  police, 
could  gainsay.  Then  we  published  those  facts  in  that  awful  volume, 
concealing  nothing  except  the  names  and  the  means  of  identification  of 
the  people  we  referred  to.  Those  i-eferences  remained  in  cipher  and 
that  cipher  was  locked  up  and  placed  in  a  safety  deposit  vault  in  the 
custody  of  two  of  our  members,  and  has  not  been  and  will  not  be  sur- 
rendered even  at  the  demand  of  the  City  Council  of  the  city  of 
Chicago.  If  we  surrendered  it,  we  would  make  the  most  atrocious 
breach  of  confidence.  W^e  gave  our  word  that  much  of  this  informa- 
tion was  confidential.  There  was  in  it,  moreover,  the  basis  for  black- 
mail that  would  last  a  quarter  of  a  century.  The  report  must  stand 
for  what  it  was  intended  to  be — an  investigation  of  conditions. 

Now,  how  to  discover  and  deal  with  the  sources  of  the  supply  of  this 
system,  and  what  hopes  there  are  of  suppressing  by  public  means,  sup- 
plemented by  private  effort,  the  commercialism  and  the  semi-public 
recognition  of  this  infamy,  is  of  direct  concern  to  every  one  of  us,  I 
am  thankful  to  say  that  for  all  the  toils  and  risk  and  perils  and  hell  on 
earth  through  which  we  passed,  we  have  this  to  show,  that  across  the 
continent  to  the  westward  slope  and  to  the  Atlantic  coast,  the  high 
note  struck  by  this  commission  has  found  echo  in  city  after  city,  In 


SEX  QUESTIONS  '  285 

town  after  town,  in  village  after  village,  which  has  started  upon  the 
eradication  of  the  local  phases  of  the  same  persistent,  prevalent  evils — 
present  everywhere  and  absent  scarcely  anywhere. 

This  was  the  note  that  startled  the  land :  ' '  Constant  and  persistent 
repression  of  prostitution,  absolute  annihilation  the  ultimate  ideal." 
Now,  it  was  almost  a  psychological  miracle  that  brought  that  setitenee 
abroad.  I  presume  that  there  were  very  many  of  those  thirty  com- 
missioners who  really  believed  that  some  form  of  prostitution  was  an 
absolute  necessity.  I  am  very  sure  that  some  of  the  commissioners  be- 
lieved that  the  segregation  of  so  much  of  that  social  evil  as  could  be 
segregated  and  placed  under  police  surveillance  was  the  least  of  two 
evils.  But  the  facts  from  Chicago  and  fifty  other  American  cities  and 
from  abroad,  the  facts  from  tlie  cities  where  it  was  licensed,  where  the 
city  became  a  partner  in  the  infamous  traffic,  the  facts  from  the 
armies  and  the  navies,  the  facts  from  police  records  despite  police 
opinion,  were  simply  overwhelming,  and  drove  us  together  and  brought 
us  out  a  psychological  and  moral  and  spiritual  unit.  And  not  a  man 
or  woman  of  us  has  gone  back  on  that  declaration.  To  this  day,  there 
is  scarcely  a  chief  of  police  or  a  to\\Ti  marshal  who  would- not  stand  up 
in  this  presence  and  say,  ' '  That  is  a  false  conclusion. ' '  I  will,  however, 
deal  with  the  police  phase  of  it  a  little  later.  I  wish  first  briefly  to 
spfeak  of  the  occasions  rather  than  the  causes,  the  occasions  which  ac- 
count for  the  victims  of  this  evil.  There  were  over  twenty-four  hun- 
dred life  stories  studied  by  one  of  the  sub-committees  of  this  commis- 
sion. These  stories  were  gotten  from  the  girls  and  women  themselves 
or  from  the  records  which  they  had  left  in  public  tribunals  and  institu- 
tions. It  was  a  wonderful  panorama,  tragic,  pathetic,  heart-breaking, 
thought-begetting.  The  most  of  them  were  so  young,  they  seemed 
so  much  more  victimized  than  guilty.  A  woman  of  twenty-nine 
came  before  us,  angry  at  having  been  ejected  from  the  house  which 
she  managed.  ' '  When  did  you  enter  this  vice  life  ? ' '  With  a  far  away 
look  the  poor  thing  said,  ' '  It  was  when  I  was  very  young,  sir.  It  was 
the  summer  after  I  made  my  first  communion. ' '  I  shall  never  forget 
that  answer.  "How  did  you  come  to  do  it?"  "What  was  your  first 
experience?"  "Well,  you  know%  sir,  I  married."  "What  had  that  to 
do  with  it?"  "When  my  husband  married  me,  he  put  me  in  a  resort 
and  I  worked  for  him  so  many  years,  and  then  I  worked  for  so  and  so, 
so  many  years,  and  then  I  worked  for  myself.  We  w^omen  have  to 
bear  all  the  risk  of  disease  and  suffering,  and  give  the  profits  to  the 
men.  The  police  have  driven  me  out  of  one  street  and  forced  me  into 
another,  out  of  a  house  that  I  can  rent  on  my  own  terms,  into  a  house 
that  I  have  to  rent  on  a  vice  king's  terms.  Is  that  a  manly  thing  to 
do  ? "  she  asked,  and  then  she  told  us  nameless  things  of  the  indignities. 


286  FlUST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

the  .iti'Ot'itios.  the  inispeakable  desecration  of  uU  the  sanetities  of  life. 

Now  she  is  only  one  of  very  many.  Most  of  these  girls  fell  before 
they  knew  what  it  was  to  stand.  Because  of  that  term  "white  slave" 
there  is  a  eurrent  belief  that  a  great  many  of  them  are  absolutely 
eoereed  by  physical  force.  A  comparatively  small  proportion  are  :so 
eoereed.  as  far  as  we  eould  find,  and  yet,  those  that  were,  made  you 
blush  for  your  civilization.  This  was  the  story  of  the  United  States 
District  Attorney  of  the  district  centering  in  Chicago : 

A  little  Italian  girl  was  brought  up  before  the  United  States  Court, 
as  having  been  imported  for  immoral  purposes.  The  District  Attorney 
said  that  she  had  the  most  frightfully  disfigured  face  he  ever  saw, 
though  there  were  traces  of  original  beauty  in  the  little  thing.  That 
child  told  this  man,  representing  the  Federal  Government,  this  story : 
She  was  playing  in  the  streets  of  her  native  village  in  Italy  when  a 
well-dressed  American  woman,  who  spoke  Italian,  came  through  and 
said, ' '  "What  a  pretty  little  girl  you  are.  Wouldn  't  you  like  to  come  to 
America  and  be  my  daughter?"  And  the  child  said,  "You  will  have 
to  ask  mamma."  And  she  went  and  saw  this  poor  peasant  mother  and 
offered  to  educate  the  child.  She  sent  the  mother  one  hundred  dollars, 
and  the  child  was  given  her  little  bundle  of  belongings  and  put  on  the 
great  steamship,  and  on  arrival  was  seized  and  outraged  in  New  York, 
put  into  a  resort,  shipped  and  sold  to  Chicago,  charged  eight  hundred 
dollars  for  the  toggery-finery  with  which  they  decked  her  when  they 
stole  her  clothes  away  from  her  so  that  she  could  not  be  seen  on  the 
street.  Then,  when  she  had  supposed  she  had  earned  that,  charged  her 
four  hundred  dollars  more  for  something  else.  Then  her  Italian  blood 
arose,  and  she  made  a  dash  for  her  liberty.  There  stood  a  cruel,  in- 
fernal scoundrel  with  a  razor,  and  he  just  slashed  her  face  as  she  went 
out  of  the  door.  Of  course,  the  District  Attorney  took  possession,  of  the 
child,  tried  to  find  out  where  her  home  was  in  Italy,  tried  to  return  her 
to  her  family.  That  is  the  kind  of  traffic  that  has  been  given  the  name 
of  the  White  Slave  Traffic.  But  it  includes  the  least  pro- 
portion of  the  victims  that  have  thus  been  caught  like  wild  animals  by 
people  that  go  out  gunning  for  them. 

But  then,  there  are  conditions  of  life  and  labor  that  are  almost  as 
powerful.  Don 't  go  on  saying  that  little  people  subjected  to  these  con- 
straining conditions  are  wilfully  wicked,  "ruined."  God  forgive  us 
for  saying  that  awful  word,  "ruined."  Why  don't  we  say  it  against 
the  men  ?  We  counted  fifteen  men  for  every  tw^enty-four  hours,  with 
every  inmate.  Talk  about  your  fallen  girl.  There  are  fifteen  of  your 
brothers  and  husbands  and  fathers,  to  every  one  of  those,  and  equally 
ruined.  They  may  be  dangerous  purveyors  of  disease,  of  demoraliza- 
tion, just  because  of  the  double  standard.     Children  really  have  been 


SEX   QUESTIONS  -^  ( 

literally  stolen  from  their  homes  by  offers  of  employment  or  by  the 
temptation  to  deck  themselves  a  little  more  gaily !  Hair  ribbons  and  a 
new  hat,  a  pair  of  shoes,  is  an  offer  that  the  child  takes  without  know- 
ing where  it  is  going  to  lead  to  at  all.  There  was  an  awful  case,  not 
long  ago,  where  a  man  of  forty  years  of  age  had  for  ten  years,  per- 
sistently and  by  every  diabolical  device  that  you  could  imagine,  tried  to 
debauch  two  as  dear  little  children  as  you  ever  laid  your  eyes  on.  A 
lawyer  turned  to  me  and  said,  after  the  infamy  of  this  wretch  had  been 
testified  to  by  these  little  girls,  "How  strange  it  is,"  said  this  man, 
"that  girls  that  are  so  pretty  and  so  bright  should  be  so  depraved." 
"Depraved,"  I  said,  "they  are  not  depraved.  The  man  is  the  de- 
praved wretch  and  he  stands  acquitted  by  a  jury  of  men." 

Now  these  constraints  are  impossible  to  define.  They  are  subjective, 
but  they  are  subtle  and  strong.  It  would  take  a  stronger  will  than  maybe 
your  daughter  has  or  a  greater  experience  than  she  ought  to  have 
had  to  extricate  herself  from  the  network  that  is  insidiously  and  by 
prolonged  efi'ort  woven  around  the  victim.  There  are  groups  of  men 
called  "cadets"  who  do  nothing  but  betray  and  marry  young  girls  and 
deliver  them  to  houses  of  ill  fame.  One  of  those  scoundrels  wdll  have 
twelve  girls  and  go  round  regularly  and  collect  their  blood  money. 
They  are  known  to  the  police,  they  are  known  to  the  keepers  of  these 
places,  and  some  are  officially  recognized.  That  awful  durance  vile 
has  been  tolerated  under  this  conspiracy  of  secrecy  and  of  silence,  and 
without  warning  the  unwary  of  the  dangers  into  which  they  are  going.  _ 

Now,  beyond  that,  there  is  the  love  of  innocent  pleasure.  There 
are  also  the  economic  pressures,  since  low  wages  have  considerable 
to  do,  not  only  directly  but  indirectly,  wdth  opening  the  life  to  tempta- 
tion— if  not  directly  because  of  economic  want  upon  the  part  of  the 
victim,  then  because  of  the  overcrowding  in  tenement  houses,  or  per- 
haps because  of  the  lack  of  a  due  amount  of  innocent  pleasure. 

In  addition  to  all  else  there  lies  underneath  the  mysterious  fact  of 
the  unnecessarily  strong  passion  upon  the  part  of  the  male  which  is 
like  the  surge  of  the  sea,  always  everywhere,  like  the  awful  atmos- 
pheric pressure.  There  is  an  artificial  stimulation,  by  the  allowance 
of  these  segregated  districts  and  by  the  connivance  of  the  police.  In 
those  bad  old  days  when  the  international  trade  first  was  attacked  in 
Chicago,  Federal  Secret  Service  men  were  needed  to  prevent  the  police 
from  "tipping"  off  the  cases  of  the  United  States  District  Attorney. 
"When  he  got  his  own  detective  from  Washington  he  routed  those  gangs 
and  had  men  jumping  twenty-five-thousand-dollar  bails  in  four  weeks' 
time.  He  cleaned  out  the  whole  mess  almost  as  by  magic,  demon- 
strating the  fact  that  with  an  honest  police  force,  the  commercialized, 
segregated  vice  could  not  exist. 


288  KIKST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

Tlu'ii  we  have  ^'ot  to  hinnani/.e  our  eourts,  and  we  will  liavc  to  have 
women  jurors,  and  we  will  have  to  do  what  Judge  Piekney  of  the 
Juvenile  Court  has  done — see  to  it  that  a  woman  assistant  judge  hears 
the  eases  of  delinquent  girls  in  chambers  with  no  one  present  except  the 
children's  parents  and  the  witnesses.  "We  will  have  to  enlist  all  the 
agencies  that  lie  back  of  the  family  life.  The  investment  of  twelve 
millions  of  dollars  in  the  public  playgrounds  and  field  houses  and 
recreation  centers  of  Chicago  is  the  best  investment  of  public  money 
that  I  have  ever  seen  anywhere.  Thousands  and  thousands  of  young 
people  are  innocently  amusing  themselves,  and  making  amusement  and 
pleasure  a  source  of  education.  The  great  segregated  districts  were 
broken  up  by  one  determined  effort  of  the  State's  Attorney.  The 
houses  were  closed  and  darkened  and  silenced.  Now  and  then,  here 
and  there,  one  opened  up. 

I  say  that  the  guilt  for  the  consequences  of  disease  and  deaths  and 
demoralization  and  temptation  and  advertising  and  of  flagrancy  of 
these  nameless  and  shameless  groups  of  evil,  lies  with  the  people  who 
persist  in  the  declaration  that  there  must  be  silence  and  secrecy  about 
it.  One  of  the  recommendations  of  the  vice  commission  was  not  only 
better  police,  not  only  stronger  spiritual  forces,  but  a  safe,  sane  train- 
ing in  sex  hygiene.  It  was  begun  with  the  parents  and  it  was  con- 
tinued last  year  by  authority  of  the  Board  of  Education  with  about 
tw^enty-one  thousand  high  school  pupils,  by  forty  carefully  selected 
.physicians  in  very  carefully  supervised  and  censored  lectures,  under 
the  masterful  and  sane  and  visioned  leadership  of  Ella  Flagg  Young. 
She  is  holding  still  the  fort.  I  hail  Chicago,  the  first  great  city 
to  have  taken  such  a  strong,  aggressive,  affirmative,  formative,  con- 
structive policy  toward  one  of  the  greatest  shames  and  most  unspeak- 
able and  unnecessary  evils  of  civilization — segregated,  commercialized, 
police-protected  vice,  w^hich  should  be  immediately  repressed  and  ulti- 
mately annihilated,  as  it  can  be,  if  you  and  I  will  stand  up  to  the  job. 

Discussion. 

Scattering  Prostitution 

Dr.  S.  Adolphus  Kxopf,  New  York,  N.  Y. 
I  should  like  to  ask  one  question  of  our  distinguished  guest,  Doctor 
Taylor.  Will  he  kindly  tell  us  what  has  become  of  all  the  women  who 
have  been  driven  out  of  these  houses?  I  am  in  greatest  sjinpathy 
-^-ith  his  work.  I  don 't  believe  anyone  has  ever  done  any  better  work  in 
behalf  of  social  w^elfare,  and  of  redeeming  the  unfortunate.  But  there 
are  thousands  and  thousands  of  our  unfortunate  sisters — sometimes 
called  fallen  because  we  men  caused  them  to  fall — for  whom  I  believe 
something  should  be  done  along  the  line  of  race  betterment.    We  are 


SEX   QUESTIONS  289 

doing  some  very  modest  work  in  New  York  compared  with  that  done 
in  Chicago,  but  we  have  done  something.  I  should  very  much  like  to 
know  of  Doctor  Taylor  whether  there  is  something  similar  done  in 
Chicago,  or  of  anyone  here  who  can  tell  me  of  anything  similar  being 
done  in  other  cities.  We  have  established  a  house.  "We  do  not  call  it 
a  Magdalene  Home,  but  simpty  "Waverly  House,"  located  at  11th 
Street,  in  New  York,  near  the  Night  Court.  There,  any  poor  girl, 
tired  of  that  life,  w^ho  wishes  to  leave  it,  is  received  with  open  arms, 
given  instruction,  taught  some  kind  of  trade  and,  if  possible,  returned 
to  her  family  or  given  an  opportunity  of  earning  an  honest  living. 
Some  girls  are  sent  there  who  have  committed  an  offense  for  the  first 
time,  sent  there  by  the  judge  and  a  probation  officer.  A  noble-minded 
woman,  Miss  Miner,  is  at  the  head  of  it.  I  do  believe  we  can  do  a 
great  deal  for  them,  and  I  want  to  repeat  here,  we  have  done  some- 
thing. We  have  thirty -three  per  cent  of  cures,  and  that  is  a  good  per 
cent,  I  believe.  Thirty-three  per  cent  of  those  unfortunate  women 
have  been  returned  to  their  homes,  have  been  returned  to  society  as 
useful  and  noble  women.  We  have  also  looked  after  their  physical 
welfare  and  have  tried  to  make  them  healthy  as  future  mothers,  for 
they  are  entitled  to  the  same  privileges  that  we  are. 

Discussio7i. 

Vice  and  Mental  Defect 
Graham  Taylor. 

About  thirty-three  per  cent  of  the  women  studied  by  the  vice  com- 
mission were  found  to  be  feeble-minded  through  retarded  develop- 
ment.   That  ought  to  be  taken  into  account  from  the  start. 

When  a  drastic  sudden  raid  was  made,  which  none  of  the  social 
workers  or  the  vice  commission  had  anything  to  do  with,  I  had  circu- 
lated a  notice  all  up  and  down  the  red  light  district  that  a  hotel  had 
been  procured  and  that  any  person  ejected  from  a  disorderly  resort 
would  be  taken  into  that  hotel.  Not  one  single  applicant  applied  for 
shelter,  not  one,  and  I  suppose  there  were  600  thrown  out  without  any 
notice  at  all  that  night.  Every  one  of  them  was  taken  care  of  by  her 
manager. 

We  have  houses,  but  not  quite  up  to  the  standard  of  the 
"Waverly  House,"  which  Miss  Miner  presides  over.  There  are 
very  few  Miss  Maude  Miners.  I  think  those  women,  especially 
those  who  have  any  indication  of  retarded  development,  should  l)e 
taken  possession  of,  just  as  the  feeble-minded  girl  is,  and  should  be 
segregated  and  kept  under  the  protection  of  the  state  until  fit,  if  ever, 
to  be  at  large.  There  is  nothing  short  of  that  kind  of  long-distance 
championship  that  will  ever  win  out. 

(11) 


290  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERKNCK    ON    RACK    BKTTKRM  KNT 

Discu.^sion. 

Race  Degenerates 

Dr.  Ja^iks  T.  Searcy^  Tuscaloosa,  Alabaitia. 

I  started  to  rise  a  minute  ago  when  the  statemerit  was  nia(h'  that  a 
large  number  of  the  women  who  occupy  houses  of  ill  fame  are  imbeciles 
or  weak  minded.  That  is  a  fact,  and  the  commercialized  part  of  the 
business  largely  deals  with  that  kind.  They  can  be  coiinnercializcd. 
bought  and  purchased  and  shipped. 

Two  elements  enter  into  immorality,  as  I  find  it  in  my  institution, 
as  I  have  observed  it.  One  element  is  the  inability  to  hold  to  the  right 
and  avoid  doing  wrong,  inherent  in  the  person,  a  sort  of  imbecility,  if 
temptation  and  opportunity  offer.  The  other  element  is  a  perverted 
morality,  which  delights  in  doing  wrong.  These  are  two  extremes,  in 
the  cpiestion  of  immorality,  illustrated  in  police  courts  all  over  the 
country.  They  are  race  degenerates  who  come  into  the  police  courts 
continually.  Any  mental  discipline,  any  instruction,  any  effort  put 
upon  them,  and  they  come  back. 

Discussion. 

"Waverly  House" 
Dr.    S.    Adolphus   Knopf. 

I  have  been  watching  throughout  this  Conference  to  hear  just  one 
word  said  by  the  women  about  a  large  number  of  your  sisters.  I  refer 
to  the  thousands  and  thousands  and  thousands  of  poor  girls  who  have 
been  led  astray  and  who  are  now  what  is  wrongly  called  "fallen." 
If  anybody  caused  them  to  fall  I  presume  it  was  a  man.  Now,  Mr. 
Chairman,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  want  to  ask  you  whether  they  ought 
not  to  be  included  in  race  betterment.  I  want  to  ask  the  women  here 
today,  to  do  as  we  have  done  in  New  York,  to  open  a  house  and  to  call 
it  anything  but  a  Magdalene  Home,  and  to  try  to  get  into  it  those  un- 
fortunate sisters  who  are  willing  to  leave  that  life  voluntarily,  who  are 
tired  of  it,  and  give  them  another  chance. 

Now  I  want  to  tell  you  of  our  statistics  and  show  you  what  can  be 
done  if  you  women  and  we  men  hold  out  a  helping  hand  to  those  poor 
sisters  of  ours.  We  have  thirty-three  per  cent  of  cures.  That  means 
out  of  100  women  who  voluntarily  came  to  us,  or  who  were  sent  to  us 
by  the  judge  of  the  Night  Court,  to  give  them  a  trial,  we  have  thirty- 
three  per  cent  of  cures.  We  watch  them  for  a  year  or  two  after  they 
have  returned  to  their  homes.  Many  of  them  have  become  mothers  and 
I  hope  good  mothers.  As  our  little  movement,  which  we  call  the 
"Waverly  House,"  has  also  added  a  little  bit  to  the  betterment  of  the 
race,  I  ask  that  you  going  out,  going  home,  will  try  to  start  such  a 
movement  and  give  your  sisters  another  chance  to  be  mothers  also  and 
thus  help  in  the  betterment  of  the  race. 


SEX  QUESTIONS  291 


Discussion. 


The  Florence  Crittenton  Mission 

Dr.  Charles  G.  Pease,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

If  you  are  not  able  to  start  that  work  of  salvation  at  home,  a 
rescue  home  for  women,  then  you  can  assist  the  Florence  Crittenton 
Mission.  They  have  eighty  homes  for  girls  in  this  coimtry.  You 
can  assist  them  and  they  need  your  assistance.  I  am  identified  closely 
with  both  those  organizations  in  New  York  City  and  about  80  per  cent 
stand  true.  They  have  a  league  that  i\\ey  join  afterward.  It  is  a 
wonderful  work  and  it  needs  more  support. 

Discussion. 

Prostitution  and  the  Cigarette 

Miss  Lucy  Page  Gaston,  Chicag-o,  Illinois. 

I  want  to  give  you  one  incident  of  my  experience.  A  call  came  to 
the  Woman's  Temple  the  other  day  pleading  for  rescue.  It  gave  the 
number,  34  Custom  House  Place.  This  was  before  the  red  light  dis- 
trict was  moved  down  to  the  22d  Street  district.  I  called  up  the  Chief 
of  Police.  He  Sent  two  of  his  trusties  down  to  that  place  and  within 
an  hour  that  girl,  bag  and  baggage,  was  at  our  Anti-Cigarette  head- 
quarters. A  man  had  told  her,  when  he  found  her  crying  on  the  stairs, 
that  there  were  women  at  the  Woman 's  Temple  who  would  help  her  if 
she  would  only  make  the  appeal.  They  gave  that  poor,  persecuted 
child  my  name.  She  told  me  her  story.  It  is  the  story  of  thousands 
of  girls  who  are  going  wrong.  She  was  not  an  immoral  girl.  She  was 
simply  a  silly,  foolish  girl.  Here  in  a  little  city  of  Michigan  she 
entered  upon  a  flirtation  with  a  traveling  man.  That  man  was  a  pro- 
curer from  Chicago.  She  was  a  seamstress.  He  offered  to  pay  her  as 
much  per  week  for  se\Wng  in  his  own  home  as  she  was  maldng  and 
offered  to  give  her  board.  She  very  naturally  accepted  the  offer.  She 
found  herself  a  prisoner  with  her  clothing  hidden  and  unable  to  make 
her  escape. 

I  know  hundreds  of  those  girls.  They  have  told  me  stories  that 
have  stirred  my  very  blood.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  people  in  all  these 
little  villages  and  country  places  ought  to  be  warned  of  this  sort  of 
thing.  I  tell  you,  before  High  God,  that  the  churches  and  the  good 
people  are  to  blame  because  there  are  not  organizations  that  will  take  in 
hand  every  boy  and  girl  and  pledge  them  to  total  abstinence. 

Doctor  Taylor  will  bear  me  out,  that  it  is  not  the  girl  who  is  a 
temperate  girl,  who  never  touches  beer  or  liquor  or  cigarettes,  it  is  not 
that  kind  of  girl  who  goes  wrong,  but  the  girl  that  has  loose  notions 
upon  these  lines. 


292  FlUST    NATlOXAh    CONKKKKNCK    ON    RACK    HKTTKKMKNT 

Oil.  tViciuls.  W(*  outi'lit  to  do  more  in  the  Wiiy  of  pt'cvciilioii.  It  stirs 
my  lu'arl  wIumi  ^-ootf  Doctor  Knopf  gets  ui)  to  appeal  for  tiiese  girls 
who  liaxc  gone  wrong.  Here  we  are,  seeing  them  going  the  route  tli-it 
has  led  to  ruin,  and  we  are  doing  so  very  little.  In  a  dance  hall  last 
winter  in  the  city  of  Chicago  I  saw  the  boys  and  girls  there,  not  one  of 
them  21  years  of  age.  The  boys  were  drinking,  not  beer,  but  whiskey, 
and  smoking  cigarettes.  Those  young  people  were  on  the  road  to  ruin, 
if  they  were  not  already  ruined,  and  they  were  school  children. 

I  tell  you  the  conditions  today  in  our  high  schools,  yes,  and  in  our 
grade  schools,  call  for  a  much  greater  amount  of  attention  than  we  are 
having.  You  have  got  to  have  heart  interest  as  well  as  head  knowledge. 
I  do  not  know  that  I  Dught  to  say  this  here,  but  I  feel  it  to  the  depth 
of  my  being — who  today  knows  more  of  the  effects  of  drugs,  of  cigar- 
ettes, of  drink,  than  do  the  doctors,  and  yet  in  every  community  Ave 
have  doctors  who  are  not  above  suspicion  on  these  things. 

DiscnssioH. 

The  Girl  Who  Goes  Right 
Dr.  Luther  H.  Gulick,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

I  had  hoped  in  telling  you  of  the  Camp  Fire  Cirls  that  I  had 
aroused  some  interest  in  the  girl  who  is  going  right,  but  nobody 
seems  to  have  followed  my  cue.  So  I  want  to  follow  my  owti  trail 
for  a  moment  more  and  make  about  six  definite  suggestions.  The  rank 
of  a  Fire  Maker  is  the  first  real  rank  a  girl  makes.  We  try  to  be  pretty 
careful  not  to  run  foul  of  prejudices,  hence  we  do  not  use  the  word  sex 
hygiene  or  sex  instruction  nor  anything  of  the  kind.  But  to  become 
a  Fire  ^laker  one  of  the  requirements  is  that  the  candidate  must  know 
what  a  girl  of  her  age  ought  to  know^  about  herself.  That  is  enough 
for  the  guardian  and  for  the  mother  and  for  the  teacher. 

I  should  like  to  ask  you  to  ask  yourselves  these  questions,  filling  in 
the  name  of  your  ow^n  city.  I  will  put  in  Battle  Creek  because  that  is 
where  we  li-ve  for  the  present  moment.  AVhat  chance  is  there  for  a 
girl  to  go  right?  I  do  not  know  the  answers;  there  may  be  good 
answers  to  all  of  these — what  chance  is  there  for  boys  and  girls  to  go 
swdmming  in  Battle  Creek  under  good  conditions?  That  is  a  right 
of  childhood.  Life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness — I  have 
heard  those  w^ords  somewhere ! 

Second,  What  provision  do  you  make  in  Battle  Creek  whereby 
groups  of  girls.  Camp  Fire  girls  or  others,  or  groups  of  boys,  or  groups 
of  boys  and  girls  together  wdth  guardian  or  chaperon  or  whatever 
you  choose  to  call  them,  can  go  off  for  a  tramp  of  five  miles  and  find 
a  good  place  to  make  a  fire  and  a  place  to  bake  some  potatoes  and  have 
a  good  time  together  and  come  back  home  again,  normal,  good  kinds 


SEX   QUESTIONS  293 

of  things  ?  Is  there  anybody  in  Battle  Creek  who  will  furnish  that  kind 
of  an  opportunity  to  be  right  outdoors? 

Third.  Do  you  laiow  that  the  love  of  Nature,  I'm  not  now  re- 
ferring to  knowledge  about  Nature,  to  scientific  knowledge,  I  am  re- 
ferring to  just  plain  liking  flowers  and  the  stars,  and  the  birds  and 
the  bees — this  love  of  Nature  is  established  before  ten?  Very  few 
people  establish  it  later.  What  chance  do  you  people  in  Battle 
Creek  give  to  the  children  under  ten  to  come  in  contact  with  real 
Nature  at  first  hand  with  somebody  that  loves  and  understands  it? 
I  do  not  mean  a  pot  in  school  or  a  window  garden.  I  mean  plain 
outdoors.  I  understand  you  have  some  outdoors  near  here.  What 
chance  is  there  for  your  children  under  ten  to  get  it  down  into 
their  souls  so  they  will  have  it  as  a  precious  possession  all  the 
rest  of  their  lives?  What  chance  is  there  for  yotir  boys  and  girls  to 
spend  a  week  or  a  month  out  camping  under  proper  conditions  (where 
you  will  know  there  won't  be  tramps  or  any  other  improper  people 
coming  around)  within  a  radius,  a  tramping  radius,  of  Battle  Creek, 
where  it  is  beautiful,  where  they  can  swim,  where  they  can  build  a 
fire  and  where  they  can  do  the  things  that  every  human  being  ought 
to  do  in  their  teens?  If  there  is  not  such  an  opportunity,  get  up  a 
committee  and  get  such  a  place  and  administer  it  and  see  that  Boy 
Scouts,  Camp  Fire  Girls,  or  any  young  people  at  proper  times  get 
the  chance  to  establish  this  neuro-nuiscular  habit  of  wholesomeness. 

[Voices,  "Good!"] 

When  young  people  want  to  have  birthday  parties,  can  you  get 
the  use  of  a  room  in  a  school  building  for  that  purpose  ?  If  not,  why 
not  ?  These  buildings  belong  to  the  taxpayers.  They  ought  to  pay  for  the 
extra  expense  for  light,  janitor  service  and  the  like,  but  there  is  no 
reason  why  the  schools  should  not  be  used  by  the  citizens  for  their 
social  purposes.  People  say  sometimes  that  it  is  undemocratic  to  give 
the  use  of  the  school  room  to  one  group  and  not  let  everybody  come  in. 
That  is  a  false  notion  of  democracy.  Let  me  illustrate.  There  is  room 
for  40  baseball  games  going  on  at  one  time  at  the  playground  in 
Prospect  Park  in  Brooklyn.  Now  by  application  your  baseball  team 
can  have  the  use  of  one  ground  at  2.00  on  Saturday  and  you  are  pro- 
tected in  that  right  and  it  is  not  called  undemocratic.  If  you  allowed 
everybody  to  use  that  ground  all  of  the  time  the  result  would  be  there 
would  not  be  any  baseball  at  all.  Now,  social  life  cannot  be  carried  on 
without  the  recognition  of  the  fact  that  clean  life  and  social  grouping 
has  got  to  be  recognized.  W^hen  my  daughter  has  a  birthday  and  I 
want  to  surprise  her  and  get  her  and  her  friends  and  their  friends  and 
form  a  party,  it  is  not  probable  that  I  have  got  a  room  big  enough  in 
my  house  for  it.    It  will  be  better  for  the  entire  community  if  I  can  be 


2*14  KIKST    NATIONAl;    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

allowed  to  use  a  school  room  for  that  purpose  and  it  will  be  better  for 
the  school. 

Are  there  men  and  women  in  Battle  Creek  who  love  boys  and  girls 
enough  to  give  their  time  to  go  with  them  ?  I  do  not  mean  as  a  duty. 
Young  people  hate  to  have  other  people  do  their  duty  to  them.  Are 
there  any  men  who  remember  how  to  make  kites  and  bows  and  arrows 
and  push-mobiles,  who  like  to  work  with  tools  and  who  have  a  tool 
bench  and  will  work  Avith  boys  ?  You  can  do  anything  if  you  have  such 
men  and  women  here.  If  you  haven't,  then  you  haven't  that  kind  of 
parenthood  which  is  large  enough  to  reach  beyond  your  own  children. 

It  is  easy  for  us  to  get  up  in  this  room  and  talk  about  race  better- 
ment. The  real  thing  happens  w^hen  we  get  right  straight  at  it  with 
the  boys  and  girls  and  we  can  shape  them  as  we  please  if  we  like  to  do 
it.  Is  there  any  chance  in  Battle  Creek  for  boys  who  have  a  mechanical 
turn  of  mind  to  make  things  with  tools  and  benches?  There  ought 
to  be.  It  will  be  to  the  advantage  of  Battle  Creek,  and  every  other 
place  is  going  to  employ  skilled  labor  later  on.  A  great  many  boys 
and  a  great  many  girls  will  have  tools  and  a  chance  to  work.  During 
all  the  ages  they  have  had  it  in  the  home,  because  the  tools  used  to  be 
in  the  home.  But  the  tools  have  gone  from  their  home.  Are  there 
any  places  where  boys  can  do  things  who  are  motor  mindied,  who  love 
tools  and  who  want  to  make  engines  and  automobiles  and  bicycles  and 
steam  boats  and  all  those  things  ?  If  not,  it  is  too  bad.  Do  you  have 
any  appreciation  of  those  instinctive  feelings  that  lead  boys  a  great 
deal  and  girls  somewhat  to  compete  in  athletics,  that  is,  do  you  have  a 
sane  public  school  athletic  league?  I  do  not  mean  an  athletic  league 
that  merely  takes  the  biggest  interest  in  boys  and  trains  them  hard 
for  public  exhibition.  I  mean  an  athletic  league  that  gets  80  per  cent 
of  all  boys  into  action  who  love  it.  If  you  have  not,  you  have  not 
one  of  the  most  important  social  inventions.  Is  there  anybody  here 
who  realizes  that  all  of  this  conquering  of  air  has  grown  out  of  our 
knowledge  about  kites  and  that  boys  love  kites  and  that  a  kite  flying 
contest  in  Battle  Creek  or  the  model  aeroplane  club  would  occupy  the 
time  of  some  hundreds  of  boys  probably  ?  It  does  at  New  York,  en- 
thusiastically, earnestly  and  they  are  learning  things.  Are  there  any 
men  and  women  in  Battle  Creek  who  realize  that  to  think  up  things 
of  this  kind  and  put  the  machinery  back  of  them  to  make  them  happen 
is  the  kind  of  thing  that  will  really  deliver  the  goods? 

Discussion.  The  Single  Standard 

Prof.  Samuel  Dickie,  President  Albion  College,  Albion,  Michigan. 
I  confess  to  being  taken  somewhat  by  surprise  in  being  called  to  the 
platform.    All  Lneed  to  do  and  all  I  can  do  is,  after  good  Methodist 


SEX   QUESTIONS  '      295 

fashion,  to  say  Amen  to  everything  I  have  heard.  It  is  a  trite  old  say- 
ing that  the  time  to  make  a  man  what  he  ought  to  be  is  to  begin  at 
least  with  his  grandfather.  Some  advocates  of  race  betterment  think 
possibly  that  the  great  grandfather  would  be  the  proper  point  of  be- 
ginning. I  want  to  emphasize  if  possible  the  sentiment  set  forth  in 
Doctor  Taylor's  address  demanding  the  wiping  out  of  this  double 
standard  of  morality.  And  may  the  time  soon  come  when  men  and 
women  will  be  judged  by  precisely  the  same  standard. 

I  attended,  several  years  ago,  a  great  gathering  of  women  in  the 
city  of  Buffalo.  Unexpectedly  called  to  the  platform  immediately 
following  a  very  eloquent  Baptist  minister  who  had  been  giving  the 
ladies  great  compliments,  I  said,  at  the  outset,  to  a  vast  audience  of 
women,  "Ladies,  if  the  time  ever  comes  when  the  women  of  this  coun- 
try are  as  good  as  the  men,  we  shall  have  made  considerable  progress." 
And  you  could  just  have  heard  all  those  women  drawing  in  their 
breaths.  I  feared  that  the  roof  of  the  opera  house  would  descend 
upon  us,  and  made  haste  to  explain.  I  said,  "Of  course,  ladies,  with 
the  prayer  meeting  full  of  women,  and  the  penitentiaries  full  of  men, 
I  am  not  talking  about  the  question  of  simple  conduct,  but,"  I  said, 
' '  let  me  tell  you  what  I  sincerely  believe :  If  the  time  eiver  comes,  God 
grant  that  it  comes  speedily,  when  the  women  of  America,  and  the 
young  women,  and  the  marriageable  women,  demand  as  high  a  stand- 
ard on  the  part  of  the  men  who  are  to  walk  through  life  by  their 
sides,  as  even  we  men  now  demand  of  the  women,  great  progress  will 
have  been  made. ' ' 

Do  not  think  me  criticising  womankind,  for  I  believe  in  woman, 
and  I  trust  woman,  and  I  want  to  give  woman  the  ballot,  and  I  want 
woman  to  do  everything  that  a  woman  can  do,  but  I  want  to  say  to 
you  that  the  women  of  America  can  do  more  to  wipe  out  the  double 
standard  than  the  men  can  do. 

Discussion. 

The  Boy's  Temptations 

Dr.  Amakda  Holcomb,  Mount  Pleasant,  Michigan. 

I  Avant  to  speak  for  the  benefit  of  our  boys  who  become  men 
who  do  not  get  a  square  deal.  When  we  talk  about  the  one  stand- 
ard of  morals,  give  them  an  equal  part.  As  a  school-teacher  I 
taught  boys  and  girls  together  for  seven  years.  I  found  my  boys  just 
as  square  and  clean  as  my  girls — and  a  little  more  to  be  trusted.  I  am 
raising  boys  and  girls  in  my  own  home.  My  children,  my  boys,  have 
just  as  good  a  standard  of  morality  as  my  girls.  In  my  work  in 
Chicago  I  met  a  woman  who,  when  her  child  was  born,  said,  "Oh,  I 


29(5  FIRST    NATIONAIi    CONPERENCP:    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

am  so  o-lad  it  is  a  l)oy/'  T  didn't  like  that  beeause  I  like  girls  and 
boys,  too,  and  1  said.  "Why?"  ''Well,  if  this  boy  does  wrong  he 
won 't  be  blamed, ' '  was  her  answer. 

That  is  the  beginning  of  the  double  standard — in  the  minds  of  the 
mothers,  at  the  birth  of  children, 

[Voices:  "Oh,  no.    No."] 

I  find  it  so  in  my  experience.  Our  girls  are  kept  in  the  home, 
are  watched  over,  are  taught  and  they  are  protected  by  every  wo- 
man and  by  every  man.  I  had  my  eyes  opened  firs't  at  the  age  of 
twenty-four  when  I  was  a  medical  student  in  Chicago.  The  President 
of  the  social  purity  work  of  Iowa  said  to  me,  "You  girls  think  you  are 
mighty  fine,  and  you  are,  but  I  want  to  tell  you  that  when  young  men 
stand  straight  and  clean,  at  this  time  of  the  world,  they  are  a  hundred 
times  better  than  you  are. ' '  That  is  what  he  said,  and  I  thought  of  it 
for  weeks  and  months,  and  I  found  it  was  true.  He  said,  "You  girls 
can  w^alk  these  streets  of  Chicago  and  there  is  not  a  man  who  dares  to 
offend  you — he  would  be  brought  up  in  the  courts ;  but  we  boys  can- 
not go  one  block  from  this  college  without  being  invited.  We  are 
tempted  from  within  and  from  without.  If  we  stand  firm  we  shall 
have  no  credit,  while  you  girls  have  few  temptations  within,  and  no 
temptations  without,  and  you  consider  yourselves  better  than  we." 
Doctor  Taylor  said  these  girls  were  so  young.  I  have  had  more  con- 
fessions from  the  young  men  in  Michigan  than  I  have  from  young 
women,  in  my  practice  of  medicine,  in  the  state  of  Michigan.  In 
w^riting  up  their  cases  they  turn  pale  and  they  say,  "Doctor,  I  was 
only  17."  And  a  boy  of  17  is  only  as  old  as  a  girl  of  14.  Why  haven't 
we  laws  to  prosecute  the  women  who  desecrate  our  boys  of  16  and  17  ? 
It  is  only  the  older  women  who  do  that.  We  should  have  laws.  We 
cannot  demand  an  equal  standard  until  we  give  our  boys  an  equal 
chance. 

Discussion. 

Real  Meaning  of  the  Double  Standard 
Dr.  Luthee  H.  Gulick. 
It  seems  to  me  there  is  much  misunderstanding  with  reference  to 
the  double  standard.  During  all  the  ages  those  women  who  have  been 
true  to  their  children  and  their  husbands  have  been  in  the  line  of  se- 
lection, because  their  children  survived.  We  men  have  not  been  in 
that  line,  ever.  The  men  were  eliminated  who  could  not  stand  for  the 
tribe  and  fight.  Next  there  arose  two  kinds  of  morality :  The  ability  to 
stand  together  whether  life  was  involved  or  not,  team  work.  That  is 
masculine,  and  the  man  who  cannot  do  that  is  not  a  man.  Then  the 
ability  to  love  one's  children,  and  to  be  true  to  the  home.    And  that  is 


SEX  QUESTIONS  297 

feminine.  We  each  are  true  to  our  kind.  Naturally  the  world  is  de- 
manding of  us  men  that  we  be  clean.  We  are  finding-  it  hard.  But  we 
are  going  to  learn.  And  the  world  is  demanding  of  you  women  that 
you  stand  by  one  another,  and  you  are  finding  it  just  as  hard  as  we  are. 
And  it  is  a  new  kind  of  morality,  for  the  women  of  the  world,  who 
have  never  stood  by  one  another.  What  chance  is  there  to  abolish 
prostitution  when  young  men  and  young  women  do  not  have  a  chance 
for  wholesome  relation  to  each  other  day  by  day.  That  is  the  thing 
that  is  in  the  hands  of  women  and  not  in  the  hands  of  men. 

Discussion. 

Educating  the  Child  Regarding  the  Secrets  of  Life 
Mrs.  D.  W.  Haydock^  Missouri  Fedei-ation  of  Women's  Clubs,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

The  point  of  this  convention  has  been  education  or  at  least  I  came  to 
this  convention  feeling  that  that  was  why  I  came.  At  65  I  need  more 
education.  I  believe  the  most  of  the  rest  of  us  do.  As  a  65-year-old 
mother  I  want  to  tell  you  I  began  with  my  boys  and  my  girls  when 
they  were  three  years  old  to  tell  them  parables,  as  the  Lord  taught, 
trying  to  follow  in  His  footsteps  regarding  the  secrets  of  life.  I  was 
a  city  missionary  for  years  before  my  marriage,  and  I  know  how  those 
poor  girls  want  to  come  back  into  life.  There  is  nothing  that  can  be 
done  for  them  that  will  not  bring  its  reward  eventually.  Before  my 
marriage  one  of  these  poor  girls  said  to  me,  "If  ever  you  are  married 
and  God  gives  you  children,  see  that  you  teach  them.  That  is  why  I  am 
here,  because  I  did  not  know." 

After  my  marriage  I  felt  that  the  one  thing  that  God  had  given  me 
to  do  was  to  see  that  no  city  missionary  was  needed  for  my  child. 
When  my  son  was  a  little  over  three,  not  quite  four,  and  my  daughter 
six,  I  had  given  those  years  to  the  thoughts  of  how  I  should  at  last  tell 
those  children.  One  night  I  had  gathered  by  my  side  a  bird 's  nest,  the 
softest  thing  that  I  could  find,  and  a  chestnut  burr  with  its  coating  of 
velvet  inside,  a  fern  with  its  folded  and  unfolded  fronds,  and  I  told 
those  children  that  in  the  body  of  every  woman  there  was  a  nest  softer 
than  this  because  God  made  it,  God  built  it.  I  also  had  a  plant  with 
the  seeds  ripening  on  the  outside.  I  told  them  that  in  the  body  of  this 
woman,  whom  God  made  some  day  to  be  a  mother,  there  was  something 
like  these  fairy  fingers. 

To  my  little  boy  I  said,  "Some  day  in  this  world  God  will  have 
for  you  a  woman.  Do  not  dare  offer  her  a  life  less  pure  than  that  you 
demand  of  her. ' '  All  of  my  life  my  boys  and  I  have  been  comrades. 
They  can  talk  to  me,  the  immarried  boys  or  the  third,  a  married  boy 
who  is  younger — they  can  talk  to  me  as  if  I  were  a  young  man. 
There  is  nothing  concealed. 


298  FIRST    NATIONAL    CDNFEHKNCE    ON    KA(;E    BETTKKMKNT 

For  a  time,  of  course,  this  parable  satisfied.  Later  otliers  began  to 
instruct,  but  I  told  them  not  to  listen  to  others,  that  mother  knew  all 
and  would  tell  them  the  truth.  At  ten  the  boy  with  whom  I  bad  begun 
came  to  me  and  told  me  that  an  older  boy  had  begun  instruction.  At 
ten  that  boy  of  mine  knew  because  his  mother  told  him.  At  thirty  he 
said  to  me,  "You  don't  know  what  you  did."  He  then  had  charge  t,f 
several  groups  of  young  engineers.  He  said,  "I  have  wished  sixty-five 
thousand  times  that  I  might  send  for  you  to  come  and  talk  to  my  boys" 
—but  he  did  it  himself.  That  is  one  of  the  things  of  my  life  for  Avhich  I 
Ijave  never  wished  I  had  taken  another  way.  If  today,  even  about  some 
little  matter  of  the  nursing,  if  I  have  anything  to  say  to  these  boys  of 
mine,  it  is  because  somew^here  in  the  world  there  is  some  woman  and 
they  must  give  to  her  what  they  ask  of  her. 

Discussion. 

The  American  Mother 
Mrs.  F.  F.  Lawrence,  Columbus,  Ohio. 
Of  all  titles  that  have  ever  been  given  me,  I  am  proudest  of  the 
one,  ' '  The  American  Mother. ' '  I  believe  that  the  world  itself  depends 
upon  the  American  mother  and  therefore  my  interests  are  principally 
centered  on  the  American  girl  or  future  mother.  "While  I  have  taken  a 
deep  interest  in  the  boys,  I  have  felt  a  little  closer  to  the  girls  and  have 
wished  that  I  might  protect  them  more.  I  believe  in  that  old  adage, 
"An  ounce  of  prevention  is  worth  a  pound  of  cure."  You  know  all 
over  this  country  it  is  dotted  with  institutions  for  the  unfortunate 
girls.  Did  you  ever  hear  of  a  home  for  the  fallen  men  ?  Right  there 
is  where  you  are  going  to  get  your  protection  through  the  girl.  Every 
fallen  man,  married  or  single,  should  have  an  institution  that  he  can 
get  into  and  he  should  be  committed  there  according  to  his  crime,  and 
in  that  institution  he  should  have  the  crime  itself  brought  right  up  be- 
fore him,  so  that  it  wall  really  be  a  remedial  work.  If  he  is  a  young 
boy,  we  pity  him,  and  we  pity  him  because  he  is  ignorant,  so  it  is 
with  the  young  girl  ofttimes.  For  that  reason  I  say,  give  the  young 
boy  nine  months,  and  the  old  criminal  ninety-nine  years. 

Discussion. 

Vocational  Education 
Professor    Robert    James    Sprague,    Massachusetts    AgTicultural    Colleg-e, 

Amlierst,  Mass. 

I  should  like  to  make  just  one  suggestion.  I  should  like  to  preface 
it  with  this:  It  seems  to  me  that  in  much  of  this  discussion  we  are 
trying  to  deal  wdth  remedies.  We  are  trying  to  deal  with  appearances. 
"We  are  not  getting  at  causes.  There  has  been  quite  a  little  said  here  at 


SEX  QUESTIONS  299 

this  convention  with  regard  to  prostitution  and  all  these  other  things, 
but  very  little  said  about  a  situation  in  the  country  that  will  produce  a 
system  of  real,  easy  home  living,  of  ideal  homes. 

For  a  moment,  look  at  some  of  the  cities  of  Germany,  where  they 
come  out  and  take  the  land  round  about  the  city,  put  in  the  public 
utilities,  the  street  cars,  transportation,  loan  the  money  for  building, 
prescribe  the  kinds  of  ideal  dwellings,  etc.,  make  it  easy  for  the  normal 
home  to  develop.  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  there  is  no  cure  for  the  prosti- 
tution evil  until  we  get  the  normal  home.  There  is  an  economic  basis 
for  this  whole  business.  We  may  drive  the  bad  houses  out  of  one 
street  and  drive  them  out  of  another  for  a  while  and  they  Mdll  turn 
up  somewhere  else.    We  have  got  to  get  the  normal  home. 

Another  point  right  along  that  line :  In  the  United  States  the  most 
of  our  criminals  come  from  the  roving  bachelor  class  of  the  twenties. 
In  this  country  we  have  an  enormous  number  of  young  bachelors,  who 
come  out  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  who  have  had  no  opportunity 
to  learn  a  trade — along  in  the  twenties  without  a  trade — with  all  the 
impulses  of  manhood.  They  struggle  through  those  twenties  and 
come  to  the  cities  before  they  get  settled  in  life.  Gentlemen,  an  effi- 
cient system  for  vocational  education  in  this  country  will  do  many  of 
those  things  that  the  German  system  of  education  is  doing.  It  will  give 
boys  an  earning  power  at  the  age  of  22  or  23  so  that  they  can  marry 
at  23  or  24  or  25  and  support  a  family.  That  will  do  much  for  the  re- 
duction of  our  criminal  classes,  a  large  majority  of  which  come  from 
that  zone  of  life.  It  will  do  much  toward  abolishing  prostitution  in 
this  country,  because  every  time  a  wage-earning  boy  marries  a  girl  and 
establishes  a  home  under  the  right  conditions,  he  removes  the  material 
for  all  of  that  kind  of  thing. 

We  have  got  to  work  on  a  sounder  economic  basis  for  the  preven- 
tion of  these  things  that  we  are  trying  to  get  rid  of.  When  we  get  the 
normal  home,  so  that  the  boy  can  have  a  normal  life  and  a  normal 
•earning  power,  and  can  marry  the  normal  girl  with  a  normal  educa- 
tion, and  when  the  state  and  the  city  come  in  and  establish  conditions 
so  that  he  can  make  a  normal  home  and  get  a  dwelling  under  easy  con- 
ditions, we  have  solved — not  solved,  but  w^e  have  relieved — a  very  great 
social  problem  of  society. 

Shall  we  not  go  home  and  try  to  get  into  our  state  establishments 
for  charities  a  little  more  of  a  constructive  eugenic  program?  The 
state  associations  in  which  I  have  been  more  or  less  interested  are 
dealing  largely  with  the  negative  side  of  eugenics.  I  think  that  there 
is  good  opportunity  for  getting  in  a  little  more  of  the  constructive 
eugenics  into  those  programs.  I  think  there  is  a  chance  for  large 
things,  because  those  things  have  the  interest,  they  have  the  prestige, 


300  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

tlu'V  hold  llu'  atti'ution  of  the  i)('()i)k'.  I  believe  that  by  doin<;'  that, 
by  getting  into  the  directory  of  these  establishments,  we  can  get  into 
those  programs  matter  which  will  have  a  great  deal  of  influence  in 
arousing  the  people  to  think  along  these  lines. 

Discussion. 

Use  of  Newspapers 
II.  A.  Burgess,  Chicago,  Illinois. 
This  world  is  getting  better.  The  newspapers  of  today  are  getting 
better.  I  have  heard  talks  about  patent  medicine  advertisements. 
You  would  be  surprised  how  they  are  being  eliminated  out  of 
the  newspapers  today.  The  great  agencies  in  Chicago  and.  New  York 
have  hard  work  placing  these  advertisements  in  a  great  many  papers. 
Here  is  my  suggestion  :  Why  not,  in  every  community,  each  week,  have 
a  column  given  to  the  newspapers,  which  I  am  sure  they  would  gladly 
print,  in  reference  to  just  such  suggestions  as  are  being  made  in  this 
convention  ? 

THE  SOCIAL  EVIL 

(A  Special  Address  to  AVonien  — Illustrated  by  Stereopticou.) 
Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg,  Battle  Creek,  Mich. 

I  made  up  my  mind  a  good  many  years  ago  that  there  are  three 
things  in  the  world  that  are  especially  bad :  One  of  these  is  the  slavery 
of  animals  to  men,  because  of  the  brutality  sometimes  involved.  Even 
worse  than  this  is  the  slavery  of  men  to  men.  But  the  worst  thing  in 
all  the  world,  the  most  dreadful  thing,  is  the  slavery  of  women  to  men. 

By  and.  by  the  ballot  will  give  women  freedom.  When  women  get 
the  franchise,  I  believe  the  white  slave  traffic,  and  all  other  kinds  of 
slavery  of  women  to  men,  will  be  abolished,  and'  the  world  will  be 
freed  from  this  greatest  evil. 

Now,  ladies,  in  our  chapel,  and  down  at  the  Congregational  church, 
some  views  are  being  thrown  upon  the  screen  to  give  to  men  a  picture 
of  some  of  the  terrible  things  for  which  vice  is  responsible.  I  have 
selected  just  a  very  few  views  to  throw  upon  the  screen  here,  that  you 
too  may  be  informed.  You  have  a  perfect  right  to  be  informed  with 
reference  to  the  physical  aspect  of  such  diseases,  since  they  are  more  or 
less  prevalent  in  nearly  every  community.  We  need  to  get  the  same 
dread  and  the  same  repugnance  for  these  diseases  of  vice  that  we  have 
for  smallpox  and  other  communicable  maladies.  If  you  know  there  is 
smallpox  in  the  house,  yon  are  afraid  of  it.  If  there  is  a  red  flag  put 
out,  people  are  alarmed,  and  yet  there  isn  't  any  very  great  danger,  as 
smallpox  is  not  very  readily  communicated.  If  the  nurse  who  has 
care  of  the  smallpox  patient  will  simply  keep  his  whole  skin  covered 
with  a  little  carbolated  vaseline,  nobody  wall  get  the  disease  from  him. 


Syphilitic    S.-lfrosis   of   Ton^iu 


I>:xamples    of    Heredit;iry     .Syi)hilis. 


..^^-^vf 


Syphilitic    Caries   of   Cranial   Boii 


Syphilis   of   the   Fetus 


SEX  QUESTIONS  301 

Not  very  long  ago,  in  a  hospital,  smallpox  patients,  measles  patients  and 
scarlet  fever  patients  were  all  kept  together  in  the  same  ward  in  the 
same  room,  and  the  disease  was  not  communicated  from  one  to  another. 
It  is  now  known  that  these  diseases  are  not  nearly  so  communicable  as 
we  used  to  think  they  were.  Reasonable  care  will  prevent  their  ex- 
tension. But  suppose  there  is  a  house  in  town  where  the  loathsome  dis- 
eases produced  by  vice  prevail,  to  serve  as  an  incubator.  In  unthought 
of  ways  this  disease  may  be  communicated  every  day.  For  example, 
here  comes  the  milkman  and  sends  in  a  bottle  of  milk,  receives  his  pay 
at  the  door — a  dollar  bill,  or  a  silver  dollar,  or  a  quarter,  or  a  half  dollar 
or  a  dime.  That  money  may  be  smeared  with  the  virus  of  vice.  It  goes 
into  his  pocket,  mingling  with  the  rest  of  his  cash,  and  in  the  next  house 
he  passes  out  the  same  vile  quarter  to  a  little  girl  who,  having  both 
hands  occupied,  puts  the  quarter  in  her  mouth.  She  has  an  easy  chance 
of  getting  an  impure  disease.  This  is  only  one  of  many  ways  by  which 
it  is  scattered  about  the  town. 

Public  sentiment  has  got  to  be  changed  with  reference  to  the 
brothel.  Clergjnnen  and  doctors  must  be  willing  to  speak  out 
and  arouse  the  whole  community  to  rise  up  in  arms,  to  protest^ 
and  say:  "We  will  not  tolerate  one  of  these  unlawful  houses  in 
our  midst."  If  the  women  of  this  tovim  w^ould  say  to  themselves.  "We 
Mali  not  have  a  brothel  in  this  town," — there  would  be  none. 

The  brothel  is  a  rendezvous  of  criminals.  The  laws  of  the 
state  of  Michigan,  as  of  every  state  in  this  Union,  make  licentiousness 
a  crime.  No  man  can  visit  such  a  house  without  committing  a  crime. 
Every  person  in  that  house  is  guilty  of  crime,  and  the  laws  upon  the 
statute  book  of  the  state  of  Michigan  expressly  forbid  the  conduct  of 
such  places,  and  the  only  reason  why  they  exist  is  because  the  officers 
of  the  law  do  not  carry  out  and  administer  the  laws  upon  our  statute 
books.  We  must  protest  against  these  horrible  incubators  of  crime  and 
disease. 

But  the  stereopticon  is  ready.  First  I  will  show  you  some 
beautiful  flowers.  Here  are  two  or  three  things  you  may  think  are  not 
so  very  beautiful.  They  illustrate  the  slavery  of  woman  to  fashion. 
Men  are  the  makers  of  fashion.  To  increase  their  gain  they  are  con- 
tinually changing  them,  thereby  making  a  demand  for  new  clothes. 
You  know  that.  The  fashion  plates  have  debauched  the  taste  of 
American  women.  They  have  put  false  ideals  into  their  minds,  until 
they  actually  believe  that  physical  deformities  are  artistic  and  beau- 
tiful, and  so  they  are  committing  crimes  against  their  bodies  which,  in 
the  end  perhaps,  are  responsible  for  as  much  race  degeneracy  as  these 
vice  diseases  we  are  talking  about.  Now,  my  women  friends— I  like 
the  word  women  better  than  ladies ;    it  is  a  stronger  word — my  wo- 


302  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

iiuMi  friends — I  beseech  you  to  think  of  that.  How  can  you  expect  thivt 
men  are  going  to  respect  the  laws  of  God  which  relate  to  their  bodies 
unless  you  respect  the  laws  of  God  which  relate  to  your  bodies?  This 
debasing,  abusing  and  danuigiug  the  body,  degrading  the  body  in  obey- 
ing the  mandates  of  fashion,  is  perhaps,  on  the  whole,  as  harmful  antl 
as  damaging  as  the  evils  that  can  be  traced  to  vice.  I  just  want  you  to 
look  at  these  splendid  figures,  strong  as  God  made  them.  They  are  two 
daughters  of  a  king  from  the  Congo  region.  They  have  splendid 
bodies,  strong,  vigorous  and  well,  capable  of  performing  all  the  func- 
tions of  womanhood.  Here  are  two  more  good,  strong,  well-made 
bodies,  ignorant  and  debased  by  savagery,  but  splendid  bodies. 
Now,  isn't  civilized  woman  entitled  to  just  as  good  a  body  as  a  savage 
woman  ?  We  are  all  born  savages  and  have  to  be  tamed.  The  taming 
sometimes  goes  so  far  as  to  spoil  us.  Now  look  at  this  Venus  of  Milo. 
Here  the  liver,  colon  and  stomach  and  kidneys  are  right  where  tln^y 
belong.  Every  organ  is  where  it  belongs,  all  above  the  lower  border 
of  the  ribs.  Here  is  the  figure  of  a  woman  who  had  worn  a  conven- 
tional dress.  She  could  not  be  convicted  of  tight  lacing.  No  woman 
ever  did  admit  that  she  laced  herself  tightly  but  this  woman  wore 
what  she  called  a  health  corset  and  you  see  the  liver  is  way  down  out 
of  place.  The  stomach  is  entirely  out  of  place,  as  is  also  the  colon. 
Both  kidneys  are  displaced  and  the  organs  which  lie  naturally  above 
the  lower  border  of  the  ribs  were  in  this  case  nearly  all  below  the 
lower  border  of  the  ribs  and  of  course  there  was  an  ugly  prominence 
of  the  lower  abdomen  that  had  to  be  held  in  by  some  sort  of  corset 
to  give  it  shape. 

Some  diseases  and  weaknesses  are  hereditary.  A  boy  is  a  chip  oft' 
the  family  block,  not  oi¥  the  father  block  alone.  It  is  fortunate  that 
this  law  exists  because  by  means  of  this  law  it  is  possible  to  breed  out 
evil  qualities  and  to  breed  in  good  ones.  When  one  parent  is  defective, 
feeble-minded,  the  children  of  the  first  generation  may  not  show  this, 
but  in  the  third  generation  the  children  may  show  it,  but  if  both  par- 
ents are  feeble-minded,  then  all  the  children  are  feeble-minded.  This 
is  well  shown  in  this  genealogy  here,  the  Kallikak  family.  A  man  in 
a  state  of  intoxication  had  a  child  by  a  feeble-minded  girl.  He  after- 
vizards  married.  All  of  his  lawful  descendants  were  strong-minded, 
splendid  people.  From  the  descendants  of  that  feeble-minded  girl, 
you  see  a  whole  line  of  feeble-minded  and  criminals.  After  awhile,  you 
see,  a  feeble-minded  grandson  married  a  feeble-minded  girl.  Then  the 
children  were  all  feeble-minded. 

Now  the  diseases  of  vice  are  particularly  hereditary  in  char- 
acter. They  are  also  communicated  in  more  ways  than  one,  not 
simply  by  immoral  acts  but  in  other  ways.     Let  me  tell  you  of  a 


Died  1735 


Q 


O 


Q 


■O 


O- 


Died  1770 


LAWFUL  WIFE  Q- 

O- 
Q 


O 


NAMELESS  FEEBLEMINDED 

Q— T — •girl 


O 


a 


BLACK  SYMBOLS 
INDICATE  FEEBLEMINDEDNESS 
□=MALE    O"  FEMALE 


O 


1913   ^ 

Feeble-mmdi-dness  tends  to  be.  transmissible,  but 

so  dce«'.  normality'.     Tliv:^  gr^xi  and  the  bad  branch 

of  the  KallJkak  famiiv 


SEX   QUESTIONS  303 

little  tragedy  that  happened  not  long  ago.  A  man,  a  public  servant 
of  a  city,  married  a  young  wife.  Presumably  he  had  been 
wandering  around  in  haunts  of  vice  and  had  become  infected  with 
a  nameless  disease.  With  a  kiss  upon  the  lips  of  his  wife  he  in- 
oculated her  with  that  same  disease.  In  a  few^  months  a  child  was 
born  to  them.  It  had  an  eruption  when  it  was  bom,  a  primary 
eruption  of  this  awful  disease,  and  it  wasn't  very  long  before  other 
symptoms  appeared,  the  so-called  secondary  symptoms.  That  is 
what  that  man  had  in  his  mouth,  a  mucous  patch,  and  when  he 
kissed  his  wife  that  is  what  infected  her.  He  had  no  sores  upon  his  lips 
but  the  disease  had  become  systemic  and  little  white  patches  were  found 
in  his  mouth,  virus  of  syphilis,  the  protozoa,  the  animal  parasite  that 
communicates  this  disease,  which  looks  for  all  the  world  like  a  vinegar 
eel  when  it  is  magnified.  It  bores  its  way  all  through  the  body  and 
produces  a  deadly  poison  and  infects  and  contaminates  the  entire  body. 
This  man's  mouth  was  swarming  with  these  horrible,  wiggling  para- 
sites, his  saliva  was  alive  with  them  and  some  of  them  were  deposited 
upon  his  wife's  lips  and  made  that  awful  sore.  Thus  the  disease  was 
communicated  to  her  body  and  to  her  unborn  son.  By  and  by  these 
secondary  eruptions  appeared. 

I  was  called  once  to  the  hospital  to  see  a  case  in  consultation  and 
found  a  young  woman  covered  all  over  with  an  eruption  such  as  you 
have  just  looked  at.  She  was  a  girl  of  good  character,  a  stenographer 
employed  in  an  office,  but  she  had  been  keeping  company  and  had 
become  engaged  to  a  young  man  who  had  unsuspectingly  inoculated 
her  vnth  this  vile  disease  and  her  life  was  ruined. 

Here  is  the  more  advanced  stage  of  the  disease.  This  shows 
the  disease  on  the  top  of  the  skull  eating  its  way  into  the  very 
brain.  Those  spots  here,  when  they  disappear,  leave  a  copper- 
colored  stain  upon  the  skin.  That  is  one  of  the  characteristics 
of  this  disease.  The  eruption  at  certain  stages  leaves  behind  a  copper- 
colored  spot  and  the  doctors  learn  to  recognize  these  very  readily. 

Here  is  another  form  of  the  disease,  rather  an  unusual  form.  I  have 
seen  similar  cases  more  than  once.  Some  of  you  have  seen  persons  just 
like  that  upon  the  street,  men  going  about  with  horrible  evidences  of 
vice  right  upon  their  countenances.  In  the  third  stages  of  the  disease 
you  see  the  bones  and  the  harder  parts  of  the  body  are  undergoing  de- 
struction. That  poor  boy  I  was  telling  you  about  a  little  while  ago  that 
Avas  born  with  this  awful  eruption,  his  whole  body  infected,  that  poor 
little  boy  has  gone  through  all  the  stages  of  that  disease  and  at  the 
present  time  his  nose  is  almost  destroyed.  The  roof  of  his  mouth  is  al- 
most entirely  gone  and  that  awful  disease  is  slowly  eating  him  up  and 


30-1  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

iu  two  or  tluve  years  more  he  will  be  dead.     He  was  rol)l)('d  of  the  life 
he  was  entitled  to. 

Here  is  tlie  skull  and  you  see  the  disease  eating  down  through  the 
bones  into  the  very  brain.  Here  is  a  syphilitic  sore  upon  the  tongue, 
one  of  the  later  forms,  a  sclerotic  form  of  the  disease.  Here  is  another 
of  the  hereditary  forms  of  the  disease  also,  in  the  hand  here,  and  this 
is  the  characteristic  appearance  of  syphilitic  teeth — ^the  hereditary  ef- 
fect of  syphilis  upon  the  teeth.  This  is  not  the  ordinary  notched 
appearance  of  the  teeth  that  is  natural.  It  is  a  different  kind  of 
notch,  first  described  by  a  great  English  surgeon,  Doctor  Hutchinson. 
Here  is  a  syphilitic  baby.  More  than  one  baby  I  have  seen  bom  into 
the  world  with  the  characteristics  you  see  here.  I  want  you  to  look 
at  that  but  a  moment.  Look  instead  at  this  baby  and  carry  its 
picture  of  sweet  innocence  in  your  mind  (the  Minnesota  Baby). 
My  friends,  we  must  fight  this  evil  and  every  other  evil  that  is  attack- 
ing the  vitality  of  the  race  so  that  these  beautiful,  innocent  human 
flowers  that  God  gives  to  us  may  be  preserved  intact. 


VENEREAL  DISEASE 

(A   Special  Address  to  Men.) 

Mr.  F.  0.  Clements,  Representative  of  the  National  Cash  Register  Com- 
pany, Dayton,  Ohio. 

Unquestionably  a  great  many  in  this  audience  will  wonder  why  an 
industrial  concern  should  deal  with  this  subject,  venereal  disease.  The 
President  of  The  National  Cash  Register  Company,  from  its  earliest 
inception,  has  devoted  a  great  deal  of  time  and  attention  to  health  sub- 
jects. 

We  find  after  careful  analysis  that  the  elements  requisite  for  suc- 
cess are :  health,  honesty,  ability,  industry  and  a  thorough  knowledge 
of  the  business.  Health  first.  So  you  will  find  in  our  very  earliest 
publications  frequent  excerpts  and  short  sayings  dealing  with  the 
underlying  principles  of  good  physical  well-being.  Later  on  these 
publications  were  supplemented  by  graphic  methods  of  presentation, 
including  lantern  slides,  and  still  later  the  moving  picture  film. 

Quite  a  number  of  years  ago,  the  need  of  some  sane  instruction  with 
reference  to  sex  hygiene  became  apparent.  Two  very  unfortunate 
occurrences  were  brought  vividly  to  the  attention  of  the  officers 
of  our  company.  One  of  our  very  much  honored  and  respected  em- 
ployees, who  had  served  the  company  faithfully  and  well  for  many 
years,  the  father  of  a  clean  family,  contracted  gonorrhea  of  the  eye 
and  lost  his  sight.  This  was  definitely  proved  to  be  the  fault  of  a 
fellow-workman  affected  with  gonorrhea,  who  endeavored  to  remove 


'lip    Mi;inesota    Biiby — ;i    splt-iulid    ty]).-   of    linaltl 


SEX   QUESTIONS  305 

a  small  particle  of  metal  from  his  friend's  eye.  Still  later  one  of  our 
trained  nurses  contracted  syphilis  in  a  dental  chair,  due  to  the  tools 
not  being  properly  sterilized.  At  least  the  dentist  recognized  his  re- 
sponsibility in  the  case  and  paid  all  the  bills  incident  to  the  medical 
attendance  required. 

These  two  \erj  unfortunate  occurrences  answer  the  question  as  to 
why  an  industrial  concern  should  spend  the  money  necessary  to  collect 
and  arrange  this  particular  talk  of  the  evening. 

Still  again,  many  of  the  officers  of  the  company  keenly  felt  the 
need  of  instruction  along  this  particular  line,  for  fathers  of  this  and 
the  preceding  generation  failed  to  tell  their  children  the  things  that 
they  should  know. 

Improved  machinery  moved  the  world  during  the  century.  We 
believe  that  the  improved  human  machine  will  give  evidence  of  the 
greatest  progress  in  the  century  to  come. 

Much  of  the  welfare  work  of  The  National  Cash  Register  Com- 
pany has  to  do  with  the  boys  and  girls  of  the  coming  generation,  and 
this  type  of  lecture  should,  without  question,  be  presented  to  the  par- 
ents so  that  they  can  bring  this  most  difficult  subject  to  their  children 
in  the  proper  manner. 

It  is  indeed  gratifying,  in  view  of  the  long-continued  and  mis- 
taken policy  of  silence  with  reference  to  the  functions  and  relations 
of  sex,  that  a  Christian  church  would  receive  a  talk  of  this  kind,  and 
permit  the  same  to  be  made  a  .regular  part  of  the  church  program. 
This  has  been  partly  due  to  certain  medical  discoveries  which  have 
contributed,  to  a  very  large  degree,  in  changing  public  opinion. 

The  material  to  be  presented  hereafter  and  the  arrangement 
thereof  was  done  under  the  personal  supervision  of  Dr.  F.  M.  Loomis. 
of  the  University  of  Michigan. 

After  the  talk  was  completed,  and  in  shape  for  presentation,  we 
were  actually  afraid  to  utilize  the  results.  This  was  due  to  the  fact 
that  we  were  so  ignorant  on  the  subject,  and  had  no  conception  of  the 
severe  penalties  coming  from  violation  of  Nature's  laws.  Neither 
could  we  understand  how  sadly  society  was  affected  by  venereal  dis- 
ease, nor  even  the  danger  to  the  innocent  person.  We  felt  that  the 
statements  made  could  not  be  true,  and  we  arranged  for  a  representa- 
tive audience  of  Dayton  citizens,  particularly  selected  because  of  their 
association  with  the  boy  and  girl  problem.  We  had  several  leading 
physicians  of  our  city,  the  superintendent  of  schools,  the  judge  of 
the  Juvenile  Court,  several  church  men,  social  workers,  and  a  little 
gathering  that  totaled  some  twenty  persons.  Our  entire  idea  at  the 
beginning  was  to  secure  suggestions  and  criticisms  so  that  none  of  the 
facts  included  in  the  talk  would  be  subject  to  exaggeration  or  inae- 


306  FJUST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

curacy  of  stutenieiit.  For  the  same  reason,  later  on,  the  talk  was  yivon 
before  two  of  the  Ohio  State  Medical  Societies,  meeting  in  annual  con- 
vention in  Dayton.  Still  later,  the  presentation  was  made  before  the 
Ohio  State  Board  of  Health,  and  before  The  American  Medical  Society 
in  annual  convention  at  Atlantic  City. 

The  entire  idea  was  to  put  up  a  scientific,  well-founded  talk,  in 
simple  language,  divested  of  all  medical  terms,  so  that  a  boy  fifteen  or 
sixteen  years  of  age  could  readily  understand  every  single  word  or 
reference,  and  this,  you  will  readily  admit,  is  a  difficult  problem.  To 
have  big  ideas  and  express  them  in  simple  terms  is  one  of  the  elements 
of  real  greatness  in  men. 

After  this  subject  had  been  presented  a  number  of  times  to 
technical  societies  and  technical  men,  largely  from  a  desire  for  con- 
structive criticism,  we  decided  that  we  would  present  same  to  our  high- 
grade  salesmen,  fearing  somewhat  the  outcome  of  the  venture.  Much 
to  our  surprise,  the  subject  has  provoked  very  little  criticism,  during 
its  entire  history ;  and  the  talk  has  been  given  to  all  of  our  appren- 
tices, to  the  younger  men  of  the  organization,  to  the  girls  (number- 
ing about  700),  in  modified  form,  to  all  of  our  salesmen,  and  the  vari- 
ous training  schools  for  salesmen,  and  to  the  members  of  our  Officers' 
School.  Some  of  the  letters,  expressing  appreciation  for  the  knowledge 
afforded,  have  been  particularly  gratifying,  and  have  repaid,  many 
times,  for  the  money  and  efforts  spent  in  preparing  the  talk.  ]Most 
of  the  men  were  glad  for  this  type  of •  instruction  mainly  because  of 
their  children.  If  the  community  is  to  be  protected,  the  policy  of 
silence,  and  the  concealment  of  vital  facte  must  cease,  and  what  better 
way  of  teaching  is  there  than  teaching  through  the  eye.  The  larger 
proportion  of  our  knowledge  comes  to  us  in  this  manner.  The  im- 
pressions made  are  lasting,  particularly  with  the  young.  jNIincing  of 
words  is  unknown  in  this  talk,  and  so  we  say  gonorrhea  is  clap,  and 
clap  is  gonorrhea. 

The  germ  which  causes  gonorrhea  is  as  easily  recognized  as  any 
criminal  in  the  Rogues'  Gallery.  "We  know  that  this  germ  and  no 
other  causes  this  disease,  because  it  is  always  present  in  the  body  of 
a  person  suffering  from  gonorrhea.  It  can  be  grown  outside  like  a 
plant,  and,  if  placed  artificially  in  a  healthy  man.  will  immediately 
cause  the  disease. 

Quite  a  number  of  diagrams  are  shown,  illustrating  the  simple 
physiology  of  both  male  and  female  reproductive  organs.  We  partic- 
ularly consider  these  diagrams  necessary  so  that  the  growing  boy  can 
be  told  that  the  sexual  organs  do  not  suffer  by  non-use,  and  to  illus- 
trate the  fact  that  the  medical  faker  scares  the  boy  by  undue  refer- 
ence to  emissions  which  might  be  occasioned  by  an  impacted  bowel 


SEX   QUESTIONS  '  307 

producing  pressure  on  the  seminal  vesicles,  making  said  emissions  a 
perfectly  natural  process. 

The  man  who  says  that  clap  is  no  worse  than  a  common  cold  is  an 
ignorant  and  a  dangerous  liar.  Thousands  of  sightless  babies,  sterile 
women  and  rheumatic  men  owe  their  condition  to  the-clap-no-worse- 
than-a-cold  lie.  Unquestionably,  the  time  for  hinting  at  unpleasant 
truths  is  past. 

There  would  be  but  little  need  for  the  discussion  of  gonorrhea  if  it 
were  not  for  the  fact  that  innocent  women  and  children  suffer  so 
keenly  the  wrongs  of  society.  A  man  may  think  himself  cured  of 
gonorrhea,  and  still  be  capable  of  giving  it  to  his  wife.  "Whatsoever 
a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap,"  but  in  this  ease  the  innocent 
wife  and  babies  are  often  the  reapers.  Blindness  from  gonorrhea  costs 
America  $16,000  a  day.  Not  long  ago  doctors  thought  gonorrhea  a 
mild  local  disease.  Now  all  good  doctors  know  better.  Beware  of  the 
one  who  laughs  at  it :   he  does  not  know  his  business. 

Comparative  slides  are  shown,  illustrating  the  normal  female  re- 
productive organs,  and  the  same  organs  infected  with  gonorrhea.  An 
innocent  bride  may  be  infected  by  her  husband.  The  germ  makes  its 
way  up  through  the  womb,  and  out  through  the  Fallopian  tubes,  where 
it  is  impossible  to  reach  it  by  injection  or  medication,  and  where  it 
rapidly  increases  in  number.  The  result  is  that  the  pain  constantly 
becomes  more  severe  until  finally  an  operation  is  necessary.  It  is 
said  that  60  per  cent  of  all  pus  operations  on  women's  abdomens  are 
caused  by  common  clap,  and  so  the  surgeon  finds  the  tubes  and  ovaries 
bursting  with  gonorrheal  pus.  They  must  be  removed  and  her  hopes 
for  children  are  blasted  forever. 

Syphilis,  the  second  form  of  venereal  disease,  occurs  in  three 
stages — primary,  secondary  and  tertiary. 

Primary  syphilis.  The  germs  shown  on  the  screen  enter  through  a 
break  in  the  skin,  even  though  that  break  be  microscopic  in  size. 
Several  weeks  later  the  first  real  symptom  is  noticed.  There  is  no  gen- 
eral disturbance  in  the  health  or  appearance  of  the  infected  one.  We 
would  ask  you  to  particularly  study  the  moving  picture  film,  giving  all 
of  the  characteristic  life  movements  of  this  spiral-shaped  germ  which 
causes  so  much  of  disease  and  suffering  in  the  world.  The  film  was 
made  in  Paris,  and  wonderful  patience  and  perseverance  were  required 
to  secure  the  results  depicted  here.  The  film  is  taken  through  an  ultra- 
microscope,  an  instrument  particularly  adapted  for  such  difficult  work. 
Also  consider  the  possibility  of  education  by  means  of  moving  picture 
films.  It  has  only  been  a  comparatively  short  time  that  the  scientific 
world  has  known  the  exact  cause  of  syphilis,  and  in  a  few  short  years 
such  progress  has  been  made  that  we  are  permitted  to  pry  into  the  in- 


308  F1K8T    NATIONAIj    CDNFERENCIO    ON    RACE    BETTliiRMENT 

lU'i-most  siH'ivts  of  Xiituiv.  As  in  the  case  of  gonorrhea,  syphilis  never 
develops  until  its  seed  (the  germ)  is  first  planted.  Wheat  never 
grows  unless  wheat  is  planted. 

This  subject  is  of  the  utmost  importance  to  every  living  being,  due 
to  the  fact  that  it  is  possible  to  accidentally  infect  the  innocent.  Treat- 
ment for  other  contagious  diseases  is  adequately  provided  for,  but 
thus  far  little  attempt  has  been  made  to  regularly  isolate  or  control 
these  most  destructive  diseases.  We  propose  showing  you  a  few  cases 
of  accidental  infection.  One,  a  roller  towel  case.  The  roller  towel  is 
ruled  out.  by  law,  in  a  number  of  the  states.  On  the  other  screen,  an 
innocent  infection  from  a  telephone  transmitter.  Here,  a  boy  of 
twelve  years  of  age,  an  employee  of  a  shoe  factory,  the  innocent  victim 
of  the  common  drinking  cup.  These  cases  readily  explain  the  legisla- 
tion, which  has  spread  all  over  America,  calling  for  the  abolition  of 
the  common  drinking  cup.  Two  men  infected  by  a  careless  barber; 
every  man  w^ho  patronizes  a  cheap  barber  shop,  where  no  precautions 
are  taken  with  reference  to  sterilization  of  tools  and  towels,  runs  a 
chance  of  acquiring  this  or  some  other  disease.  Even  the  doctors  are 
subject  to  accidental  infection.  This,  of  course,  is  not  to  be  wondered 
at.  Here  are  two  doctors,  one  infected  while  examining  a  woman 
whose  body  showed  no  exterior  signs  of  the  disease,  the  other  infected 
while  delivering  a  child  given  in  birth  by  a  syphilitic  mother. 

Secondary  syphilis.  Poison  distributed  throughout  the  entire  body. 
Enters  the  blood  stream.  Glands  enlarge,  skin  erupts,  general  con- 
dition of  health  fair ;  usually  little  or  no  pain. 

All  of  these  various  illustrations  are  taken  from  actual  subjects, 
colored  to  perfection  by  an  expert  artist. 

Public  opinion  has  been  moved  strongly  by  this  subject,  largely  due 
to  former  ignorance,  and  by  the  further  fact  that  refusal  to  consider 
the  cjuestion  spells  the  physical  deterioration  of  the  civilized  nations 
of  the  world.  Syphilis  is  poisoning  and  slowly  but  surely  undermining 
the  very  fountain  of  life,  sowing  the  seed  of  death  among  our  people, 
and  gradually  deteriorating  the  national  health.  It  is  estimated  that 
5,000,000  people  in  the  United  States  are  or  have  been  tainted  with 
syphilis,  and  yet  up  to  a  few  years  ago  a  question  of  this  kind  could 
not  be  discussed  in  polite  society. 

Tertiary  syphilis.  There  is  no  definite  line  between  the  secondary 
and  tertiary  periods.  This  stage  is  characterized  by  the  formation  of 
soft  tumors,  which  may  attack  any  portion  of  the  human  body.  Is  it 
right  that  diseases  that  are  causing  more  suffering,  more  expense  and 
more  deaths  than  any  other  disease  should  ])e  allowed  a  free  course,  and 
that  there  should  be  no  efforts  to  control  them  ? 


SEX   QUESTIONS  309 

Syphilis  and  gonorrhea  make  more  sokliers  in  the  United  States 
Army  unfit  for  service  than  any  other  disease.  A  marked  change  has 
taken  place  in  the  United  States  Army  and  Navy  since  instruction  in 
sex  hygiene  has  been  instituted.  The  Navy  Department  reported 
publicly  that  the  crews  of  the  sixteen  battleships  that  went  around 
the  world  returned  with  a  better  record  in  respect  to  veneral  disease 
than  was  ever  noted  before.  This  M^as  due  to  the  instruction  of  our 
sailor  boys  in  this  very  vital  subject.  The  Prussian  Army  and  the 
Bavarian  Army  have  presented  sane  instruction  along  this  line  for 
many  years,  and  their  total  average  of  venereal  cases  is  about  eighteen 
per  one  thousand,  about  one-tenth  as  many  as  w^e  had  according  to  the 
statistics  of  the  American  Army  prior  to  the  introduction  of  similar 
education. 

One  of  the  most  important  questions  before  tHe  Race  Betterment 
Conference  is  what  force  can  be  put  into  effect  to  deal  with  these 
formidable  evils  which  greatly  threaten  family  ties,  human  happiness 
and  the  very  life  of  the  race.  Until  recently  it  was  impossible  to  dis- 
cuss fearlessly  and  openly  the  question  of  prostitution.  The  original 
source  of  most  of  these  infections  is  in  that  of  irregular  commerce  be- 
tween the  sexes,  known  as  prostitution.  There  are  no  other  diseases 
whose  absolute  prevention  lies  so  wholly  in  human  power  as  these.  We 
believe  that  the  fellow  who  steals,  cheats,  robs  and  even  murders  is  not 
so  injurious  a  character  to  the  community  at  large  as  the  person  wlio 
distributes  syphilis. 

"Prostitution  is  a  commercialized  business  of  large  proportions, 
with  tremendous  profits,  controlled  largely  by  men  and  not  women. ' ' 
This  is  the  statement  made  by  the  Chicago  Vice  Commission,  an  epoch- 
making  report  of  utmost  value  to  the  entire  nation.  These  conditions 
are  with  us.  To  pretend  that  they  do  not  exist  is  hypocrisy,  far-reach- 
ing in  its  harmful  effects,  and  yet  it  is  hardly  fair  to  let  the  boy  find 
out  for  himself.    Many  have  to  their  sorrow. 

Prostitution  leaves  in  its  wake  sterility,  insanity,  paralysis,  the 
blinded  eyes  of  little  babies,  the  twisted  limbs  of  deformed  children, 
degradation,  physical  rot  and  mental  decay.  ,We  can  show  the  dis- 
figurements and  sores,  but  we  can't  show  the  suffering,  mental  agony, 
divorces  and  ruined  homes  caused  by  syphilis  and  gonorrhea. 

Can  prostitution  be  abolished?  Not  entirely.  The  history  of  the 
world  demonstrates  the  existence  of  this  vice  in  all  ages  and  among  all 
nations,  since  the  day  the  first  pages  were  written,  and  yet  we  can- 
not admit  that  prostitution,  as  a  commercialized  business,  or  anything 
akin  to  it,  is  necessary.  The  old  way  of  handling  the  question  was  to 
exterminate  with  statutory  enactment,  with  the  result  that  vice  is 
usually  driven  into  seclusion,  thereby  aggravating  the  evil.  The  new 


310  I'lKST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

way  must  l»c  a  caiuijaiiiii  of  ediu-atiou.  dealing'  w  illi  the  parents  ol'  the 
next  yeueration.  Cliristianity  and  Denioeraey  have  failed,  signally, 
thus  far  to  cope  with  these  evils,  which  are  sappiug  the  vitality  of 
civilized  society.  It  is  clear  that  no  one  force  or  agency  can  be  relied 
upon  to  bring  to  pass  the  remedy.  We  do  believe,  however,  that  there 
is  a  public  conscience,  which,  when  aroused  to  the  truth,  will  instantly 
rebel  against  the  social  evil  in  all  its  phases;  and  so  it  is  incumbent 
upon  all  right-thinking  men  and  women  to  raise  social  life  to  the  high- 
est standard  of  righteousness,  and  to  teach  the  youth  of  our  land 
loyalty  and  honor  to  womanhood. 

Since  this  is  an  audience  of  men,  I  would  say  that  the  one  thing 
that  we  can  all  do  is  to  live  cleanly.  Some  poet  of  the  past  has  aptly 
said,  "Your  actions  speak  so  loud  that  I  cannot  hear  your  voice." 
"We  all  have  greaf  influence  over  the  younger  life  of  the  nation  by  our 
example.  The  man  who  tells  dirty  sex  stories  should  be  suppressed. 
Let  him  tell  them  to  his  own  son  and  daughter. 

The  finest  crop  that  this  nation  raises  is  its  crop  of  American  boys. 
Ever)''  year  nearly  one  million  reach  manhood.  Many  of  these,  at  the 
present  rate,  will  acquire  gonorrhea  and  syphilis,  a  very  large  number 
ignorantly.  These  young  chaps  are  the  flower  of  American  manhood, 
our  owTi  younger  brothers,  the  boys  who  will  grow  up  and  marry  our 
sisters  and  daughters.  We  believe  that  they  have  a  right  to  this 
type  of  Imow^ledge,  and  that  they  should  be  forewarned  as  to  the  be- 
setting dangers  of  life.  You  remember  that  to  be  forewarned  is  to  be 
forearmed.  Such  instruction  should  be  given  preferably  in  the  home 
and  by  the  parents.  Unquestionably,  this  type  of  lecture  is  particu- 
larly suitable  for  the  enlightenment  of  parents.  It  would  be  folly  to 
introduce  sex  hygiene  in  the  schools  until  the  teachers  are  suitably 
trained  to  impart  this  knowledge  in  the  proper  way.  Intelligence  re- 
garding sexual  matters,  if  discreetly  imparted,  is  a  safeguard  to  the 
youth  of  the  country,  yet  the  indiscriminate  circulation  of  sex  infor- 
mation among  children  by  means  of  books  and  pamphlets  is  dangerous. 

We  realize  also  that  the  reformer,  so-called,  can  do  a  great  deal  of 
damage  in  handling  this  subject.  For  that  reason  a  sane  presentation 
of  the  subject  is  much  to  be  desired,  and  I  think  you  will  agree  with  me 
that  it  has  been  sane. 

The  greatest  menace  to  the  girl  is  the  man  without  a  spark  of  either 
bravery  or  honor.  Fathers  and  mothers  should  be  companions  and 
comrades  with  their  children,  far  more  than  is  customary,  and  there 
would  be  very  little  prostitution.  Today,  mothers  teach  their  daugh- 
ters nearly  everything  except  the  things  they  most  need  to  know. 
Why  not  place  sexual  matters  on  the  same  basis  as  any  other  natural 
function  of  life  ?    It  can  be  readily  accomplished,  utilizing  some  of  the 


SEX   QUESTIONS  311 

beauties  of  Nature,  for  instance  beautiful  tiower  slides  and  films. 
These,  especially  in  natural  colors,  permit  opportunity  to  mention  the 
botanical  and  zoological  side  of  reproduction,  and  also  call  attention  to 
the  beauty  of  Nature  methods  of  reproduction  of  kind. 

No  father  or  elder  brother  has  a  right  to  look  his  little  boy  or 
brother  in  the  face  if  he  is  letting  him  grow  up  in  ignorance  of  this 
most  vital  question.  As  we  learn,  let  us  teach,  preferably  through  the 
eye,  and  little  by  little  the  results  will  surely  come.  Venereal  dis- 
eases are  not  theories  but  facts.  The  only  way  that  we  can  save  our- 
selves is  to  tell  the  coming  generation  what  we  know,  and  practice 
Avhat  we  tell.  An  ounce  of  prevention  of  these  diseases  is  worth  a 
hundred  pounds  of  cure. 


A  MAN'S  PROBLEM 

(A  Special  Addres^s  to  "Women.) 

J.  N.  HuRTY,  M.D.,  Commissioner  of  Health,  State  of  Indiana.  Indianapolis, 
Indiana. 

p]arly  in  my  work  as  Secretary  of  the  State  Board  of  Health  of 
Indiana  I  took  up  this  problem  that  we  have  before  us  tonight. 
Two  members  of  the  Board  were  specialists  in  the  cure  of  social  dis- 
eases. Early  in  my  experience  in  medicine.  I  had  served  as  an  assis- 
tant to  a  specialist  in  that  line.  As  a  young  man.  I  was  astounded  to 
discover  some  of  the  truths  that  came  out  of  those  offices.  I  will  not 
attempt  to  tell  you  of  the  things  that  I  saw  there,  for  they  would  make 
your  blood  run  cold.  That  is  all  I  have  now  to  say  of  this  matter. 
But  it  started  me  to  thinking  early  in  life.  Can  the  human  race 
possibly  be  saved  from  the  terrible  social  diseases  ?  Is  it  possible  ?  I 
believe  it  is  possible.  Oh,  but  what  a  long,  hard  road  the  human  race 
must  travel  before  it  is  rid  of  the  social  diseases. 

But  where  lies  the  battle  ?  What  is  the  cause  that  these  terrible 
sexual  plagues  should  so  continually  and  so  horribly  plague  the  human 
race  ?  What  is  at  the  bottom  of  it  ?  I  think  the  principal  reason  lies 
in  the  very  strong,  exceedingly  strong,  sexual  appetite  of  men.  AVe 
know  full  well  that  that  appetite  was  given  for  a  purpose  by  the 
Creator,  and,  at  the  same  time,  He  gave  us  freedom  of  will  and  gave 
us  power  of  free  will  to  exercise  and  to  control  it.  The  social  evil  is 
largely  a  man's  problem. 

Let  me  tell  you  what  we  have  been  trying  to  do  to  check  this  evil  in 
Indiana  through  the  Health  Department.  We  have  given  a  great 
deal  of  time  and  a  great  deal  of  work  to  the  prevention  and  cure  of 
tuberculosis,  but  I  believe  this  is  more  important.  Now  that  we  have 
the  laity  going  upon   the  subject  of  tuberculosis,  the  state  health 


:W2  I'lUST    NATIOXAl,    CON  Kl'iUKNCl',    ON'     IJACK     lil'VI'Tliini  lONT 

autlun'itics  arc  \vitlulra\viii,u'  from  that  (ii^lit  llial  is.  I'r-oin  the  foiv- 
fi'oiit  of  the  liiiht,  to  take  a  place  in  the  ivai-,  to  |)usli  fi-oiii  l)ehmd. 
Now  we  are  trying"  to  start  a  ])iibli(".  oi)eii  light  against  these  horrible 
plagues,  which,  to  me,  seem  more  horrible  and  of  more  importance 
than  the  conquest  of  consumption. 

How  to  attack  them,  how  to  get  at  them,  that  is  the  question.  It  is 
obvious  and  plain  that  if  men  were  but  virtuous,  we  would  have  none 
of  them ;  that  in  proportion  as  we  can  make  men  virtuous,  in  that 
proportion  will  we  get  rid  of  them.  I  think  that  is  reasonable. 
How  shall  we  do  it?  Shall  we  commence  with  adults?  Shall  we  com- 
mence with  grown  men  that  have  not  restrained  themselves,  have  not 
acquired  that  control  over  themselves  which  they  should  have  acquired 
in  youth?  Shall  we  begin  there?  Will  it  do  any  good?  I  think  not. 
We  must  begin  with  the  child.  I  want  to  read  to  you  some  of  the  little 
documents  and  writings  that  we  send  over  the  state  in  order  to  pre- 
pare the  public  mind  to  receive  the  bare  truth.  We  send  out  a  circu- 
lar that  is  now  in  its  third  edition  of  115,000.  It  treats  of  this 
subject  plainly,  squarely,  straight  out.  It  was  at  first  denied  by  the 
rule  of  postal  authorities  the  privilege  of  the  mails  because  it 
spoke  so  plainly.  When  we  presented  this  circular  to  the  United 
States  postal  authorities  and  got  a  reply  it  would  not  be  admitted 
to  the  mail,  we  appealed  to  a  man  whom  we  all  know,  Theodore 
Roosevelt,  and  he  put  it  into  the  mails.  I  want  you  to  Imow  of  that 
one  service,  for  I  do  think  it  w^as  a  great  service.  Now  that 
circular  may  be  sent  in  the  mail.  We  are  glad  to  send  it  to  anyone 
who  will  write  for  it.  It  tells  the  story  from  the  scientific  standpoint. 
It  appeals  to  manhood  and  to  w^omanhood.  It  is  intended  more  for  the 
young  than  for  the  developed,  but  nevertheless,  we  find  it  is  read  with 
interest  by  all.  That  circular  has  gone  around  the  earth.  That  is  one 
thing  that  we  have  done.  Now  I  beg  your  indulgence  to  listen  to  one 
or  two  or  perhaps  three  of  the  little  sketches  we  send  out,  hoping 
thereby  to  prepare  the  public  mind,  for  we  get  letters  condemning  us 
for  taking  hold  of  this  subject  at  all.  In  tracing  back  and  finding  the 
names  of  some  authors  of  these  letters,  w^e  found  that  in  three  instances 
they  were  officers  in  churches,  protesting  against  any  rational  effort, 
any  kind  of  effort  to  check  the  social  plagues.  So  we  have  had  to 
try  to  prepare  the  public  mind,  and  of  course,  it  is  not  yet  prepared. 
The  first  sketch  is  entitled  the  Diseased  Child  or  rather  Diseased  Chil- 
dren : 

"A  weak,  sickly  child  is  indeed  a  sad  sight.  The  putty  complexion, 
the  lack-luster  eyes,  the  thin  hands,  arms  and  legs,  and  the  weary  look 
make  our  hearts  bleed.     But  why  is  the  child  diseased?     How  came 


SEX  QUESTIONS  313 

it  to  be  diseased?  Have  the  sins  of  the  father  descended?  If  they 
have,  why  is  he  not  arrested  and  punished?  If  he  were  to  slowly 
poison  the  child  with  a  poison  bought  at  the  drug  store,  he  would  be 
promptly  arrested  and  punished.  What  is  the  difference?  Ask  the 
child  which  poisoning  he  prefers.  He  will  certainly  tell  you  when  he 
has  suffered  and  salved  his  sores  for  a  few  years  that  arsenic  poisoning 
is  preferable  to  blood  poisoning.  Why  does  not  society  class  as  dis- 
graced him  who  bears  syphilitic  poison  in  his  blood,  having  wickedly 
put  it  there?  And  what  a  strange,  inconsistent  thing  is  society,  any- 
how. It  has  one  standard  of  morals  for  women  and  another  for  men. 
And,  so  long  as  this  condition  prevails,  so  long  will  the  blood  sins  of 
husbands  descend  upon  their  wives  and  children.  In  the  Orphans' 
Home  at  Indianapolis  are  seventeen  innocent  children  all  suffering 
from  the  hereditary  malady  which  is  worse  than  leprosy.  They  can- 
not develop  into  strong,  useful  members  of  society.  The  disease  pre- 
vents. They  will  be  a  burden  to  themselves  and  to  the  state  all  their 
lives,  and  possibly  produce  more  like  themselves.  Why  does  society 
permit  such  conditions?  We  strive  to  prevent  fire,  for  it  destroys 
property.  Why  not  strive  to  prevent  that  awful  disease  that  bums  up 
human  beings?  Is  it  our  high  intelligence  which  keeps  us  silent  and 
inactive  in  this  matter? 

"The  law  should  require  the  prompt  reporting  of  cases  of  the 
social  plagues.  They  are.  excepting  in  certain  instances,  ac- 
quired in  sin  and  self-disgrace.  Why  should  we  speak  of  the  matter 
in  a  whisper?    Is  our  silence  strength,  or  weakness?" 

This  was  sent  to  three  hundred  papers  in  the  state  of  Indiana  six 
years  ago.  Only  six  of  them  would  print  it.  Do  you  think  there  is 
anything  horrible  about  it?  Anything  terrible?  But  since  then, 
numbers — I  don't  know  how  many — have  printed  it  and  since  then 
much  editorial  comment  has  been  heard.  Let  me  give  you  another  one, 
simply  entitled,  ' '  Her  Baby  Died. ' ' 

"The  hour  for  the  funeral  had  arrived  and  neighbors  were  com- 
ing in  to  the  services.  The  dead  baby  lay  in  a  little  white  coffin  lined 
with  white  satin,  was  dressed  in  white,  and  flowers  in  profusion 
decorated  the  room  and  testified  to  the  sympathy  of  the  neighbors. 

"The  preacher  made  a  short  prayer,  uttered  a  few  comforting 
words,  a  song  was  sung,  the  little  baby  was  borne  to  the  white  hearse 
by  four  young  girls  in  white,  and  the  procession  moved  toward  the 
cemetery. 

"The  baby  had  died  from  intestinal  disorder  induced  by  wrong 
feeding,  yet  the  preacher  had  said — 'The  Lord  giveth  and  the  Lord 
has  taken  away. '  The  doctor  told  how  it  all  happened.  '  That  baby, ' 
said  he,  'was  born  strong  and  healthy.     The  mother  nursed  it  for 


;n4  FJK8T    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

weeks,  but  finding  that  nursing  interfered  with  bridge  i)arties  and 
other  social  affairs,  she  provided  a  bottle,  and  when  she  was  absent, 
her  aunt,  who  lived  with  her,  fed  cow's  milk  to  the  baby.  This  irregu- 
larity of  breast-feeding  soon  lessened  the  amount  of  the  mother's 
milk,  and  she  concluded  she  would  cease  nursing  altogether.  The  child 
seemed  to  do  well  on  the  bottle  for  a  while,  but  it  soon  became 
evident  that  something  was  wrong.  One  time  I  saw  the  mother  give  a 
piece  of  rich  pie  crust  to  her  baby,  and  I  warned  her  against  doing 
so.  She  told  me  she  found  the  infant  liked  coffee,  and  a  little  was 
frequently  given  to  it.  And  so,  despite  my  medicines  and  my  warnings 
in  regard  to  feeding,  the  child's  digestive  apparatus  gradually  broke 
down.  An  old  grandmother  told  the  mother  it  was  natural  for  babies 
to  throw  up.  Another  one  prescribed  soothing  syrup  which  contained 
morphine.  Another  one  recommended  anise  seed  cordial — and  so  it 
went,  the  young  mother  being  willing  to  depend  upon  drugs  and 
remedies,  but  not  to  practice  'prevention'  by  feeding  rationally. 
When  the  digestive  machinery  was  put  to  the  bad,  the  baby  finally  took 
dysentery  and  died.'  Continuing,  the  doctor  said:  'I  had  three  in- 
fants die  of  pneumonia  last  winter,  simply  because  their  mothers 
would  not  give  them  air  enough.  In  spite  of  my  instructions  that 
plenty  of  air  made  babies  strong  and  protected  them  against  colds  and 
coughs,  still  they  would  cover  their  babies'  faces  with  veils  and  nap- 
kins, keeping  the  life-giving  air  away.  The  foolish  idea,'  said  the 
doctor,  'which  seems  to  exist  everywhere,  that  fresh,  cold  air  is  in- 
jurious, must  somehow  be  extracted  from  the  minds  which  hold  the 
same,  or  else  pneumonia  and  dead  babies  will  always  be  wdth  us.'  " 
There  is  another  entitled,  "The  Ladies  and  the  Alley  Children:" 
"A  very  rich  lady  who  owned  a  beautiful  garden  concluded  to 
spend  the  summer  at  the  seashore.  While  contemplating  the  pleasure 
she  would  have,  the  thought  suddenly  rose  in  her  mind,  'What  shall 
I  do  about  my  flowers  ?  The  gardener  will  look  after  the  garden, '  she 
said  to  herself,  'but  the  flowers  which  must  be  picked  to  keep  the 
bushes  healthy  and  productive,  what  of  them?  They  must  not  be 
wasted.  Oh  !  I  know, '  she  said,  after  a  minute 's  thought,  '  I  will  tell 
Mrs.  Scottmann  and  Mrs.  Wharfington  to  help  themselves,  and,  graci- 
ous knows,  they  will  pick  them  close  enough.'  She  told  these  ladies 
(who  also  had  gardens)  to  help  themselves  to  her  flowers  while  she 
was  away. 

' '  One  day,  the  ladies  went  in  Mrs,  Scottmann 's  electric  cab  to  the 
beautiful  garden  and  entered  by  the  wrought-iron  gate  opening  on  the 
side  street.  They  carefully  clased  the  gate,  and  almost  immediately  the 
wan  faces  of  two  ragged  alley-children  appeared  between  the  bars. 
In  silence,  their  longing,  lack-luster  eyes  looked  upon  the  scene.    Both 


SEX  QUESTIONS  315 

ladies  were  richly  dressed,  and  the  alley-children  thought  the  ladies 
were  quite  as  beautiful  as  the  ilowers.  Finally  their  curiously  wrought 
ornamental  baskets  were  filled  with  beautiful  flowers,  and  Mrs.  Scott- 
mann  and  Mrs.  Wharfington  started  for  their  handsome  homes,  think- 
ing how  lovely  their  flowers  would  look  upon  their  mantels  and  tables. 
They  saw  the  wan  faces  between  the  gate  bars,  but  upon  their  ap- 
proach the  faces  disappeared. 

* '  The  ladies  placed  their  baskets  in  the  cab,  and  were  about  to  drive 
away,  when  they  remembered  they  had  left  their  silver  scissors  used  for 
cutting  the  flowers,  on  the  seat  near  the  fountain  under  the  pergola. 
Neither  was  pushed  for  time,  and  both  re-entered  the  garden  to  get  the 
scissors,  leaving  the  cab  door  open.  The  alley-children  returned  and 
glanced  into  the  cab.  They  viewed  the  handsome,  rich,  blue  interior 
for  a  moment,  then  each  snatched  a  rose  and  fled  down  the  alley.  A 
policeman  witnessed  the  theft,  but  he  simply  looked  away.  The  rich 
women  returned,  but  did  not  notice  that  two  of  their  roses  were  gone. 
They  could  not  possibly  miss  them  where  there  Avere  so  many. 

' '  The  alley-children  ran  directly  home  to  the  bare  room  where  their 
mother  lay  upon  a  bed  of  rags,  dying  of  consumption.  'See  what  we 
have  brought  you.  Mamma, '  said  the  girls.  '  How  beautiful ! '  said  the 
mother  in  a  whisper;  'but  where  did  you  get  them?'  'Two  lovely 
ladies,  who  had  each  a  basketful,  gave  them  to  us  for  you.'  'How 
kind, '  whispered  the  mother ;  '  did  you  thank  them  ? '  The  girls  placed 
the  roses  in  a  small,  cracked  pitcher  at  their  mother's  bedside,  and 
she  greatly  enjoyed  their  beauty  and  their  fragrance.  And  just  as 
she  fell  into  her  final  sleep,  the  ladies  who  sent  the  roses  appeared  to 
her  as  two  angels  in  her  vision." 

This  method  of  approach  we  think  is  doing  good.  We  are  getting 
the  thought  into  people  that  something  must  be  done  in  regard  to 
dealing  with  these  certain  problems.  That  is  the  first  idea  that  it 
seems  to  me  should  be  executed.  That  was  the  whole  object  of  this 
series  of  papers. 

We  have  more  of  them,  but  I  shall  not  burden  you,  but  shall  ask  you 
to  think  of  this  point :  That  diet  has  a  good  deal  to  do  with  the  per- 
petuation and  the  transference  of  the  sexual  plagues.  I  know  it  from 
experience,  such  as  no  one  except  those  can  know  as  have  either  been 
specialists  in  this  question  or  been  assistants  to  one,  as  I  have.  A  young 
man,  a  bank  cashier,  of  good  birth  and  with  pure  blood  in  his  veins 
at  one  time,  came  to  our  office  with  a  sexual  disease.  My  principal 
said,  ' '  How  did  this  happen  ? "  "  Oh, "  said  he,  ' '  don 't  ask  me. "  "  But 
I  want  to  know, ' '  he  said,  ' '  that  I  may  have  better  information  in  re- 
gard to  it.  He  said,  "I  was  down  town.  We  had  a  great  feast,  wine, 
cocktails,  champagne,  thick  beefsteak,  a  whole  list  of  stimulating  foods, 


316  FIKST    NATIONAL    OONPERKNCE    ON    RACK    HKTTKKMENT 

and  tluMi  tliore  eanie  up  some  stories  of  a  sexual  nature.  Had  I  stayed 
at  home  and  read  and  had  I  taken  a  frugal  meal  at  night,  I  would  not 
have  found  myself  sexually  stinnilated.  It  was  the  stimulation  and 
that  association  that  put  into  my  mind  the  sexual  act,  and  I  went  off 
Avhere  I  should  not  have  gone."  And  he  said,  "I  was  a  fool."  He 
Avas  a  fool  and  he  knew  it,  but  you  see  how  he  was  influenced. 

So  it  is  true  that  if  we  could  hut  change  the  diet  of  mankind, 
abolish  stimulants  of  all  kinds,  keep  them  out  of  the  human  body, 
it  would  be  best  for  the  brain  and  for  our  brawn,  best  for  our  success — 
to  keej)  stimulating  foods  away,  and  keep  drugs  out  of  the  human 
body.  Surely  this  appeals  to  everyone.  But  the  idea  is  abroad  that 
we  must  have  meat.  We  know  what  resistance  against  meat  will  do 
when  we  look  at  the  numerous  patients  who  come  here.  We  ask  them 
to  try  it,- but  the  cry  is,  ' '  Oh,  you  are  a  crank. ' '  But  experience  shows 
that  diet  has  something  to  do  with  it.  We  must  reform  our  diet.  The 
great  work  that  is  being  done  by  this  great  institution,  in  teaching  peo- 
ple how  to  keep  themselves  healthy,  is  working  against  the  sexual 
plagues,  which  have  so  terribly  cursed  us. 

I  doubt  very  much  if  the  discovery  of  salvarsan,  or  606,  for 
the  cure  of  syphilis  will  be  beneficial  to  the  race.  I  doubt  it  ex- 
ceedingly. Several  men  were  at  a  club.  They  asked  a  doctor  who 
was  present,  "Doctor,  is  this  a  sure  cure?"  Said  he,  "I  believe 
it  is."  Then  they  said,  I'Why  take  care  of  one's  self?"  But, 
they  don't  get  a  cure.  The  syphilitic  poison  has  its  effect  finally 
upon  the  race,  degenerating  it  slowly,  ever  so  slowly,  degenerating  the 
germ  plasm  that  is  carried  by  every  human  being.  Wliat  effect  will 
this  other  poison  called  ' '  606 ' '  have  upon  the  human  race  ?  It,  too,  is  a 
poison.  It  kills  the  spirocheta,  the  animal,  for  it  is  an  animal,  a  pro- 
tozoon  that  causes  syphilis.  It  kills  it,  but  how  and  with  what?  The 
poison  of  the  spirocheta  is  not  neutralized.  The  organism  itself  is 
destroyed  and  it  makes  no  more  syphilitic  poison ;  we  have  introduced 
another  poison,  so  I  doubt  very  much  whether  this  discovery  will  be 
beneficial  to  the  race.  That  it  will  be  beneficial  to  individuals  is 
certainly  very  plain  to  us  all. 

My  whole  refrain  is  that  of  prevention.  At  the  risk  of  your  having 
read  it,  I  want  to  read  an  Indiana  poem,  and  then  close.  It  is  pre- 
vention, not  cure,  to  which  we  must  give  attention.  We  must  finally 
let  all  mankind  know  that  to  be  sick  is  a  sin.  Of  course  it  is.  I  have 
been  sick,  and  I  know  how  I  became  so.  When  we  get  typhoid  fever, 
we  know  why.  An  individual  can  protect  himself  absolutely  against 
typhoid  fever ;  an  individual  cannot  protect  himself  absolutely  against 
consumption,  but  he  can  do  a  great  deal,  and  the  state  must  do  the 
rest.     Let  me  read  this  poem  to  close.     As  I  said,  it  is  an  Indiana 


SEX  QUESTIONS  317 

product,  and  I  do  not  want  you  to  forget  that,  for  I  am  proud  of  it. 
It  is  entitled  "The  Fence  or  the  Ambulance,"  and  has  been  printed 
abroad. 

FENCE  OR  AMBULANCE 

'Twas  a  dangerous  cliff,  as  they  freely  confessed. 

Though  to  walk  near  its  crest  was  so  pleasant; 
But  over  its  terrible  edge  there  had  slipped 

A  duke,  and  full  many  a  peasant; 
So  the  people  said  something  would  have  to  be  done 

But  their  projects  did  not  at  all  tally. 
Some  said,  "Put  a  fence  'round  the  edge  of  the  cliff," 

Some,  "An  ambulance  down  in  the  valley." 

But  the  cry  for  the  ambulance  carried  the  day 

For  it  spread  through  the  neighboring  city ; 
A  fence  may  be  useful  or  not,  it  is  time, 

But  each  heart  became  brimful  of  pity 
For  those  who  slipped  over  that  dangerous  cliff, 

And  the  dwellers  in  highway  and  alley 
Gave  pounds  or  gave  pence,  not  to  put  up  a  fence 

But  an  ambulance  down  in  the  valley. 

"For  the  cliff  is  all  right  if  you're  careful,"  they  said, 

"And  if  folks  ever  slip  and  are  dropping, 
It  isn't  the  slipping  that  hurts  them  so  much 

As  the  shock  down  below  when  they'i-e  stopping;" 
So  day  after  day  as  those  mishaps  occurred, 

Quick  forth  would  these  rescuers  sally. 
To  pick  up  the  victims  who  fell  off  the  cliff 

With  the  ambulance  down  in  the  valley. 

Then  an  old  sage  remarked,  "It's  a  mai-^^el  to  me 

That  people  give  far  more  attention 
To  repairing  results  than  to  stopping  the  cause. 

When  they'd  much  better  aim  at  prevention. 
"Let  us  stop  at  its  source  all  this  mischief,"  cried  he, 

"Come,  neighbors  and  friends,  let  us  rally; 
If  the  cliff  we  will  fence  we  might  almost  dispense 

With  the  ambulance  down  in  the  valley." 

"Oh,  he's  a  fanatic."  the  other  rejoined, 

"Dispense  with  the  ambulance?    Never! 
He'd  dispense  with  all  charities,  too,  if  he  could. 

No,  no!     We'll  support  them  forever! 
Aren't  we  picking  up  folk  just  as  fast  as  they  fall? 

And  shall  this  man  dictate  to  us?     Shall  he? 
Why  should  people  of  sense  stop  to  put  up  a  fence 

While  their  ambulance  works  in  the  valley?" 

But  a  sensible  few,  who  are  practical  too. 

Will  not  bear  with  such  nonsense  much  longer; 

They  believe  that  prevention  is  better  than  cure. 
And  their  party  will  soon  be  the  stronger. 


318  FIRST    NATIONAl.    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

Kii('(iui;il;('  IIumii.  tlicii,   with  your  luirsc,   Noicc  jiiid    \)vn, 

Ami    (while  uther  piiilanllirupists  dally) 
Tlu-y  will  scorn  all  pretense  and  put  a  stout  fence 

On  the  cliff  that  liani^s  over  the  valley. 

Better  yuide  well  the  younji'  than  reclaim   them  when   old. 

For  the  voice  of  true  wisdom  is  callini>'; 
To  rescue  the  fallen  is  good,  but  'tis  best 

To  prevent  other  people  from  falling; 
Better  close  up  the  source  of  temptation  and  crime 

Tlian  deliver  from  dungeon  or  galley ; 
Better  put  a  strong  fence  'round  the  top  of  the  cliff. 

Than  an  ambulance  down  in  the  valley. 

Prevention  is  the  thing,  not  cure.  "We  are  obsessed  with  the  idea 
of  cure.  Let  us  get  away  from  it.  Ijet  us  tell  those  who  are  sick,  A 
law  has  been  violated.  We  are  all  obsessed  with  the  idea  of  keep- 
ing men  out  of  hell.  Let  us  reverse  this,  and  by  prevention,  keep  hell 
out  of  men. 


A  WOMAN'S  PROBLEM 

(A  Special  Address  to  Women.) 
Dr.  Carolyn  Geisel,  Shorter  College,  Rome,  Georgia. 

Wha.t  I  have  to  say  is  just  this,  to  remind  you,  my  sister,  that  he 
who  spoke  before  me  said  it  is  a  man's  problem.  Well  then,  if  the 
problem  be  a  man 's — hear  me  with  patience  when  I  say  it  in  my  own 
way — if  the  problem  be  a  man's,  why  then  it  is  all  ours,  for  the  man 
is  ours.  He  is  yours,  because  you  bore  him ;  he  is  yours  because  you 
loved  him ;  he  is  your  son  first,  lover  afterwards,  your  husband  by  and 
by ;  he  is  yours.  This  problem  is  woman 's,  because  the  man,  your  son, 
was  yours  by  the  gift  of  Almighty  Grod. 

What  are  you  going  to  do  about  it,  then  ?  Have  you  a  part  in  the 
solution  of  the  problem  ?  I  said  the  problem  was  yours.  Wait  a  minute 
then.  First,  as  individual  woman,  can  you  help  solve  the  problem"? 
If  you  can,  how?  By  standing  straight,  but  that  does  not  sound  like 
much.  Let  me  emphasize  this.  Are  there  some  things  always  right — 
are  there?  Oh,  of  course.  Are  there  some  things  always  wrong?  Of 
course.  Then  hear  me.  As  an  individual  woman,  you  can  help  solve 
the  problem  by  standing  straight  every  single  time,  no  matter  what 
the  occasion,  for  the  thing  that  is  always  right.  Oh,  you  waver  so! 
I,  you,  we  waver  so  !  We  believe  deep  down  in  our  souls  that  something 
is  wrong — this  thing  that  someone  is  talking  about ;  it  is  wrong. 
In  some  little  corner,  when  a  group  of  some  kind  of  people  are  talking 
about  it  and  condoning  it  as  though  perhaps  it  wasn  't  so  wrong  after 
all,  we  keep  still.    Ah,  you  have  lost  your  influence,  and  your  influence 


SEX   QUESTIONS  319 

as  an  individual  from  that  time  is  naught  on  that  point.  Stand  square, 
and  say  a  thing-  is  right  when  it  is  right,  and  say  it  is  wrong 
when  it  is  wrong. 

I  am  saying  to  you,  then,  be  strong !  And  I  have  backing  from  a 
Holy  Book  when  I  bid  you  be  strong.  Read  it  yourself,  the  command- 
ments of  the  living  God,  Hear  me  read  it  to  you,  ''Be  strong,  quit 
you  like  men. "  To  whom  did  He  say  that?  Oh,  to  the  men,  of  course, 
and  to  us  who  are  mothers  of  men.  Be  strong,  and  quit  you  like  men — 
if  you  would  be  the  mother  of  a  man  and  not  the  mother  of  a  degen- 
erate. You  can  stand  squarely  for  a  thing  that  is  always  right  and 
squarely  against  the  thing  that  is  always  wrong,  by  your  actions  more 
than  your  words. 

Now,  come  on !  Is  your  door  ever  opened  to  admit  a  man  whose 
character  you  know  is  sullied?  Were  you  ever  guilty  of  inviting  into 
your  home  the  man  of  reputation  because  of  money,  the  man  of  so- 
called  family  standing,  the  man  of  position  or  influence,  or  because  of 
money  the  inan  who  had  trailed  his  soul  to  shame  in  the  red  light  dis- 
trict ?  Were  you  ever  guilty  of  that  ?  Then  you  did  not  stand  square. 
If  you  ever  admitted  to  your  parlor  by  invitation  or  consent,  whether 
invitation  or  no,  the  man  whose  reputation  was  to  your  knowledge 
sullied  or  unclean,  then  you  have  not  stood  true  to  the  things  that  you 
have  applauded  at  this  Conference.  If  you  ever  intend  to  solve  this 
problem,  which  is  the  greatest,  almost  the  greatest,  of  the  race  better- 
ment problems,  be  true  to  the  thing  that  is  always  right,  and  stand 
always  against  the  thing  that  is  always  wrong.  That  means,  shut  your 
door  in  the  face  of  the  unclean  man,  no  matter  how  much  money 
he  has.  Will  you  do  it?  That's  another  thing.  The  Race  Better- 
ment Conference  is  of  no  purpose  whatever  if  it  bringeth  not  forth 
results,  and  if  you  go  back  to  your  homes  today  to  do  what  you  have  al- 
ways done — some  of  you  have  always  done  right,  God  bless  you,  but 
some  of  you  have  been  uncertain  in  your  standing  for  the  things  that 
are  rights — if  you  go  back  to  your  homes  then  and  continue  to  be  un- 
certain, I  say  the  world  will  get  no  benefit  from  your  delegateship  to 
this  particular  Conference, 

Hear  me  then  I  He  who  comes  into  your  presence  accompanied  by 
the  enameled-faced  w^oman  of  imcertain  reputation ;  he  who  comes  into 
your  presence  and  comes  under  your  roof  accompanied  by  such  a  one, 
what  will  you  do  with  him  ?    What  will  you  do  with  him  ? 

'  Will  you  say,  as  I  heard  a  woman  say  a  few  days  ago,  "  Oh !  a  man 
must  drink  a  little  for  the  sake  of  company."  Now  are  you  as  un- 
certain as  that,  believing  as  I  think  you  do,  that  alcohol  is  the  tap  root 
of  this  fearful  problem  of  the  social  evil? 

What  about  the  places  to  which  you  go  ?    Young  girls,  I  want  your 


320  FIKST    NATIONAL    CONFKHENCK    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

attention.  Young  women,  I  am  talking  to  you. now.  What  about  tlie 
places  to  whieli  you  go  ?  What  about  the  company  you  keep  ?  What 
about  tlic  man  whose  invitation  you  accept? 

Oh:  closer  yet,  what  about  the  color  of  your  hair?  I'croxidc? 
Stand  squarely  there,  if  the  thing  is  not  right,  if  it  be  not  right,  against 
putting  on  the  label  of  sin.  If  you  put  it  on,  you  are  inviting  dis- 
aster. What  about  the  color  of  your  cheek?  Unnatural,  or  is  it  the 
badge  of  the  underworld?  What  about  the  arrangement  of  your 
gown  ?  What  about  it  ?  He  said,  he  whose  quiet  voice  you  listened  to 
with  such  rapt  attention,  standing  here  but  a  little  while  ago — he  said, 
the  indecent  gown  of  the  twentieth  century  woman  drives  many  a  man 
to  the  place  that  is  questionable.  Plear  me.  my  sisters,  hear!  You 
know,  you  do  know%  that  the  fashions  of  today  are  not  of  your  seeking. 
You  did  not  make  them,  but  I  call  upon  you  in  the  strength  of  your 
united  M;omanliood,  that  we  arise  in  our  power  and  demand  that  decent 
clothes  be  put  upon  the  market  for  us  to  wear,  or  else  that  we  remain 
in  our  homes  until  we  can  get  gowTis  that  will  be  seemly.  A  little 
matter,  is  it?  Not  a  little  matter,  if  by  the  mighty  power  of  sugges- 
tion, that  hardly  a  man  can  resist,  he  is  driven  by  it — that  power  of 
suggestion — to  the  place  that  is  ciuestionable,  the  results  of  which  are 
not  questionable. 

Next,  then,  let  me  ask  you  to  think  of  yourself  as  a  business  wo- 
man. Oh  no,  I  didn't  mean  in  the  shop,  I  am  not  going  to  take  time 
for  that.  I  am  not  thinking  of  you  as  women  in  commercialism,  but 
as  just  plain  women,  that 's  all.  I  want  you  to  think  of  yourselves  just 
for  a  minute  as  being  business  women.  Oh.  I  fancy  you  would  like  to 
fling  back  to  me  that  you  said  you  were  not  going  to  talk  business. 
Ah !  I  mean  the  business  which  we  call  the  majestic,  holy,  blessed, 
sacred  business  of  motherhood  itself.  Oh,  my  sister!  Nothing,  nothing 
in  all  God's  world  should  appeal  to  you  as  the  helpless  babe  that  lies 
against  your  breast !  Oh,  how  I  love  it !  I  was  wdth  a  woman  a  few  days 
ago  who  had  her  baby  lying  across  her  Imee.  I  said,  ' '  Do  you  love  it, 
honey  ? ' '  And  looking  into  my  face,  her  own  radiant  with  a  light  inde- 
scribable, she  said, "Love  it, love  my  baby?" — Then, taking  a  very  deep 
breath,  she  said,  ' '  I  love  it  so  that  if  Christ  had  not  gone  to  Calvary  to 
give  my  l)oy  life  eternal,  if  by  so  doing  I  could  secure  life  eternal  for 
him,  I  would  go  to  hell  that  he  might  go  to  heaven."  "Oh,"  I  said, 
' '  daughter,  that  would  hardly  be  love.  The  real  kind  of  love  for  your 
baby, ' '  I  said  to  her,  ' '  would  be  to  take  his  little  hand  in  yours  and  go 
with  him  to  heaven.  That  is  mother  love. "  I  want  to  ask  you  to  con- 
sider yourself  now,  I  am  asking  you  to  see  how  you  can  solve  the 
problem.  Consider  yourself  now  as  a  business  woman  in  the  business 
of  raising  a  man-child.     Can  you  raise  this  man-child  so  he  will  live 


SEX  QUESTIONS  321 

with  God  through  all  eternity?  Have  him  give  you  the  first  seven 
straight,  uninterrupted  years  of  his  little  life,  hold  him  to  your  breast, 
keep  him  close  to  your  knee  for  seven  years,  then  hear  me !  I  believe  I 
am  speaking  the  truth,  if  you  are  true  to  God  Almighty  and  to  Jesus 
Christ,  His  Son,  your  boy  will  be  safe  through  all  eternity. 
I  honestly  believe  it,  I  don't  believe  that  my  Lord  died  in  vain;  I 
don't  believe  that  salvation  is  of  no  avail.  I  believe  with  all  my  soul 
that  the  knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ  saves  from  sin.  It  is  written  in 
Matthew.  Read  it  yourself.  "And  thou  shalt  call  his  name  Jesus: 
for  He  shall  save  His  people  from  their  sins. ' ' 

Now  women,  close  attention  for  just  a  minute.  How  is  a  boy  to 
be  saved  for  all  eternity  or  kept  from  falling  in  the  world  if  he  knows 
not  Christ?  I  cannot  tell  you  how  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  saves, 
cleanses  from  sin ;  I  cannot  tell  you  how  the  knowledge  of  Jesus 
Christ  keeps  from  sin.  Lots  of  things  I  don't  know.  I  don't  Jmow 
how  breathing  air  into  your  lungs  keeps  you  alive.  I  know  it  does,  but 
I  don 't  know  how.  Explanation  does  not  explain  it  alL  I  know  that, 
by  some  mysterious  alchemy  of  a  power  that  is  divine,  the  knowledge  of 
Jesus  Christ  does  keep  from  sin.  But  how  is  the  boy  to  be  kept  who 
is  not  introduced  to  his  Saviour  ?  Then  I  am  asking  you  to  be  business 
women.  If  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  will  save  your  son  from  the 
stain  of  sin,  then  give  him  Christ.  Talk  about  606  for  your  boy  ?  But 
his  body  is  stained  with  sin !  Send  him  to  Vienna  that  he  may  be 
treated  by  606  ?  I  don 't  believe  that  there  is  no  remedy  for  syphilis. 
There  is  a  remedy,  the  remedy  that  God  sent.  He  came.  I  am  not 
even  talking  religion,  I  am  talking  plain  business  with  you.  It  is  not  so 
much  health  certificates ;  it  is  not  so  much  a  remedy  for  syphilis  that 
we  need,  it  is  God  and  His  Son,  Jesus  Christ.  I  am  not  trying  to 
preach,  I  am  only  trying  to  talk  business.  The  Catholics  know  that  for 
truth.  They  say,  ' '  Give  me  the  boy  till  he  is  seven  years. ' '  Then  let 
me  say,  "You  keep  your  boy  for  seven  years  and  let  him  get  acquainted 
with  the  Holy  Book  and  his  mother's  God;  let  him  see  his  mother  on 
her  knees,  and  you  have  got  your  boy  and  Satan  cannot  get  him." 
Let  me  say  it  now  from  someone  wdser  than  I  by  far,  ' '  If  virtue  be  in 
the  blood — and  that  is  the  way  to  get  it  in  the  blood — if  virtue  be  in 
the  blood,  vice  is  not  so  much  alien  as  it  is  impossible."  What  you 
want,  oh,  my  sister,  you  who  are  a  mother,  what  you  want  for  your 
boy  is  to  make  vice  impossible  to  your  baby  when  he  becomes  a  man. 
The  impossibility  of  vice  is  the  thing  you  want. 

Now  come  away  from  that,  from  the  child  on  your  knees,  nursing 
from  your  breast,  from  the  salvation  and  knowledge  of  salvation  as  it  is 
in  Christ  Jesus — come  away  from  that  now  to  your  business,  again, 
your  business  of  home-maker.     Let  me  repeat  w^hat  Doctor  Hurty 

(12) 


322  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

said.  "I  am  speaking  to  you  now  wholly  as  a  physician."  Ji'or  seven- 
teen long  years  I  have  had  the  great  honor,  blessed  privilege  indeed, 
to  be  associated  with  this  wonderful  institution.  The  most  of  you 
know  that  I  spent  some  years  of  my  life  in  rescue  work  away  down 
there  in  the  slums.  The  harlot  women  who  presided  over  what  might 
well  be  called  the  ''little  hells,"  wherein  were  girls  exploited,  as  Dean 
Sumner  said,  "for  the  mad  passions  of  indecent  men" — those  women 
said  to  me  over  and  over  through  the  years  that  I  did  rescue  work, 
"Oh,  we  couldn't  keep  our  girls  here  if  we  didn't  feed  for  it.  We 
always  serve  plenty  of  meat  three  times  a  day,  always,  and  we  always 
use  coffee  and  we  always  use  pepper. "  I  am  not  saying  that  because 
you  are  at  the  Sanitarium.  I  am  talking  to  you  as  individuals,  out  of 
my  experience  as  a  rescue  worker  and  a  medical  woman.  I  want  to  tell 
you  that  is  true.  They  could  not  keep  them  down  there  if  they  did 
not  feed  for  it.  The  harlot  who  presides  over  a  house  of  sin  knows  her 
business,  the  business  of  sin,  and  feeds  her  victims  to  keep  them  in  the 
business.  No,  that  is  not  a  fairy  tale.  Not  one,  but  dozens  of  these 
women  told  me  that:  Then  let  me  say  to  you,  You  are  not  in  that 
business,  but  you  are  presiding  over  a  home,  not  a  house.  Why 
not  study  your  business.  You  are  feeding  to  keep  men  safe  in 
the  world  and  to  get  them  into  the  Kingdom  of  God,  and  why 
not  study  how  to  feed  them  so  that  their  feet  may  take  their  hold 
of  the  straight  and  narrow  way  and  lead  them  up  to  His  King- 
dom? If  it  be  true,  and  there  is  absolutely  no  longer  question 
about  it,  if  it  be  true  that  some  sorts  of  food  waken  the  very 
demon  of  passion  in  human  life,  and  I  say  it  is  true,  it  is  your  business 
to  find  out  what  those  foods  are  and  never  to  serve  them  on  your 
table.  Study  your  business.  Then,  you  know — and  it  is  quite  well 
proved — that  vigorous,  physical  exercise  out  in  the  open  air  quiets  the 
hot  blood  of  the  individual.  Oh,  my  sister,  when  by  and  by,  the  roll  is 
called  up  yonder,  and  the  hard  task  of  rearing  a  family  and  keeping 
them  from  sin  is  all  over,  and  you  are  up  there  close  by  the  great  white 
throne  of  the  living  God,  and  your  children  are  with  you,  won't  it  be 
worth  all  the  price  you  paid,  if  the  price  meant  effort?  Won 'tit?  Ah, 
and  what  of  the  other  ?  If  some  day  she  comes  back  to  you  with  her 
baby  in  her  arms,  all  despoiled  and  broken,  because  of  the  shame  of 
her  life,  the  awful  mistake  of  her  marriage,  the  heartbreak  is  yours 
and,  in  a  way,  you  will  almost  deserve  it,  if  you  have  neglected  your 
business. 

Something  more.  And  this  is  my  final  word — it  is  about  our  posi- 
tion as  citizens  in  the  United  States  of  America.  You  say,  ' '  Why,  we 
are  not  citizens."  But  it  says  so  in  the  constitution,  anyhow,  and  I 
am  just  waiting  until  somebody  has  courage  enough  to  test  the  eon- 


SEX  QUESTIONS  323 

stitution  of  the  United  States.  All  persons  born  -or  naturalized  in  the 
United  States  are  citizens ;  it  is  so  in  the  constitution.  Well,  aren  't 
you  a  person,  my  lovely  ?  Then  you  are  a  citizen.  Are  you  ready  to 
do  your  duty  as  a  citizen  ?  Are  you  ?  I  believe  in  peace,  but  what  of 
him  who  says  peace,  peace,  when  there  is  no  peace  ?  Is  there  peace  in 
your  woman's  eyes  tonight,  you  who  have  listened  to  the  tragedies  that 
have  been  detailed  from  this  platform  concerning  the  white  slave 
traffic  ?  Is  there  peace  in  your  soul  ?  I  sat  there  just  last  night  and 
groaned  aloud  while  they  were  talking  of  the  white  slave  traffic.  I  sat 
there  this  very  afternoon  and  could  hardly  keep  my  place  while  they 
talked  again  of  the  white  slave  traffic  and  little  women,  our  sisters, 
imprisoned  through  a  nameless  torture  of  shame.  I  am  talking  to 
the  citizens  of  the  United  States  of  America.  Back  in  the  yesterday, 
not  so  very  long  ago,  not  much  more  than  fifty  years,  our  daddies 
took  off  their  coats  and  went  to  war,  went  to  war  to  strike  the  shackles 
of  slavery  from  the  wrists  and  ankles  of  the  black  men.  What  sort 
of  slavery  ?  A  slavery  to  honest  toil,  a  slavery  to  clean  manual  labor. 
And  no  one  lifts  a  hand  to  strike  the  shackles  from  the  souls  of  help- 
less little  white  women.  I  don't  know,  I  don't  know,  but  sometimes 
there  comes  into  my  soul  such  a  cry  of  rebellion  against  this  fearful 
outrage  to  our  womanhood,  as  well  as  to  our  liberty  and  peace,  that 
I  would  God  would  call  me  to  take  a  sword  in  hand  and  to  lead  you, 
a  literal,  veritable  army,  to  make  war,  literal,  actual  war,  until  this 
thing  be  stamped  out.  Vicious,  am  I  ?  Were  they  vicious  who  would 
free  a  black  man  from  labor  ?  Sensational,  am  I  ?  Was  he  sensational, 
who  declared  that  all  men  are  born  free  and  equal,  with  the  right  to 
life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness  ?  Was  he  sensational  ?  Then 
let  me  say  it  again — all  women  under  God  were  born  free  and  equal, 
and  because  of  the  precious  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  we  are  called  to 
liberate  our  sisters.  "But,"  you  say,  "Doctor  Geisel,  you  really  don't 
mean  it.  You  wouldn't  have  us  go  to  war?"  Hear  me,  then.  There 
may  be  a  peaceable  way  out.  There  will  be  thrust  into  your  hands 
before  very  long,  you  cannot  escape  it,  that  little  piece  of  paper 
called  the  ballot.  It  is  as  surely  coming  as  tomorrow  is  coming, 
wanted  or  not.  It  doesn't  matter — it  is  coming.  Will  you  use  it  for 
the  liberty  of  your  sisters  ?  Or  will  you  say,  ' '  Leave  politics  to  men. ' ' 
If  you  must  go  into  politics  to  liberate  helpless  little  girls  who  are 
enslaved  now,  then  do  it.  Do  it  as  quickly  as  ever  you  can.  Done 
noAv,  am  I,  when  I  have  asked  you  to  bow  your  heads  where  you  are, 
and  let  your  hearts  say  with  Kipling : 

"Lord,  God  of  Hosts,  be  with  iis  yet, 
Lest  we  forget,  lest  we  forget !" 


324  l-MKST    .NATIONAL    CONFERKNCK    OX    HACK    HKTTKKM  KNT 

THE  RELATION   OF  -EDUCATION   IN   SEX   TO   RACE   BETTERMENT 

AViNFiKi.i)  Scott  Hall,  Pii.D.,  M.D.,  Profossof  oT  IMiysiolo^y,  Northwcstcni 
rnivei'sity  Medical  School,  Chicaiio,  Illinois. 

By  race  betterment  we  mean  the  increase  not  only  of  the  physical 
health  and  eflficiency  of  the  race,  but  also  of  the  psychical  solidity  and 
nobility  of  the  race.  The  first  question  which  one  naturally  asks  in 
this  connection  is,  ' '  Hoav  may  this  race  betterment  be  accomplished  ? ' ' 
In  seeking-  an  answer  to  this  question,  we  turn  naturally  to  the  lower- 
animals  and  ask  how  they  are  modified  in  race  development. 

Those  species  of  the  lower  animals  that  have  been  most  closely 
associated  with  man — for  example,  the  horse,  the  ox,  the  sheep,  the 
hog-  and  the  dog — have  been  very  greatly  modified  and  very  greatly 
improved  in  modern  times  through  the  influence  of  factors  which  are 
very  largely  under  the  control  of  man.  As  we  classify  these  factors 
of  race  betterment  among  the  lower  animals,  we  find  that  they  natur- 
ally fall  into  two  groups :  first,  environment ;  second,  heredity. 
These  two  factors  are  the  universally  recognized  biological  factors  of 
race  change.  It  is  through  them  that  all  changes  in  living  things 
have  been  accomplished  as  the  millenniums  of  the  past  have  rolled  by. 

In  comparatively  recent  times  man  has  consciously  and  designedly 
modified  and  controlled  both  the  environment  and  the  heredity  of 
these  domestic  animals  with  which  he  is  so  closely  associated.  He  has 
secured  for  them  the  finest  possible  heredity  through  careful  choice  of 
the  animals  who  were  to  breed  the  young.  He  has  insured  for  them 
the  most  hygienic  possible  conditions  from  the  day  of  the  birth  of 
each  animal  until  its  complete  maturity.  It  has  been  kept  in  clean, 
comfortable  surroundings  and  provided  with  wholesome  and  nourish- 
ing food.  The  result  of  this  care  in  the  domestic  animals  has  been 
to  produce  horses,  cattle,  sheep,  and  hogs  so  far  superior  to  those  that 
existed  in  the  days  of  our  grandfathers  that  they  could  be  classified 
almost  as  different  species. 

Thoughtful  men  are  now  everywhere  asking  if  it  is  possible  to  ac- 
complish for  the  human  race  changes  anything  like  as  profound  as 
those  already  accomplished  for  the  lower  animals.  If  such  a  change 
is  possible,  it  is  generally  agreed  that  it  is  possible  only  through  the 
combined  influence  of  the  two  universally  recognized  biological  factors, 
— e7wiro7mient  and  heredity. 

The  various  conditions  of  environment  are  largely  comprised  in 
the  more  familiar  popular  term,  hygiene,  while  the  essential  elements 
in  heredity  are  practically  covered  by  the  popular  term,  eugenics.  We 
must  therefore  look  toward  hygiene  and  eugenics  as  affording  our 
sole  hope  for  race  betterment. 


SEX   QUESTIONS  325 

Now,  hygiene  accomplishes  two  things.  These  are  in  two  direc- 
tions. They  may  be  classified  as  toward  the  positive,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  toward  the  negative,  on  the  other-^or,  perhaps  better,  toward  the 
positive,  on  the  one  hand,  and  away  from  the  negative,  on  the  other. 
In  other  words,  hygiene  seeks  to  accomplish  certain  things  that  are 
agreed  to  be  good,  and-  to  avoid  certain  things  that  are  agreed  to 
be  bad.  It  seeks  to  promote,  in  the  individual,  habits  of  life  whose 
influence  is  to  steady,  to  stimulate  and  to  strengthen  both  physical  and 
mental  powers.  On  the  other  hand,  hygiene  seeks  to  avoid,  in  the  in- 
dividual, habits  of  life  whose  influence  is  to  derange,  to  deplete,  and  to 
destroy. 

In  a  similar  way  eugenics  presents  a  double  phase :  namely,  a 
positive  and  a  negative.  First,  it  seeks  not  only  to  promote  the 
propagation  of  the  fit,  but  furthermore  to  advance  the  efficiency  of  the 
fit.  Second,  it  seeks  to  avoid  the  propagation  of  the  unfit.  Among 
the  domesticated  animals,  eugenics  is  accomplished  easily  by  the  arbi- 
trary will,  guided  by  judgment  and  experience,  of  the  owners  of  these 
lower  animals,  so  that  the  mating  of  these  animals  is  more  or  less 
absolutely  controlled  by  the  will  of  the  owners.  In  the  human  species, 
no  such  arbitrary  control  is  possible  even  if  it  were  admitted  to  be 
advantageous.  What  is  true  of  the  control  of  eugenics  is  also,  in  a 
measure,  true  of  the  control  of  hygiene.  The  state  and  the  munici- 
pality may  arbitrarily  quarantine  such  contagious  diseases  as  scarlet 
fever,  smallpox,  etc.,  as  it  may  arbitrarily  refuse  marriage  license  to 
the  seriously  diseased  and  palpably  unfit.  To  such  an  extent  the  in- 
terference of  the  state  will  be  generally  welcomed,  but  we  must  recog- 
nize at  the  start  that  the  influence  of  that  interference  at  the  very  best 
can  accomplish  but  little,  important  though  that  little  may  be,  to- 
ward general  race  betterment.  It  will  decrease  the  percentage  of 
imbeciles,  insane,  criminals  and  degenerates,  but  important  as  this  is, 
it  can  hardly  be  looked  upon  as  accomplishing  race  betterment;  at 
best  it  can  only  stay  race  degeneration.  Race  betterment  or  actual 
improvement  of  the  rank  and  file  of  the  race  in  physical  and  mental 
quality  can  only  he  accomplished  through  positive  hygiene  and  posi- 
tive eugenics. 

But  positive  hygiene  and  positive  eugenics  can  be  brought  about 
in  the  human  race  only  through  education.  Education  should  lead 
the  youth  to  adopt  a  regime  of  hygiene  that  would  develop  in  him  the 
highest  possible  degree  of  physical  and  mental  efficiency.  Education 
should  also  lead  him  to  choose  as  his  mate  a  life  partner  who  possesses 
similar  physical  and  mental  qualities,  besides  possessing  a  blemishless 
heredity,  as  good  as  we  will  assume  his  own  to  be. 

The  study  of  social  conditions  reveals  the  fact  that  a  large  ma- 


326  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

jority  of  those  conditions  which  are  inimical  to  race  welfare  are  the 
result  of  ignorance  and  of  distorted  mental  attitude  regarding  the  sex 
life.  These  distorted  mental  attitudes  can  only  be  rectified  and  this 
deplorable  and  dense  ignorance  can  only  be  dispelled  by  education. 
Those  who  have  given  attention  to  this  problem  of  education  agree 
with  one  accord  that  the  distorted  mental  viewpoint  possessed  by  so 
large  a  proportion  of  the  population  dates  back  to  early  childhood  and 
is  to  be  attributed  solely  to  the  fact  that  parents  do  not  implant  in 
the  minds  of  their  children  the  wholesome  and  inspiring  viewpoint 
of  the  great  fundamental  truths  of  life. 

The  first  lesson  regarding  life  should  be  taught  by  the  mother 
to  her  questioning  child.  It  is  practically  a  universal  custom  of 
childhood  to  ask  the  mother  how  the  baby  came,  or  where  they  got  the 
baby.  The  thoughtful  twentieth-century  mother  accepts  the  question 
as  indicating  the  psychological  moment  to  teach  her  child  the  first 
great  lesson  and  to  give  it  a  wholesome  viewpoint  regarding  life.  So 
she  answers  the  question  of  her  child  truthfully  and  not  as  the 
mothers  of  a  generation  ago  did,  through  evasions  and  fantastic  fic- 
tions. 

The  twentieth-century  mother  recognizes  the  fact  that  when  her 
child  comes  asking  this  perfectly  natural  and  perfectly  fair  question, 
she  has  one  of  the  great  opportunities  of  motherhood— namely,  an 
opportunity  to  implant  in  the  mind  of  the  child  the  feeling  that 
motherhood  is  a  sacred  relationship  and  the  mother  a  sacred  object. 
One  twentieth-century  mother  answered  her  child's  question  in  these 
words,  "Baby  sister  came  out  of  mamma's  body.  She  was  formed 
Mdthin  mamma's  body.  She  was  formed  from  materials  that  were 
drawn  out  of  mamma's  blood;  and  that  is  the  reason  why  mamma's 
cheeks  are  so  pale  and  mannna's  hands  so  thin  and  white."  The 
little  boy's  eyes  opened  wide  with  wonder.  This  story,  told  in  such 
a  matchlessly  simple  way,  \^'as  incomparably  more  wonderful  to  the 
child's  mind  than  the  stork  story  would  have  been  and  he  looked  in 
his  wide-eyed  wonder  from  mamma's  pale  face  down  to  little  baby 
sister — back  and  forth — trying  to  comprehend  it  all.  Then  he  asked 
this  question:  ''Mamma,  was  I  formed  within  your  body,  too?*' 
And  the  mother  answered,  "Yes,  my  boy,  you  were  and  that  is  the 
reason  why  mamma  loves  her  boy  so — because  she  gave  her  own  life's 
blood  for  him."  The  little  boy's  wide-open  eyes  now  took  on  a  far- 
away look  and  he  seemed  to  be  trying  to  comprehend  the  great  truth 
of  mother  sacrifice.  Presently,  he  seemed  to  catch  a  glimmer  of  the 
truth  and  his  eyes  welled  full  of  tears  as  he  turned  toward  his  mother 
and  threw  his  arms  about  her  neck,  saying,  "0,  mamma,  mamma, 
I  never  loved  you  so  much  before. ' ' 


SEX  QUESTIONS  327 

When  the  mother  in  whose  experience  the  above  episode  had  oc- 
curred, related  it  to  the  writer,  he  asked  her  what  her  boy's  attitude 
had  been  toward  motherhood  and  she  replied,  "Since  the  day  I  told 
him  how  baby  sister  came  and  how  he  had  come,  he  has  seemed  to  look 
upon  motherhood  as  a  sacred  relationship."  It  is  the  uniform  and 
universal  testimony  of  parents  who  have  been  telling  the  storj'-  of  life 
in  this  frank,  sympathetic,  earnest  and  serious  way  to  their  children 
in  answer  to  the  instinctive  questions  of  childhood,  that  the  children 
accept  these  truths  as  sacred,  that  they  are  drawn  into  a  much  closer 
and  confidential  relationship  to  the  parents,  that  they  are  protected 
against  contamination  of  the  mind  by  associates  of  low  ideals,  and 
that  they  are  also  protected  against  being  misled  by  older,  low-minded 
associates  into  deleterious  and  depleting  personal  habits. 

While,  as  intimated  above,  the  primary  responsibility  for  this 
teaching  in  early  childhood  must  naturally  rest  upon  the  mother,  a 
responsibility  no  less  real  and  serious,  though  less  urgent  and  imme- 
diate, rests  also  upon  the  paternal  ancestor  and  the  teacher  of  the 
young  child.  The  father  should  reinforce  the  mother's  teaching  and, 
in  the  same  spirit  in  which  the  mother  tells  the  story  of  life,  the 
father  should  confirm  it  whenever  the  child  comes  to  him  seeking  con- 
firmation. In  no  way  can  the  father  more  positively  teach  the  sacred- 
ness  of  motherhood  to  his  children  than  by  uniformly  showing  toward 
the  mother  the  spirit  of  affection  and  tender  solicitude  for  her  well- 
being  and  happiness.  Such  an  attitude  speaks  much  more  loudly  and 
impressively  than  any  words  which  the  father  could  utter,  his  personal 
feeling  of  the  sacredness  of  motherhood.  The  children  instinctively 
catch  the  spirit  of  the  father  and  it  confirms  and  fixes  indelibly  the 
attitude  which  the  mother  herself  implanted  by  her  story  of  life. 

The  teacher  of  the  child,  before  that  child  reaches  the  thirteenth 
to  the  fifteenth  year,  should  not  be  called  upon  and  should  not  feel  a  re- 
sponsibility for  imparting  to  the  child  these  great  fundamental  truths 
of  life  which  it  is  the  inherent  right  of  the  child  to  hear  from  the  lips 
of  his  parents  and  which  it  is  the  natural  privilege  of  the  parents 
to  impart  direct  to  their  own  offspring.  However,  the  teacher  does 
carry  a  very  definite  responsibility  and  one  which  may  not  be  evaded. 
This  responsibility  comes  very  naturally  with  the  teacher's  relation 
to  the  home.  When  we  consider  that  the  school  is  an  extension  of 
the  home  and  the  teacher,  so  to  speak,  an  extension  of  the  parents,  or, 
we  might  say,  ^'vicarious  parent,"  it  is  easy  to  understand  how 
natural  and  essential  this  responsibility  is.  The  teacher  is  respon- 
sible for  two  very  definite  things  in  the  education  of  the  young  child 
between  his  fifth  and  his  fifteenth  year.  First,  the  teacher  should 
show  the  same  vigilant  watchfulness  that  a  mother  shows  to  protect 


328  FJKST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERME^^T 

the  child  against  the  dek^tcrious  iiitluenee'  of  the  occasional  pupil  that 
is  found  from  time  to  time  in  every  school,  namely,  the  pupil  whose 
home  influence  has  been  weak  or  bad  and  whose  associations  have  per- 
haps been  vicious.  Such  a  child  is  quite  likely  to  be  physically  pre- 
cocious and  mentally  backward  and  thus  be  thrown  into  association 
with  children  from  one  to  three  years  younger  than  himself.  The 
influence  of  such  a  pupil  in  a  school  may  be  most  unfortunate  and  it 
requires  the  greatest  vigilance  and  tact  on  the  part  of  the  teacher  to 
protect  the  children  against  such  an  influence.  First,  then,  the  teacher 
must  show  all  vigilance  and  tact  in  protecting  the  children  of  her 
school  against  bad  influences.  As  a  rule,  this  can  perhaps  be  best 
accomplished  through  such  an  administration  of  school  sports  and 
recreations  as  fully  and  completely  to  occupy  the  minds  of  the  pupils 
during  the  hours  when  they  are  on  the  school  grounds  but  not  in  the 
school  room.  Thus,  again,  turning  the  mind  toward  the  positive  and 
away  from  the  negative. 

Second,  the  teacher  should  accept  every  opportunity  which  pre- 
sents itself  to  implant  in  the  mind  of  the  child,  or  we  may  perhaps 
better  say,  to  confirm  in  the  mind  of  the  child,  the  same  wholesome 
attitude  regarding  the  sacredness  of  life  and  the  sanctity  of  home  re- 
lationships which  she  herself  holds  in  her  own  mind  and  which  she 
may  assume  has  been  implanted  by  the  parents  in  the  minds  of  the 
children.  Many  an  opportunity  will  be  offered  the  teacher  for  drop- 
ping a  word  in  harmony  with  this  mental  attitude  in  the  course  of 
the  nature  study  work.  Even  in  the  kindergarten,  it  is  a  very  common 
thing  for  the  teacher  to  have  a  little  family  of  baby  kittens,  of  baby 
rabbits,  or  baby  birds,  for  the  children  to  take  care  of  and  to  love. 
While  the  thoroughly  ecjuipped  and  tactful  teacher,  who  under- 
stands the  psychology'  of  youth,  will  not  make  opportunities  repeatedly 
to  impress  "morals"  about  maternal  and  filial  relationships,  the 
teacher  may.  not  infrequently,  drop  some  remark  that  leaves  an  in- 
delible impression  upon  the  child  regarding  these  relationships.  The 
social  ethics  of  the  robin's  family,  housed  in  a  nest  that  may  be 
watched  from  the  schoolroom  window,  may  set  forth  in  compelling  con- 
viction the  whole  law  and  gospel  of  social  ethics  of  human  society. 
While,  in  this  teaching,  we  must  take  care  not  to  attribute  to  the 
robins  a  degree  of  consciousness  and  discernment  commensurate  Avith 
that  of  the  human  species,  the  most  conservative  biologist  must  admit 
that  the  same  kind  of  sentiment  which  prompts  parental  care  on  the 
part  of  the  human  mother  prompts  it  on  the  part  of  the  robin  mother 
— that  maternal  altruism  in  the  human  species,  while  possessing  a 
greater  element  of  emotion  and  a  smaller  element  of  the  automatic, 
is,  from  a  psychological  standpoint,  the  natural  and  necessary  out- 


SEX  QUESTIONS  329 

growth  in  man  of  the  same  thing  which  prompts  the  sacrifice  and  love 
of  the  robin  mother. 

The  Nature  Teaching,  therefore,  in  the  public  school  affords  the 
teacher  an  opportunity  to  make  an  atmosphere  about  life  that  im- 
presses the  child  with  the  sacredness  of  all  life  and  with  the  special 
sacredness  of  human  life  and  of  human  parenthood. 

We  have  now  set  forth  in  sufficient  detail  the  character,  if  not  the 
whole  content,  of  the  teaching  regarding  the  sex  life  that  the  child 
should  have  up  to  the  threshold  of  adolescence,  which  may  be  taken  as 
about  thirteen  years  for  the  girl  and  about  fifteen  for  the  boy.  Just 
before  the  crossing  of  the  threshold  from  girlhood  into  womanhood, 
or  from  boyhood  into  manhood,  the  first  lesson  regarding  the  in- 
dividual sex  life  should  be  taught  to  the  girl  by  her  mother  and  to  the 
boy  by  his  father.  This  first  lesson  is  the  lesson  of  womanhood  or  of 
manhood  respectively. 

I.    Womanhood  or  Manhood 

The  parent  should  seek  a  favorable  opportunity  for  a  heart-to-heart 
talk  with  the  youth  who  is  approaching  the  threshold  of  adulthood  and 
should  explain  what  it  means  to  grow  into  womanhood  or  manhood 
as  the  case  may  be.  The  mother,  for  example,  explains  to  her  daughter 
the  phenomena  of  physical  and  mental  development  of  the  girl  into 
the  woman  and  pictures  womanhood  in  such  vivid  and  glowing  terms 
that  it  fills  the  whole  soul  of  the  girl  with  a  consuming  desire  to  grow 
into  the  highest  type  of  womanhood.  Then  the  mother  explains  that 
this  wonderful  development  of  the  physical,  mental  and  spiritual 
qualities  of  womanhood  is  dominated  and  controlled  by  a  wonderful 
and  magical  substance  that  is  prepared  in  the  ovaries  of  the  girl, 
absorbed  into  her  blood  and  distributed  throughout  the  body  from  the 
threshold  of  womanhood,  throughout  midlife  and  until  the  beginning 
of  old  age.  The  natural  influence  and  result  of  this  story  of  woman- 
hood, told  to  the  girl  by  the  mother  in  the  same  spirit  in  which  she, 
years  before,  told  her  the  story  of  motherhood,  is  to  impress  upon 
the  mind  of  the  girl,  so  strongly  that  it  is  never  effaced,  the  feeling 
which  amounts  to  a  dominant  conviction  that:  HER  PERSON  IS 
SACRED  TO  HER  WOMANHOOD. 

'This  teaching  fortifies  the  girl  absolutely  against  the  malevolent 
influences  of  low-minded,  older  girls  with  whom  she  might,  by  some 
ill  chance,  be  thrown  into  association  in  the  school. 

In  a  similar  way,  the  father  should  tell  his  twelve-year-old  boy  the 
story  of  manhood  and  arouse  in  the  youth  a  consuming  desire  to  grow 
into  the  highest  type  of  manhood.  As  a  part  of  this  lesson,  he  should 
reveal  to  his  boy  the  new-found  truth  that  the  development  of  manly 


330  FIRST    NATIONAL    CUNFEKENCE    OX    RACE    BETTERMENT 

qualities  is  caused  and  ooutrolled  in  body  and  mind  through  the  in- 
fluence of  an  Internal  Secretion  prepared  by  the  testicles,  absorbed 
into  the  blood  and  distributed  throughout  the  body.  This  substance, 
carried  into  the  muscles  with  the  blood,  causes  these  muscles  to  grow 
big  and  hard,  carried  into  the  brain  and  spinal  cord,  lights  the  fires  of 
manhood  in  the  young  man's  brain  and  these  fires  shine  through  his 
eyes  and  illuminate  his  face.  When  the  boy  realizes  that  a  substance 
made  in  his  testicles  holds  the  secret  of  manhood,  he  is  fortified 
against  any  evil  influences  to  which  he  may  be  subjected  by  his  asso- 
ciates. A  boy  thus  instructed  is  absolutely  protected  against  being 
misled  by  low-minded  associates  into  destructive,  and  depleting  habits. 
He  learns  that  great  lesson  of  life:  HIS  PERSON  IS  SxlCRED  TO 
HIS  MANHOOD. 

II,    Periodicity 

At  the  time  that  the  youth  crosses  the  threshold  from  youth  into 
womanhood  or  manhood,  respectively,  the  parents  should  impart  the 
second  lesson  concerning  the  sex  life.  This  second  lesson  consists  of 
an  explanation  of  the  periodicity  of  the  sex  life  upon  which  the  youth 
is  entering.  It  is  little  short  of  a  tragedy  in  the  case  of  many  a  girl  to 
enter  upon  womanhood  with  no  explanation  of  the  experiences  to 
which  she  is  introduced  incident  to  this  new  phase  of  life.  Many  ques- 
tions crowd  into  her  mind,  demanding  answer.  When  no  answers  are 
forthcoming,  we  cannot  wonder  that  her  heart  is  filled  with  rebellion 
at  life  and  its  unexplained  mysteries.  Society,  therefore,  demands 
that  mothers  answer  frankly  the  questions  that  come  into  the  minds  of 
their  daughters  at  this  period  of  life.  The  mother  Avill  therefore  ex- 
plain to  her  daughter  adequately  the  periodicity  of  the  sex  life  and 
will  further  explain  that  this  experience  to  which  the  girl  is  intro- 
duced is  her  Creator's  preparation  of  her  for  future  motherhood. 
This  explanation  will  control  the  girl's  mental  attitude  toward  woman- 
hood. Instead  of  rebelling  against  the  experiences  of  womanhood, 
she  exults  in  its  wonders  and  its  possibilities. 

In  a  similar  way,  the  father  explains  frankly  to  his  boy  the 
periodicity  in  his  life  and,  in  thus  explaining,  forestalls  the  worry 
and  dispels  the  fear  that  would  surely  come  but  for  the  explanation, 

III.  ■  Social   Relationships 

Early  in  the  adolescent  period,  say  the  fifteenth  or  sixteenth  year 
for  the  girl  and  the  sixteenth  or  seventeenth  year  for  the  young  man, 
there  should  be  some  very  definite  instruction  on  the  part  of  parents 
regarding  social  relationships.  This  lesson  might  very  properly  be 
given  when  fifteen-year-old  Margaret  and  seventeen-year-old  John  are 


SEX  QUESTIONS  331 

seated  with  mother  and  father  about  the  family  hearthstone.  It 
will  be  a  very  wholesome  experience  for  John  to  hear  his  mother  in- 
structing Margaret  regarding  the  social  relationships,  because  he  is 
just  beginning  to  enter  with  zest  into  society. 

The  mother  will  explain  to  Margaret  that  in  all  her  social  relation- 
ships with  her  young  gentlemen  friends,  she  should  have  a  jolly  good 
time,  but  should  permit  no  familiarities.  The  mother  may  well  ex- 
plain to  the  daughter  somewhat  in  detail  the  reasons  why  the  parents, 
from  their  broader  experiences  in  life,  make  these  rules  for  their  chil- 
dren, and  explain  that  it  is  not  to  debar  the  children  from  the  enjoy- 
ment of  any  legitimate  pleasure ;  that  these  rules  are  given  rather 
to  insure  the  greatest  ultimate  joy  in  life. 

As  John  hears  this  instruction  from  his  mother  to  his  sister,  he 
very  naturally  thinks  to  himself,  "My  girl  friend,  Jennie,  must  have 
received  just  such  instruction  from  her  mother,  so  it's  up  to  me,  if  I 
am  to  be  the  chivalrous  young  man  that  I  shall  not  be  ashamed  of,  to 
treat  my  girl  friend,  Jennie,  in  the  way  that  I  would  have  the  other 
fellow  treat  my  sister." 

The  parents  explain  to  their  children  that  such  common  familiar- 
ities as  putting  the  arm  about  a  girl's  waist  or  kissing  her — familiari- 
ties which  many  young  people  look  upon  in  a  frivolous  way  and  carry 
off  with  a  jest — are  unfortunate  and  dangerous  familiarities  because, 
harmless  and  innocent  though  they  may  be  in  themselves,  they  break 
down  the  delicate  self-respecting  reserve  of  the  girl  and  in  many 
cases,  by  insidious  advances,  lead  the  way  to  other  familiarities  which 
eventually  compromise  the  dignity  of  the  girl's  womanhood,  perhaps 
even  compromise  her  character.  The  young  people  should  have  it 
very  clearly  set  forth  that  the  only  absolute  safety  for  the  girl  is  not 
to  permit  the  beginning  of  familiarity. 

Let  the  young  people  be  taught  that  the  embrace  is  Society's 
Sacred  Symbol  of  Protection  and  that  the  kiss  is  Society's  Sacred 
Symbol  of  Affection.  Once  that  lesson  is  clearly  impressed,  we  may 
trust  the  young  people  to  guard  even  the  threshold  of  familiarity. 

Young  people  of  this  age  are  living  over  again  the  impulses  and 
the  instincts  of  Chivalry.  Instinctively,  they  acquire  a  code  of  honor 
inherited  from  days  of  Chivalry :  The  honor  of  wommi  and  a  square 
deal  among  men.  Every  knight  stood  ready  to  drop  in  his  tracks, 
shedding  his  blood  or  laying  down  his  life  to  enforce  this  code  of 
honor.  So,  the  youth  of  today  can  be  very  easily  inspired  to  adopt 
this  code  of  honor  and  to  be  ready  to  fight  for  it.  Most  of  his  in- 
struction in  this  lesson  No.  Ill  should  be  positive  in  its  char- 
acter and  should  seek  to  inspire  in  the  youth  the  spirit  of  chivalry 
and  of  altruism. 


,>.>L'  KIKST    XATIONAI-    CONFEHENCE    l)N    RACE    BETTERMENT 

The  neyjitive  side  oi"  Social  Kclatioiisliips  should  call  Ihc  attention 
of  the  young  people  to  certain  utiroitunate  things  in  human  society 
that  must  be  avoided.  Departure  i'rom  the  high  ethical  standards  set 
forth  above  is  uniformly  punished.  This  natural  retribution  may. 
take  various  forms,  but  as  the  laws  of  Nature  are  immutable,  so  the 
punishment  that  Mother  Nature  metes  out  for  the  one  who  breaks  her 
law  follows  absolutely.  One  of  the  forms  is  found  in  those  con- 
tagious diseases  which  are  disseminated  largely  through  illicit  social 
relationships.  Enough  should  be  told  every  young  person  by  mother 
and  father  so  that  the  daughter  and  the  son  will  realize  that  the 
breaking  of  Nature 's  laws  is  sure  to  bring  a  punishment  in  some  form. 
This  method  of  instruction  puts  the  matter  in  its  proper  perspective 
and  links  it  up  not  only  with  the  physical  and  intellectual  life,  but  also 
with  the  moral  life,  thus  being  an  important  element  not  only  in  the 
formation  of  character,  but  in  the  solidification  and  fortification  of 
character. 

IV.    Eugenics 

The  relation  of  education  in  sex  to  eugenics  is  a  most  important 
one.  As  alreaciy  intimated  above, ,  in  the  introductory  paragraphs, 
state  laws  guarding  the  licensure  to  marriage  may  help  some  in 
eugenics,  but  at  most,  little  can  be  accomplished  through  state  inter- 
vention. Most  that  may  be  hoped  for  in  race  betterment  through 
eugenics  must  be  accomplished  through  education.  This  education 
should  begin  in  the  later  teens,  in  the  case  of  both  the  young  woman 
and  the  young  man,  and,  like  the  other  lessons  in  life,  should  em- 
phasize, first  of  all  and  most  strongly,  the  positive  side,  though  not 
omitting  the  negative  side. 

A — Positive  Eugenics 

That  young  woman  who  has  come  to  the  estate  of  ripe  young 
womanhood  at  twenty-one  to  twenty-three  years  of  age,  having 
learned  all  the  lessons  set  forth  above  from  the  lips  of  a  loving,  sympa- 
thetic, clear-visioned  mother,  having  in  many  a  heart-to-heart  talk 
wdth  mother  received  full  and  adequate  answers  to  the  hundred  and 
one  questions  that  crowd  into  the  girl's  mind,  is  in  a  mental  attitude 
toward  mother  easily  to  be  led  and  guided  as  to  her  choice  of  a 
future  life  partner.  "We  may  also  assume  that  such  a  young  woman 
sees  in  her  father  and  her  brothers  men  who  help  her  to  accpire  a 
high  ideal  of  manhood.  Mother  and  daughter  will  discuss  manhood 
and  the  elements  of  ideal,  perfect  manhood — perfect  physically, 
mentally  and  morally.  A  girl  who  has  acquired  such  a  high  ideal  of 
manhood  can  be  trusted  not  to  fall  in  love  with  and  marrv  a  man  who 


SEX   QUESTIONS  333 

falls  far  short  of  this  ideal.  Of  course,  we  must  recognize  that 
"love  is  blind."  which  is  simply  another  way  of  saying  that  a  young 
woman  may  be  led  to  ignore  many  a  shortcoming  in  the  man  who 
showers  attentions  upon  her  and  protests  undying  love  and  volubly 
promises  to  reform.  The  days,  however,  of  the  ill-advised  mating  of 
a  perfect  woman  with  a  grossly  imperfect  man,  with  the  hope  of  over- 
coming his  imperfections,  are  rapidly  passing.  Her  instruction  in  the 
elements  of  manhood  enables  her  to  analyze,  and  she  instinctively 
stops  to  analyze  before  she  permits  her  heart  to  go  out  to  a  man. 

In  a  similar  way,  the  young  man  should  be  taught  to  recognize 
ideal  womanhood  and,  having  made  himself  worthy  of  a  perfect  wo- 
man, to  look  for  one  for  a  wife. 

B — Negative   Eugenics 

The  preparation  of  young  people  for  a  wise  choice  of  a  life  partner 
is  not  complete  until  they  know  some  of  the  things  assiduously  to  be 
avoided  in  this  choice  of  a  life  partner.  Every  young  person  should 
know  that  there  are  certain  serious  impairments,  physical  or  mental, 
that  may  be  transmitted  from  parent  to  child,  and  that  there  are 
other  such  impairments  that  positively  will  be  thus  transmitted. 
Among  such  impairments  must  be  noted  INSANITY,  FEEBLE- 
MINDEDNESS, DEGENERACY,  CRIMINALITY,  especially  when 
such  serious  impairments  are  noted  to  occur  in  successive  generations, 
— several  individuals  in  each  generation.  Even  though  the  individual 
in  question  may  seem  to  be  ciuite  normal,  if  he  has  tAvo  or  three  im- 
paired brothers  and  if  one  of  his  parents  and  perhaps  one  or  two  of 
their  brothers  and  sisters  and  grandparents,  wdth  great  uncles  and 
aunts,  have  the  same  impairment  sent  down  two  or  three  generations 
and  perhaps  more,  then  the  individual  in  question  would  make  a  dan- 
gerous life  partner,  because  without  any  reasonable  doubt  the  germ- 
plasm  of  the  individual  has  been  impaired,  and  his  children  would  be 
very  likely,  and  some  of  them  certainly,  to  show  the  impairment  in 
some  degree.  If,  now,  there  is  a  taint  on  the  side  of  the  mother,  as 
well  as  on  the  side  of  the  father,  it  is  hardly  likely  that  one  of  their 
children  would  escape  being  marked  in  some  way  with  one  or  the  other 
or  both  of  these  family  taints. 

Another  serious  impairment  that  must  not  be  omitted  is  venereal 
infection  or  hereditary  venereal  taint.  Every  person  choosing  a 
life  partner  should  know  about  the  possibility  of  these  above-men- 
tioned taints  and  should  avoid  them  as  they  would  avoid  poison. 

Some  have  asked  how  this  information  will  influence  a  young 
person  in  the  choice  of  a  life  partner  and  will  it  not  destroy  senti- 
mentality and  old-time  love.     It  is  to  be  hoped  that  instruction  in 


334  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

eugenics  will  destroy  that  sentimontalisiu  which  leads  a  woman  de- 
liberately to  mai-ry  a  man  who  is  absolutely  unworthy  of  her  and  can 
only  bring  disease,  degeneration  and  death,  and  that  maudlin,  so- 
called  love  which  is  blind  to  imperfections  that  are  so  glaring  that 
they  might  be  seen  through  opaque  lenses.  What  instruction  in 
eugenics  will  accomplish  is  to  establish  psychic  inhibition  at  the  thresh- 
old of  love,  so  that  on  meeting  a  young  person  of  the  opposite  sex, 
however  attractive  and  agreeable  that  person  may  be,  the  one  in  ques- 
tion does  not  at  once  go  out  in  unquestioning,  blind  love-at-first-sight 
that  was  so  common  in  the  days  of  our  fathers,  but  will  experience  a 
"psychic  inhibition;"  in  other  words,  there  will  be  an  instinctive  hold- 
ing back  or  hesitation  on  the  threshold  of  love  to  ask  if  all  within  and 
beyond  is  favorable.  Is  the  admired  one  in  good  health  and  does  he 
(or  she)  possess  the  qualities  of  ideal  manhood  (or  womanhood),  and 
has  he  (or  she)  a  parentage  free  from  hereditary  taints.  These 
questions  answered  affirmatively,  the  questioner  steps  boldly  across 
the  threshold  and  enters  into  an  unreserved  love. 

Summary 

Race  Betterment  depends  upon  the  two  biological  factors: 
Heredity  and  Environment.  One  of  these  is  as  important  as  the 
other;  and  each  is  all-important.  Both  of  these  factors  may  be 
guided,  assisted  and  controlled  by  two  forces:  State  Lav^s  and  Edu- 
cation. 

Important  as  is  legal  control  of  marriage  licensure,  that  control 
can  hardly  accomplish  more  than  to  forbid  marriage  to  the  grossly 
unfit;  but  stopping  the  breeding  of  the  unfit  can  never  uplift  the 
race;  it  can,  at  best,  mily  arrest  race  decadence. 

Race  Betterment  can  be  accomplished  through  Education  only. 
While  this  education  culminates  in  a  course  of  instruction  in  Eugenics 
during  the  mid-adolescent  period,  the  foundation  of  this  education 
must  be  laid  in  Childhood  and  Early  Youth. 

The  object  of  this  teaching  is:  (I)  To  give  a  ivholesome  viewpoint 
of  the  great,  sacred  truths  of  life;  and  (II)  To  give  high  ideals  to- 
ward which  to  strive.  This  teaching  is  Home  work  and  for  the  parents 
to  do. 

But,  as  the  school  is  an  extension  of  the  home,  and  the  teacher  an 
extension  of  the  parent,  so  the  teacher  must  cooperate  tvith  and 
supplement  the  honne  instruction  and  in  the  school  must  foster  the 
wholesome  viewpoint  and  must  establish  HIGH  ideals. 

Education  should  cover  the  following  lessons:  Motherhood  and 
Fatherhood;  Wotnanhood  or  Manhood;  Periodicity;  Social  Rela- 
tionships and  EUGENICS. 


SCHOOL  AND  INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE 

SOME  CHANGING  CONCEPTIONS   OF   SCHOOL  HYGIENE 

Ernest  Bryant  Hoag,  M.D.,  Ijecturer  in  Leland  Stanford  University  and 
General  Director  of  Child  Hygiene  in  the  Long  Beach  City  Schools,  Cali- 
fornia. 

School  hygiene,  as  an  organized  scientific  study  of  the  school  child 
and  his  environment,  has  engaged  the  serious  attention  of  school  ad- 
ministrators for  a  period  of  less  than  fifteen  years/**" 

We  are  accustomed  to  say  that  health  work  in  schools  began  when 
the  schools  of  Boston,  New  York  and  Chicago  organized  so-called 
''Medical  Inspection"  between  the  years  1894  and  1897;  but  this  Is 
not  strictly  true,  for  sporadic  attempts  to  improve  school  health  con- 
ditions had  been  made  in  various  places  at  periods  much  earlier  than 
this.  For  example,  in  Minnesota,  where  the  secretary  of  the  State 
Board  of  Health  encouraged  a  study  of  the  eyes,  ears,  periods  of  sleep 
and  general  physical  appearance  of  university  students,  normal  school 
students  and  pupils  in  certain  public  schools,  as  early  as  1878;  in 
Boston,  where  studies  in  anthropometric  measurements  were  long  ago 
instituted  by  Doctor  Bowditch;  in  Elmira,  N.  Y.,  where  the  health  of 
children  in  the  schools  is  said  to  have  received  some  specific  attention 
as  long  ago  as  1876 ;  and  in  Minneapolis,  where  Dr.  Frank  Allport 
organized  systematic  examinations  of  eyes  and  ears  of  school  children 
in  1888.  Doctor  Allport 's  work  was  unquestionably  the  most  impor- 
tant and  far-reaching  in  its  influence  of  any  of  the  early  attempts  in 
school  health  supervision,  and  it  is  a  matter  of  considerable  interest 
that  to  this  day  he  is  in  the  vanguard  of  school  hygienists. 

Most  of  the  early  efforts  to  improve  the  health  of  pupils  in  the 
schools  were  directed  toward  the  recognition  and  control  of  the  trans- 
missible diseases  of  childhood,  with  the  notable  exceptions  of  those, 
of  Doctor  Allport  and  one  or  two  other  pioneers  in  the  field. 

After  1898,  however,  a  broader  conception  of  Medical  Inspection 
developed  and  it  was  soon  recognized  that  important  as  is  the  control 
of  contagious  disease  among  pupils,  as  a  matter  of  plain  fact  this  is  the 
least  of  the  many  problems  of  school  health.  Children  who  under  the 
old  method  of  inspection  were  passed  as  satisfactory  were  found 
in  many  instances,  under  the  new  health  conception,  suffering  from 
serious  defects  of  sight  and  hearing;  from  defects  of  the  nose  and 
throat;  from  nervous  disorders  and  nutritional  disturbances;  from 
defects  of  the  mouth  and  teeth;    from  functional  and  organic  heart 


330  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

disturbaiu'es;  and  last,  but  far  fi'oni  least,  from  tlic  various  dcji'rees 
of  actual  mental  deficiency. 

At  first  the  medical  officer  in  schools  was  an  appointee  of  the 
local  Board  of  Health  and  his  function  was  naturally  regarded  largely 
as  that  of  a  public  health  official  or  inspecior.  Today  the  health 
ofificer  in  schools  is,  in  the  most  enlightened  communities,  looked  upon 
as  a  Specialist  in  Child  Hygiene  and  School  Sanitation,  and  his  func- 
tion is  therefore  regarded  as  that  of  a  school  official  interested  in  im- 
proving the  personal  health  and  health  environment  of  the  school 
child.  To  this  end  his  interests  are  related  to  those  of  Boards  of 
Education  rather  than  to  those  of  Boards  of  Health,  although  there 
must  be,  of  course,  a  close  relation  and  effective  cooperation  betM^een 
these  two  important  bodies. 

Formerly,  and  to  a  considerable  extent  at  present,  school  health 
officers  were  chosen  without  any  particular  regard  to  special  fitness. 
In  many  instances  they  were,  and  are  still,  men  who  have  passed  the 
age  of  active  usefulness  in  practice  or  men  who  w^ere  beginning  their 
practice  and  therefore  had  abundant  time  to  devote  to  the  work;  in 
both  instances  the  schools  usually  received  ineffective  service  for 
reasons  which  require  no  special  elucidation. 

THE  MEDIC.VL  OFFICER  IN  SCHOOLS 

There  is  no  general  agreement  in  respect  to  the  qualities  necessary 
for  school  medical  officers.  Many  communities  appoint  almost  any 
physician  who  has  a  fair  standing,  without  reference  to  his  special 
training  or  aptitude.  In  some  places  men  or  women  have  been  ap- 
pointed as  school  health  officers  who  have  had  no  medical  training  of 
any  description. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  position  of  school  health  officer  in  the 
United  States  has  never  been  standardized.  As  conditions  now  exist, 
we  find  the  following  types  of  health  officers  in  schools:  (1)  well- 
trained,  full-time  medical  officers;  (2)  well-trained,  part-time  medi- 
cal officers;  (3)  well-trained,  emergency  medical  officers;  (4)  in- 
adequately trained  medical  officers  in  divisions  1,  2  and  3;  (5)  hy- 
gienists  without  medical  training  on  part  or  full  time;  (6)  physical 
directors  who  include  health  examinations  as  part  of  their  duties, 
and  who  may  or  may  not  possess  medical  training;  (7)  full-time 
nurses  who  make  examinations;  (8)  part-time  nurses  who  make 
examinations;  (9)  principals  or  teachers  who  make  partial  tests  of 
physical  conditions. 

Whether  a  community  employs  a  medical  officer  for  part  or  full 
time  is  a  matter  of  secondary  importance  compared  with  competency. 
In  England  school  health  officers  must  show  preparation  for  their 


SCHOOL    AND    INDUSTRIAL    HYGIENE  337 

work;  but  very  few  physicians  in  this  country  have  had  any  special 
training  in  school  hygiene.  Well-trained  physicians  may,  however, 
easily  acquire  the  special  training  necessary.  A  physician  whose 
preparation  has  included  the  usual  academic  branches  and  thorough 
work  in  biology,  general  hygiene,  physiology,  chemistry,  physics, 
pathology,  and  bacteriology,  need  find  no  special  difficulty  in  rapidly 
acquiring  the  details  of  child  and  school  hygiene;  nor  will  he  in 
every  instance  need  for  this  purpose  attendance  upon  special  courses 
of  instruction,  desirable  as  the  latter  undoubtedly  are. 

Such  a  physician  must,  first  of  all,  possess  aptitude  in  handling 
school  children ;  second,  he  must  understand  and  be  in  sympathy  wit'i 
modem  pedagogical  problems ;  third,  he  must  possess  diplomacy  in 
handling  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  people. 

The  special  knowledge  of  school  hygiene  and  of  pedagogy  he  may, 
if  need  be,  acquire  through  an  acquaintance  with  the  now  abundant 
literature  on  these  subjects;  the  other  qualities  he  must  naturally 
possess,  for  he  can  never  acquire  them  through  study  alone. 

A  community,  then,  in  selecting  a  school  medical  officer,  should 
seek  a  cultured  physician  whose  training  in  the  fundamentals  of 
medical  science  has  been  adequate  and  who,  in  addition,  possesses 
aptitude  and  enthusiasm  for  the  work  and  a  willingness  to  suppl>' 
any  deficiency  he  may  have  along  special  lines.  Having  standardized 
these  general  qualifications,  most  other  matters  will  be  found  to  con- 
sist of  small  details  of  administration. 

Large  communities,  requiring  full-time  men  at  adequate  salaries, 
have  a  right  to  demand  special  and  somewhat  prolonged  training,  for 
child  and  school  hygiene  is  truly  a  specialty.  Ordinarily  such  training 
will  not  be  acquired  in  less  than  one  year  in  addition  to  the  usual 
four-year  medical  course,  or  six-year  "combined  courses."  The 
possession  of  a  Doctor  of  Public  Health  degree,  such  as  has  long  been 
given  in  England  and  is  now  given  at  Harvard,  the  University  of 
Michigan,  and  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  \^'ill  furnish  evidence  of 
the  highest  specialized  training  and  is  certainly  most  desirable  when  it 
can  be  obtained,  for  school  hygiene  is  after  all  only  one  phase  of 
public  hygiene. 

Having  agreed  on  the  main  principles  which  should  underlie  the 
appointment  of  a  school  health  officer,  certain  details  of  administration 
should  be  considered. 

1.  The  school  health  officer  should  in  the  larger  places  be  con- 
trolled by  the  board  of  education. 

2.  A  cooperative  plan  whereby  the  board  of  education  and  board 
of  health  jointly  control  school  hygiene  may  be  desirable  for  special 
local  reasons.  • 


338  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

3.  School  health  officers  may  be  provided  by  conibiniiii^'  the  posi- 
tion of  town  or  small  city  health  officer  with  that  of  school  health 
officer,  in  Avhieh  case  the  expense  may  be  shared  by  the  board  of 
health  and  board  of  education ;  the  appointment  may  be  made  by  the 
former  board  with  the  approval  of  the  latter.  This  is  an  excellent  ar- 
rangement for  large  towTis  and  small  cities.  It  has  worked  out 
admirably  in  the  city  of  Rochester,  Minn. 

4.  County  health  officers,  if  properly  qualified,  may  be  appointed 
as  school  officers  as  well,  and  in  this  joint  capacity  supervise  the  school 
health  of  a  village  or  a  whole  county,  according  to  the  population  and 
distance  involved.  This  will  often  solve  the  problem  of  hygiene  in 
rural  schools. 

5.  The  compensation  for  a  school  health  officer  maj^  be  based  upon 
the  time  required  of  him  and  upon  the  amount  of  his  responsibility. 
A  full-time  officer  should  receive  from  $2,500  to  $5,000,  according 
to  the  size  of  the  community.*  A  part-time  officer  may  be  paid  for 
one-half  of  every  school  day  from  $900  to  $2,000.  In  some  instances 
where,  for  example,  one  man  is  responsible  for  the  entire  health  super- 
vision of  a  rather  large  community,  as  in  Pasadena  and  San  Diego, 
Cal.,  the  salaiy  should  be  from  $1,600  to  $2,000.t  Where  less  than 
half  of  everv'  day  is  required,  it  is  advisable  to  base  the  remuneration 
upon  the  number  of  pupils  examined,  and  not  less  than  50  to  75  cents 
should  be  paid  for  each  examination.  At  this  rate  a  town  with  a  school 
population  of  600  pupils  should  pay  from  $300  to  $450.  Any  com- 
munity^ with  less  than  1,800  pupils  would  do  well  to  adopt  the  per 
capita  plan  of  payment  as  a  basis  for  salary.  Voluntary  or  cheaply 
paid  ser\ace  is  never  advisable.  It  invariably  fails  after  a  com- 
paratively short  trial. 

6.  Large  cities  should  employ  a  director  of  school  hygiene  and 
several  assistant  directors  on  full  time.  A  few  half-time  men  may 
be  required,  but  in  general  the  work  of  half-time  men  in  large  cities 
will  be  better  done  by  full-time  school  nurses. 

7.  School  health  officers  should  familiarize  themselves  with  the 
following  divisions  of  school  and  child  hygiene:  (a)  Transmissible 
diseases;  (b)  school  sanitation;  (c)  physical  defects;  (d)  mental 
defects;  (e)  dental  hygiene;  (f)  the  teaching  of  hygiene;  (g)  ju- 
venile delinquency;  (h)  retardation;  (i)  school  hygiene  literature; 
(j)  the  elements  of  school  architecture. 


*  Oakland,  Cal.,  pays  $3,600 ;  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  pays  $3,500 ;  Milwaukee, 
Wis.,  pays  $3,800;  Minneapolis,  Minn.,  pays  $3,500.  All  of  these  salaries 
are  too  low  for  the  service  given. 

t  Pasadena  pays  $1,700;  San  Diego  pays  $1,800.  Each  of  these  cities 
should  pay  $2,000." 


SCHOOL    AND    INDUSTRIAL    HYGIENE  339 

The  position  of  the  health  officer  in  schools  must  uo  longer  be  re- 
garded as  a  cheap  job  for  a  cheap  man.  Schools  which  are  satisfied 
with  inferior  officers  and  teachers  will  no  doubt  be  satisfied  with  in- 
competent medical  officers.  Progressive  schools  will  appoint  only 
well4rained  medical  officers  who  are  worthy  of  the  respect  of  the 
communities  in  which  they  live.  American  school  communities  may 
well  study  the  subject  of  school  health  supervision  as  carried  out  in 
England,  Germany,  Denmark,  and  some  other  European  countries 
where  the  matter  has  long  ago  passed  the  experimental  stage.  There 
a  school  health  officer  is  treated  with  at  least  as  much  deference  as  the 
school  superintendent  or  head  master. 

The  new  conception  of  the  school  health  officer,  then,  is  that  he 
shall  be  a  specialist  carefully  trained  in  the  problems  of  child  hygiene 
and  particularly  as  this  applies  to  the  school  child;  one  who  can 
command  the  full  respect  of  the  community  in  general  and  of  the 
medical  profession  in  particular. 

The  child  hygienist  occupies  a  new  field  and  his  work  makes  neces- 
sary the  recognition  of  a  new  profession.  Until  this  idea  is  fully 
grasped  by  those  in  authority  in  schools  we  shall  continue  to  have,  as 
in  the  past,  a  very  large  number  of  more  or  less  incompetent  medical 
and  other  health  workers  in  our  schools;  we  need  not  experience  sur- 
prise if  under  these  conditions  school  health  work  often  fails  to  secure 
the  support  of  local  communities  and  the  medical  profession  in  them. 
The  modem  school  health  officer  must  be  in  a  position  to  demand  the 
same  degree  of  professional  respect  which  is  accorded  to  other  special- 
ists in  either  the  medical  or  educational  professions,  and  only  those 
who  have  properly  prepared  themselves  may  justly  make  such  de- 
mands. 

SOME   OP    THE   FUNCTIONS   OP    THE    SCHOOL    HEALTH    DEPARTMENT 

The  division  of  school  hygiene  should  include  in  its  functions  not 
only  the  health  supervision  of  school  children  and  the  maintenance 
of  a  healthful  school  environment,  but  also  such  subdivisions  as  the 
following : 

1.  Supervision  of  the  teaching  of  hygiene. 

2.  Supervision  of  the  health  of  teachers. 

3.  Supervision  of  physical  education. 

4.  Maintenance  of  a  central  office  for  special  examinations  and 
consultations  with  parents. 

5.  Maintenance  of  a  central  laboratory  for  the  study  of  excep- 
tional children,  especially  those  who  are  retarded  and  mentally  sub- 
normal.* 


3-10  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

6.  Supervision  of  a  i)iiblie  lecture  ilepurtiiient  for  i)arents,  wlierc 
topics  ou  the  home  and  school  hygiene  of  the  child  may  be  presented. 

7.  Instruction  of  teachers  on  the  subject  of  the  physical  and 
mental  observation  of  children. 

A  school  department  of  hygiene  organized  on  a  basis  such  as  this 
will  be  recognized  as  one  of  unquestionable  general  utility  instead 
of  one  of  restricted  and  often  questionable  usefulness.  In  such  a 
department  all  factions  in  a  school  community  may  discover  work 
with  which  they  can  sympathize  and  cooperate,  while  in  the  narrower 
work  of  mere  medical  inspection  there  will  always  be  many  who  are 
either  apathetic  or  positively  antagonistic.  It  will  be  recognized  by 
all  that  work  organized  on  such  a  basis  is  primarily  educational  in 
character  and  designed  to  directly  promote  the  educational  oppor- 
tunities of  the  entire  school  system.  In  such  a  plan  no  one  function 
is  emphasized  at  the  expense  of  another,  but  to  each  is  accorded  only 
its  legitimate  field  of  usefulness. 

The  latest  and  perhaps  the  most  important  development  in  school 
hygiene  is  that  which  relates  to  the  study  of  the  "Exceptional  Child." 
Children  who  belong  in  this  somewhat  vague  classification  may  for 
purposes  of  convenience  be  grouped  as  follows : 

1.  Retarded  children  of  all  classes  (including  defectives). 

2.  Unusually  nervous  children. 

3.  Dull  children   (not  necessarily  retarded). 
•4.  Precocious  children. 

5.  Delinquent  children. 

6.  Peculiar  children  who  cannot  always  be  specifically  classified 
(border-line  cases). 

The  proper  study  of  children  included  in  the  above  list  requires 
some  special  training  in  psychological  procedures,  which  cannot  at 
present  be  required  of  every  school  iiealth  official.  Every  large, 
well-organized  school  health  department  will,  how^ever,  include  this 
division  and  provide  a  well-trained  person  to  carry  out  the  work,  as 
is  now  done  in  Los  Angeles,  Philadelphia,  Milwaukee,  Minneapolis, 
Grand  Rapids,  and  a  few  other  cities.  Smaller  places  nnist  usually 
content  themselves  wdth  a  less  comprehensive  plan. 

In  every  community,  however,  which  essays  serious  health  work, 
some  provision  should  be  made  for  a  study  of  exceptional  children. 
This  may  often  be  accomplished  by  placing  the  work  in  charge  of  a 
teacher  who  has  had  previous  opportunity  to  follow  courses  in  child 
study  and  applied  psychology  under  competent  and  experienced 
teachers. 


SCHOOL    AND    INDUSTRIAL    HYGIENE  341 

The  Vineland  School  under  Doctor  Goddard  has  for  some  time 
offered  limited  courses  along  these  lines  for  teachers,  and  many  have 
already  availed  themselves  of  the  special  privileges  it  holds  for  them. 

That  there  are  many  defective  children  in  our  schools,  most  of 
whom  are  unrecognized  as  such,  has  become  apparent  since  the  Binet 
intelligence  tests  have  come  into  common  use.  Not  less  than  one  per 
cent  and  probably  nearly  three  per  cent  of  the  children  in  the  average 
school  system  are  beloAV  normal  in  intelligence  as  evidenced  by  the 
use  of  the  Binet  Scale,  and  this  to  a  degree  which  unfits  them  to  profit 
by  the  usual  school  methods.  It  is  of  the  greatest  possible  importance 
to  clearly  distinguish  between  the  merely  dull  and  the  defective  child ; 
between  the  morally  delinquent  and  mentally  defective ;  between  the 
mis-fit  or  specialized  defective  and  the  intellectually  subnormal;  yet 
this  is  rarely  done  in  our  schools  today.  About  forty  per  cent  of  our 
twenty  million  school  children  are  retarded  one  or  more  grades,  and 
fifty  per  cent  of  our  children  never  pass  beyond  the  sixth  grade ;  yet 
comparatively  little  is  being  done  to  discover  the  real  underlying 
causes.  That  to  a  considerable  extent  this  situation  is  due  to  mental  or 
physical  peculiarities,  or  both,  no  one  of  much  experience  in  school 
hygiene  has  any  serious  doubts. 

The  new  conception  of  child  hygiene  involves  the  adaptation  of 
the  school  to  the  child  instead  of  vain  attempts  to  force  the  child  to 
fit  the  school,  as  has  been  the  usual  custom  in  the  past.  When  this 
new  field  in  child  hygiene  becomes  well  established  in  our  public 
schools,  they  will  not  only  be  relieved  of  a  tremendous  drain  upon 
their  daily  efforts,  but  a  large  sum  of  money  will  be  saved  every  year 
in  avoiding  the  expense  of  carrying  over  hopeless  repeaters.  This 
sum  might  well  be  expended  for  the  special  education  of  certain  sub- 
normal pupils  who  at  present  receive  no  profit  in  school  and  go  out 
into  life  to  become  the  wards  of  society. 

School  health  work  needs  standardization  and  standards  ought 
to  be  furnished  by  the  state.  Minnesota,  and  to  a  limited  extent, 
Virginia,  are  the  only  states  which  up  to  the  present  have  attempted 
to  furnish  such  standards.  This  state  work  in  school  hygiene  ought  to 
be  carried  on  either  by  the  State  Department  of  Public  Instruction  or 
State  Board  of  Health,  or  by  the  cooperation  of  these  two  bodies. 
The  latter  plan  is  probably  the  most  desirable  and  was  found  to  work 
out  admirably  in  Minnesota  under  the  able  management  of  Dr.  H.  M. 
Bracken  and  Superintendent  Schulz.  ]\Iichigan  has  (1914)  under- 
taken a  limited  amount  of  work  along  similar  lines  by  the  employment 
of  a  specialist  to  make  a  tour  of  some  of  the  most  important  parts  of 
the  state,  in  connection  with  the  Department  of  Public  Instruction. 


342  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

This  is  iu  fact  the  ''Century  of  the  Chikl,"  and  the  phrase— 
"the  child  is  our  greatest  natural  asset"  is  fast  becoming  recognized 
as  one  of  fundamental  truth  instead  of  one  of  rhetorical  effect.  The 
public  schools  are  in  some  respects,  as  has  been  recently  said,  guilty  of 
more  wastefulness  and  less  effective  results  than  any  other  public  in- 
stitution. Yet  there  is  no  real  cause  for  alarm,  for  the  evils  of  our 
public  school  system  have  come  to  light  and  no  class  of  people  appre- 
ciate them  fuller  than  the  school  people  themselves.  Our  public 
schools  will  indeed  become  the  real  as  well  as  the  rhetorical  ' '  bulwark 
of  the  nation"  just  as  soon  as  the  public  will  grant  the  officials  and 
•  o;?.che!.^  the  power,  privilege,  and  financial  support  which  they  so 
n'hlv  ...eserve. 


THE    RACE    BETTERMENT    MOVEMENT    IN    WOMEN'S    COLLEGES 

Dr.  Carolyn  Geisel,  Shorter  College,  Rome,  Georgia. 

If  Race  Betterment  is  to  mean  anything  at  all  to  the  great,  wide 
world,  it  must  begin  with  education  for  her  who  has  to  do  with  the 
race  in  its  infancy.  Allow  me  to  put  to  you  a  conundrum.  Let  me 
put  it  in  approved  twentieth  century  phrasing.  Why  is  a  college? 
Now  let  me  answer  my  own  conundrum.  -  A  college  is  for  the  same 
reason  as  is  a  grindstone,  if  you  please,  just  to  sharpen  the  instrument 
that  touches  it.  The  college  should  make  fit  for  use,  make  fit  for  its 
place  in  the  world,  that  which  comes  in  touch  with  it.  Do  the  colleges 
do  this?  All  the  colleges  in  the  world?  Please  understand  I  am  not 
making  a  sweeping  statement.  I  do  not  mean  that  colleges  as  a  whole 
are  inefficient,  but  I  want  to  ask  this  audience,  if,  generally 
speaking,  the  colleges  do  what  the  colleges  are  expected  to  do?  Let 
me  illustrate.  Do  you  know  Mr.  Tilden  ?  I  knew  him  when  he  was  a 
boy  and  I  a  short-skirted  girl.  He  said,  ' '  I  am  going  to  do  something 
before  I  die, ' '  and  I  answered, ' '  If  you  are,  get  about  it. ' '  Later  when 
as  college  woman  I  met  him,  the  college  man,  I  asked,  ''What  has  be- 
come of  that  you  intended  to  do?"  He  answered,  "I  am  doing  it.  I 
am  getting  ready,  just  wait."-  And  she  is  in  this  audience  who  was 
with  me  at  the  Streator  Illinois  Chautauqua  when  there  was  put  in 
my  hands  a  long  newspaper  excerpt,  detailing  the  work  this  man 
Tilden  had  done.  In  eleven  years  of  time  in  one  of  the  largest  uni- 
versities of  this  great  world,  a  university  backed  by  millions  of  money, 
he  had  pursued  an  idea.  Curious  to  know  what  he  did  ?  Then  let  me 
ask  you,  Are  you  fastidious?  Would  you  like  just  one  stripe  on  the 
backs  of  your  potato  bugs  ?    Well,  Tilden  can  tell  you  how.    And  you 


SCHOOL    AND    INDUSTRIAL    HYGIENE  343 

don 't  care  ?  You  are  willing  to  leave  ten  stripes  on  yours  ?  All  right, 
Tilden  can  tell  you  how.  In  other  words  it  took  him  eleven  years  of 
time  with  the  backing  of  one  of  the  world 's  greatest  universities,  which 
in  turn  was  backed  by  millions  of  money,  to  find  out  how  to  vary  the 
stripes  on  the  backs  of  potato  bugs.  I  read  it  all,  and  this  leaden 
thing  in  here  you  call  a  heart  went  away  down  in  my  shoes  with  a 
thud,  and  my  woman's  soul  cried  out  to  the  God  of  things  as  they  are, 
for  eleven  years  of  time  and  for  the  backing  of  some  great  university, 
with  millions  of  money,  to  teach  us  women  folk,  wh©  are  mothers  of 
men,  how  to  vary  the  stripes  on  the  backs  of  the  two  hundred  and 
forty  thousand  criminals  in  these  United  States  of  ours.  They  are  our 
sons,  born  of  women — ours.  A  woman  goes  almost  to  the  door  of 
death  to  bring  back  a  man  child  and  then  the  world  takes  him,  and  at 
the  end  of  twenty-one  years,  when  a  mother's  part  of  the  work  is  over, 
he  is  already  marked  for  the  penitentiary  mayhap  and  a  man 's  place  in 
life  is  vacant  and  a  mother 's  heart  is  broken.  Could  she  have  changed 
his  stripes,  and  saved  her  own  soul  from  sorrow,  if  she  had  had  eleven 
years  of  college  training?  Is  there  some  possible  wrong  when  a 
college  no  better  prepares  for  real  life  or  teaches  that  Avhicli  concerns 
real  life  than  the  problem  I  have  just  presented  to  you?  Was  the 
world  ever  robbed  of  a  man,  and  a  criminal  made  from  an  innocent 
babe,  because  some  mother  woman  lacked  that  education  which  made 
wise  Tilden  able  to  change  stripes? 

Of  the  colleges  for  women  here  in  America  it  is  but  a  few  years 
since  these  were  of  two  sorts,  two  only,  and  neither  one  paid  any  par- 
ticular attention  to  preparing  the  real  woman  for  a  woman's  real 
life.  Again  I  am  not  making  sweeping  statements.  Bear  with  me. 
I  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  as  saying  that  all  women  in  all  col- 
leges receive  no  education  that  is  adequate,  nor  yet  am  I  saying  that 
all  colleges  for  women  are  inadequate.  Speaking  generally  there  are 
two  sorts  of  colleges  for  women  in  these  United  States  of  America 
(away  back  in  the  years  women  had  some  difficulty  getting  into  any 
at  all).  The  first  of  these  colleges  is  the  co-educational  institution 
which  gives  to  women  folk  the  same  kind  of  education  our  brothers 
receive.  What  shall  we  do  with  this  education  when  it  is  finished  and 
we  have  our  degrees  ?  Do  with  it  what  i  did,  of  course.  You  know 
what  they  used  to  call  us  at  Ann  Arbor?  Some  of  you  are  here  from 
Ann  Arbor.  You  know  perfectly  well  that  my  Alma  Mater  used  to 
speak  of  us  as  "female  medical  men."  We  cut  our  hair  short  and 
strode  up  and  dow^n  the  great  big  world,  burned  our  books  upon  home 
and  motherhood  and  let  the  problems  of  race  betterment  be  handled  by 
someone  else  than  the  mothers  of  men.  We  would  have  none  of  it. 
Why  not  ? — Because  we  were  educated  for  commercial  life  ;   the  kind 


344  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

of  (Hluciitioii  our  brothers  received,  sent   us  wlici'e  our  brothers  went, 
into  tlie  connuereial  tield  and  nowhere  else. 

The  second  kind  of  school  for  women  was  familiarly  known  as  the 
"finishing  school,"  the  "female  seminarv^"  Now  don't  you  mis- 
understand me,  again,  I  am  literally  quaking  in  my  shoes  lest  you  do ; 
all  the  colleges  for  women  are  not  of  the  "finishing  school"  sort,  but 
there  does  exist  in  this  great  United  States  of  America,  as  in  other 
countries,  a  so-called  finishing  school,  of  a  rather  superficial  sort,  to 
which  we  send  our  girls,  some  of  us,  sometimes.  They  learn  to  dance, 
oh,  yes.  of  course!  Learn  to  jibber  French  and  German,  of  course! 
Learn  to  read  Greek  and  Latin  limitedly,  to  sing  in  Italian,  to  paint 
on  china,  on  canvas,  and  on  flesh;  and  decorate  their  bodies  after 
the  approved  fashion,  and  when  you  get  your  daughter  back  from 
that  school,  my  brother,  she  is  finished,  indeed.  xVt  medical  banquets, 
which  you  sometimes  attend,  you  repeatedly  hear  this  one  toast  of- 
fered to  women,  "Woman,  God's  greatest  gift  to  man  and  the  chief 
support  of  the  doctors. ' '  Is  she  so  prepared  for  her  holy  place  in  life, 
the  place  of  motherhood,  which  is  the  very  tap-root  of  all  race  better- 
ment? Prepared!  Of  course  not.  She  may  give  her  life  with  the 
first  attempt  at  motherhood,  and  if  she  gives  not  her  life,  she  some- 
times brings  back  from  the  grave,  which  she  so  nearly  entered,  a 
weakling  child  which  for  one  transcendent,  rapturous  minute  she  holds 
close  to  her  woman's  heart.  Holds  it  there  with  feeble  hands  that 
tremble  with  ecstatic  joy,  then  lets  it  slip  away  into  its  little  grave. 
We  buried  in  the  United  States  of  America  last  year  so  many  little 
wee  new  babies  that  their  graves,  if  brought  together,  would  carpet 
this  beautiful  state  of  Michigan.  One  out  of  every  two  of  all  the 
children  born  of  woman,  die  before  they  are  fully  mature.  Tell  me, 
if  one  out  of  every  two  of  the  hogs  that  come  to  be — let  me  say  that 
again  so  you  will  hear  me — if  one  out  of  every  two  of  all  the  hogs 
that  are  bom  were  to  die  before  they  matured,  would  not  every  man  in 
the  stock-raising  business  go  squarely  out  of  the  hog  business? 
Of  course  he  would.  He  would  be  simple  and  nothing  short  of  it  to 
remain  in  a  business  which  promised  him  such  limited  returns.  Are 
we,  then,  of  less  mental  capacity  than  our  brothers  that  we  are  simple 
enough  to  continue  in  the  business  of  race  nurture  when  the  whole 
world  taunts  us  because  of  limited  returns  ?  Woman  did  not  get  her 
life-work  by  her  own  choosing.  She  was  appointed  by  the  Great  I 
Am  to  this  business  of  raising  men.  It  is  a  stupendous  task!  An 
awful  job !  It  takes  twenty-one  years  of  a  mother 's  life ;  then  when 
the  mother's  part  of  it  is  over,  she  surrenders  the  unfinished  piece 
into  the  hands  of  a  wife.  It  takes  at  least  two  women  to  raise  one 
good  man,  his  mother  and  his  wife.     Sometimes  it  takes  more  than 


SCHOOL    AND    INDUSTRIAL    HYGIENE  345 

one  of  the  latter.  What  has  all  this  to  do  with  the  race  betterment 
movement?  What  has  it  all  to  do  with  colleges  for  women?  I  shall 
have  to  talk  rapidly  now. 

It  is  well-lmown  to  all  of  you  that  many  schools  and  colleges  where 
women  go  to  get  learning  have  for  some  years  been  teaching  Domestic 
Science,  Physical  Culture,  Sanitation,  Hj^giene,  and  here  and  there 
one  is  teaching  Eugenics,  and  in  the  fall  of  1913,  Bryn  Mawr  is  said 
to  have  declared  for  health  as  of  first  importance.  But  this,  good  as  it 
is,  is  not  enough.  As  the  agricultural  college  prepares  the  farmer  for 
a  farmer's  life,  the  business  college  prepares  the  business  man  for 
business,  so  should  the  woman's  college  first  of  all  prepare  a  woman 
for  a  woman's  life.  All  or  any  education  added  thereto  can  in  no  way 
be  injured  by  such  firm  foundations. 

Ninety  per  cent  of  all  the  women  in  the  world  marry. 

Marriage  should  mean  home-making.  Marriage  and  home-making 
should  mean  motherhood.  Countless  and  pitiful  are  the  tragedies  of 
the  unprepared. 

For  more  than  ten  years  I  have  gone  up  and  down  this  land  of 
ours,  in  schools,  colleges,  Chautauquas  and  wherenot,  crying  out  for 
a  college  that  would  definitely  teach  a  woman  her  own  business.  Why 
not? 

Two  years  ago  this  month  I  went  to  Shorter  College,  in  Rome, 
Georgia,  to  fill  an  engagement  which  Doctor  Kellogg  had  made.  I 
was  to  talk  Health  and  Eace  Betterment  to  the  women  students  as  I 
had  talked  it  to  hundreds  of  others.  The  president,  faculty  and 
trustees  listened,  then  the  president  said,  "Come  with  us"  and  the 
trustees  said,  "You  belong  to  this  college  and  the  college  belongs  to 
you."  So  was  established  in  Shorter  College,  at  Rome,  Georgia,  the 
first  endowed  Chair  of  Health  in  an  American  college  for  women. 
Then  the  title  ' '  Chair  of  Health ' '  seemed  not  comprehensive  enough. 
We  decided  to  make  it  a  Chair  of  Health  and  Home  Economics  with 
the  avowed  purpose  that  I  have  stated.  Mr.  Chairman,  I  do  not  in- 
tend to  die  until  this  movement  for  definite  education  which  means 
Race  Betterment  is  put  into  every  college  in  the  United  States  of 
America. 

The  plans  for  procedure,  the  purposes  and  aims  of  the  department, 
are  two:  First,  to  build  a  strong  body  for  the  student  herself,  to 
definitely  establish  her  in  health  so  firm  that  when  she  leaves  college 
she  will  not  be  the  "chief  support  of  the  doctor"  but  instead,  a 
balanced,  strong  unit  in  the  support  of  this  liberty-loving  government 
of  ours,  of  which,  we  trust,  she  will  by  that  time  be  a  full-fledged 
citizen. 


346  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

The  second  plan  of  procedure  in  llie  work  of  the  department  is 
to  give  the  student  such  complete  knowledge  of  Health  and  Home- 
making  as  will  secure  strong  bodies  to  her  family. 

The  first — the  establishment  of  the  student  in  healtli — is  to  be  ac- 
complished by  systenuitic  living  of  health  principles  during  the  four 
years  of  her  college  life.  The  second  by  scientific  study  of  Health  and 
Home-making,  which  study  is  definitely  recjuired  as  part  of  the  curricu- 
lum. She  will  be  expected  to  follow  six  practical  lines  which  lead  to 
health. 

1.  Scientifically  ordered  diet — arranged  by  a  graduate  dietitian. 

2.  Systematic  exercise  and  a  due  amount  of  rest — directed  by  a 
physical  trainer. 

3.  The  out-of-door  life. 

4.  Healthful  dress. 

5.  Avoidance  of  self-drugging;  the  use  of  rational  remedies  for 
diseased  conditions  under  supervision  of  a  resident  physician  and 
trained  nurse. 

6.  Freedom  from  worry  which  comes  from  a  living  faith  in  a 
loving  God  as  taught  and  encouraged  by  the  daily  life  of  the  college. 

Does  the  diet  of  a  young  woman  of  college  age  need  the  attention 
of  educators?  Look  you!  I  can  speak  feelingly  on  that  subject.  I 
went  through  college  on  chocolate  creams  and  coffee,  and  when  college 
days  were  over  it  took  Doctor  Kellogg  and  this  institution  months  and 
months  to  bring  me  back  from  the  grave.  There  are  so-called  colleges 
in  existence  right  now  which  daily  serve  a~bill-of-fare  that  is  just  as 
bad  as  can  be.  No  attempt  made  at  balance  and  little  intelligent 
attention  given  to  nutritive  value  of  the  day's  rations,  while  much 
thought  appears  to  be  put  upon  so-called  economy.  More  than  one 
girl  away  from  home  in  school  tonight  is  subsisting  on  dill-pickles, 
saratoga-chips,  chocolate  creams  and  what-not  that  she  buys  from  the 
little  store  around  the  corner.  That  little-store-around-the-corner  takes 
no  small  part  of  her  money  and  as  a  result  some  doctor  among  us 
makes  a  vacant-looking  place  in  her  Daddy's  bank  account  later. 
Correct  the  diet  then. 

This  department  will  encourage  the  out-of-door  life.  Put  the 
student  out-of-doors  for  physical  exercise.  This  does  not  mean  delsarte 
and  calisthenics;  it  does  not  mean  the  fancy  work  of  physical  exer- 
cise. It  means  downright  hard  work — riding,  driving,  ninning,  living 
out-of-doors,  studying  lessons  out-of-doors,  deep  breathing  exercises 
out-of-doors,  staying  out-of-doors  nights  as  well  as  days,  encouraging 
the  out-of-door  life. 

Did  you  notice  that  I  mentioned,  as  a  third  maneuver  for  establish- 
ing this  young  woman  in  health,  the  matter  of  dress?    Awfully  sensi- 


SCHOOI.    AND    INDUSTRIAL    HYGIENE  347 

tive  point  just  now.  The  next-to-notliing  with  which  the  twentieth 
centur^^  American  girl  gow^ns  herself  is  not  a  poem.  We  propose  by 
the  work  done  in  this  department  to  correct  a  girl's  ideals  of  dress. 
There  will  then  be  displayed  upon  the  screen  no  more  such  pictures 
as  you  saw  last  night  with  the  visceral  organs  displaced  because  of 
mischievous  constrictions  around  the  middle  of  the  body.  There  will 
be  no  more  coughs,  colds,  or  pneumonia  contracted  because  of  the 
uncoveredness  of  her — neck. 

When  she  enters  college  the  student  will  be  examined;  examined 
from  the  cro^Ti  of  her  head  to  the  tips  of  her  beautiful  little  toes.  In- 
cipient disease  can  sometimes  be  discovered  and  corrected  by  the  resi- 
dent physician.  Flat-chest,  spinal  curvatures  and  other  deformities 
of  habit  will  be  sent  to  the  gymnasium  and  trained  out.  Dyspepsia, 
anemia,  and  other  mischiefs  consequent  upon  indigestion,  malassimi- 
lation  or  malnutrition  will  be  sent  to  the  dietetic  department  and  my 
lady  be  fed  away  from  disease. 

All  that  in  this  four  years  of  college  life  she  is  asked  to  practise 
for  health  sake,  she  is  also  required  to  study ;  and  in  addition  she 
must  study  sanitation,  civics,  household  management,  everything  in 
short  that  is  covered  by  that  word  Euthenics.  The  last  year  in  college 
she  will  spend  much  time  in  the  model  cottage  in  actual  management 
of  a  household,  for  a  bit  of  practise  helps  to  make  perfect. 

You  with  much  gray  in  your  hair,  and  you  with  no  hair  on  top  of 
your  head — plain  proof  of  life  that  is  passed  in  part — have  talked 
much  and  wisely  of  Eugenics,  but  why  not  talk  all  this  to  her?  To 
her  who  is  yet  to  be  wife  and  mother  ?  Why  tell  her  when  her  head 
is  bowed  in  shame  over  a  sacred  defective  child.  All  this  cannot  avail 
to  save  her  after  the  fatal  mistake  has  been  made.  In  this  new  depart- 
ment the  seniors  will  study  Eugenics. 

And  now  let  me  tell  you  something  which  she  won 't  tell.  This  is  the 
girl  who  will  marry,  of  course  she  will.  You  are  all  acquainted  with 
my  club?  I  have  the  great  honor  to  be  president  of  the  A.  M.  K.'s. 
You  know  what  the  club  is  by  the  letters  ' '  Antique  Maidens '  Club. ' ' 
The  major  number  of  college  women  who  recruit  mj^  club  come  from 
the  co-educational  colleges,  from  the  colleges  which  have  educated  the 
woman  in  the  same  direction  or  along  the  same  lines  of  thought  as 
the  man.  Of  course  this  woman  is  able  to  live  her  bachelor  life  quite 
independently  and  "she  does  not  care."  But  the  girl  educated  in  the 
college  for  women  alone  will  marry,  if  she  be  educated  for  the  home 
and  marrying ;  she  will  be  a  helpmeet  indeed,  a  mother  indeed.  All' 
because  she  has  a  strong  body  ?  No,  not  entirely,  but  because  she  was 
trained  in  every  single  little  bit  of  a  thing  that  can  help  to  make  her 
an  efficient  wife  and  mother.    This  is  her  husiness.    Oh,  vou  are  wast- 


348  FIKST    NATIONAL    CONFKRKNCE    ON    RACK    HKTTKRMENT 

iiig-  time!  [Applanso]  AVon 't  you  plrasc  krrp  slill  now  aiid  Id  iiic  talk? 
I  have  only  a  minute  more.  Hear  me!  A  woman's  business  to  keep  a 
home  and  rear  eliildren,  that  sounds  badly  coming  from  an  old 
maid  who  campaij?ned  the  State  of  IMiehigan  for  suffrage  last  year; 
but  in  spite  of  suffrage,  let  me  say  it  to  you  again,  it  is  a  woman's 
business  to  attend  to  that  that  the  Master  of  Tiife  called  her  to  do, 
and  God  called  her  to  motherhood.  Why  is  she  not  a  mother?  Is  it 
because,  lacking  training,  she  fears  her  inefficiency?  Why  is  it  that 
of  one  hundred  women  visited  a  few  weeks  ago  by  my  friend,  Miss 
Gearing,  of  Texas,  there  was  found  one  and  one-seventh  of  a  baby  for 
each  little  wife?  In  New  York  City  I  met  with  a  club  of  fourteen 
women,  wives  they  were,  and  one  baby  for  the  whole  fourteen.  This 
is  the  answer  given  to  me  when  I  asked  a  little  woman  in  that  club 
why  she  was  not  a  mother.  She  said,  lifting  her  shoulders  with  a 
shrug.  "Why  should  I  tie  myself  to  the  drudgery  of  rearing  chil- 
dren ? ' '  Let  me  answer  that.  Drudgery  goes  out  when  science  comes 
in.  They  called  the  farm  drudgery  when  it,  the  farm,  could  not  pro- 
duce corn  enough  to  support  the  family,  but  when  science  with  the 
help  of  this  government  said  to  the  boys,  ' '  Back  to  the  farm,  back  to 
the  farm,"  and  the  boys  came  from  the  agricultural  college  back  to 
the  farm,  drudgery  disappeared,  was  swallowed  np  by  science  in  the 
full  joy  of  returns.  So  also  will  science  in  home-making  turn  drud- 
gery into  delight.  WTien  she  has  learned  the  science  of  child-culture 
she  will  return  to  her  own  wdth  eager  joy. 

But  the  government  pays  ninety  millions  of  dollars — hard-earned 
tax  money,  yours  and  mine — to  call  the  boys  back  to  the  farm.  When 
has  it  paid  ninety  cents  to  call  the  woman  back  to  the  home?  You 
can  make  a  fuss  about  that  if  you  want  to.  But  unless  we  call  the 
woman  back  to  the  home  the  very  foundations  of  government  will 
dissolve  away.  How^  shall  we  better  the  race  without  home?  And 
how  shall  there  be  a  home  without  a  "female  person  around." 
The  home  is  dependent  upon  a  w^oman,  the  children  are  dependent 
npon  her.  why  the  very  master  of  the  house  himself  is  dependent 
upon  her. 

There  died  last  year  fifty-six  thousand  more  middle-aged  men  than 
ever  before,  so  saith  the  man  of  statistics.  I  don't  want  all  the 
middle-aged  men  to  die.  I  shall  be  lonesome.  Whose  business  is  it  to 
take  care  of  a  man?  Why  the  business  of  her  who  vowed  she  loved 
him,  the  business  of  her  who  spends  his  money.  Oh  women,  listen  !  If 
he  is  nothing  in  the  big  world  but  a  money-making  machine,  it  still 
will  stand  you  in  good  stead  to  take  care  of  him.  You  cannot  get 
good,  efficient  work  out  of  a  money-making  machine  unless  you  have 
first  learned  what  feeds  him  best,  and  he  has  a  right  when  he  gives  you 


SCHOOL    AND    INDUSTRIAL    HYGIENE  349 

his  money  to  spend,  to  ask,  "Do  you  know  how  to  spend  it  wisely?" 
This  Race  Betterment  movement  in  woman's  colleges  will  teach  a 
Avoman  the  value  of  a  dollar  as  well  as  the  value  of  a  man,  the  value 
of  things  as  well  as  the  value  of  babies,  and  we  dare  hope  to  so  reduce 
the  high  cost  of  living. 

And  now  I  am  done  when  I  have  said  to  you  this  one  thing  more. 
Man  is  not  all  mind  and  a  college  is  inefficient  so  long  as  it  tries  to 
train  either  man  or  woman  in  his  mental  capacity  only ;  and  man  is  not 
all  animal  and  a  college  still  is  inefficient  though  it  train  both  mind  and 
body,  for  you  were  created.  Oh,  friends  of  mine,  in  the  image  of  a 
Triune  God,  God  the  Father,  God  the  Son,  and  God  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  you  the  mental  man,  the  physical  man,  and  the  spiritual  should 
be  nourished  by  another  who  loiows  Him,  whom  to  know  aright  is 
light  eternal.  Hold,  then,  the  babe  to  the  breast  of  a  Christian  mother. 
The  world  may  need  penitentiaries,  but  praying  mothers  keep  men 
from  penitentiaries  and  so  diminish  the  need  for  them.  The  world 
may  need  law,  but  the  Law  of  the  Lord  converteth  the  Soul,  and 
needs  not  to  be  enforced  by  the  police.  Let  a  Christian  mother  hpld 
her  child  close  to  her,  as  the  Catholic  church  would  keep  him  close  to 
itself  through  the  first,  malleable,  impressionable  seven  years  of  his 
life,  then  let  him  go  from  his  praying  mother's  knee  out  into  the 
school,  out  into  the  world,  and  by  and  by  to  his  place  as  man  among 
men.  He  will  have  nursed  from  her  breast  that  which  will  bind  him  to 
God  and  thereby  shall  the  Soul  of  him  be  kept.  Give  us  then  colleges 
for  women  that  shall  teach  a  woman  all  that  pertains  to  her  oaat:i  busi- 
ness and  you  have  solved  the  Race  Betterment  problem. 

Oh,  I  thank  you.    You  have  behaved  beautifully.    I  thank  you. 

College  Courses  in  Euthenics 

Mrs.  Melvil  Dewey. 
Discussion. 

We  are  told  that  the  educational  forces  pull  up  from  the  top ;  the,y 
don't  push  up  from  the  bottom.  Mrs.  Richards'  idea  for  Euthenics, 
this  right  living,  should  be  in  the  course  of  study  in  the  colleges  and 
universities  under  this  name.  Then  we  will  have  these  college-trained 
people,  and  they  will  be  fitted  for  teaching  in  the  normal  schools. 
What  has  been  done  today  in  the  normal  schools  to  prepare  teachers 
for  this  kind  of  instruction  ?  That  is  the  place  that  we  are  going  to 
get  it,  if  at  all — ^j^our  colleges,  universities  and  normal  schools,  and  it 
will  come  down  and  pull  them  right  up. 


350  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

FACTORY  degeneration- 
Rev.  Newell  Dwight  Hillis 

Pastor   Plymouth    Church,    Brooklyn,    N.    Y. 

I  hnve  been  asked  to  speak  on  the  causes  of  tlie  deterioration  of  our 
factory  classes.  ]\Iore  than  one  hundred  years  have  now  passed  by 
since  tools  and  machinery  began  to  influence  the  physique  of  the  in- 
dustrial Avorkers.  During  this  century  the  handful  of  operatives  has 
become  an  anny.  With  the  increase  of  tools  has  come  the  congested 
populations,  crowded  about  the  great  centers  of  Manchester  and 
Birmingham,  of  Lawrence  and  Lowell,  Fall  River  and  New  Bedford, 
and  of  the  tenement  region  of  New  York.  Now  that  long  time  has 
passed,  the  experts  and  physicians  have  had  time  to  assemble  the  facts, 
and  to  find  out  what  is  the  influence  of  the  factory  life  upon  the 
American  physique.  From  time  to  time  scientists  have  lifted  up  the 
voice  of  warning  and  alarm.  The  most  striking  portrayal  of  the 
perils  of  the  English  and  American  physique  was  that  made  by 
Prof.  Alfred  Eussell  Wallace,  who  has  just  celebrated  his  ninetieth 
birthday.  Sharing  with  Charles  Darwin  the  honor  of  discovering 
evolution.  Professor  Wallace  has  lately  received  many  and  signal 
honors  from  scientific  societies.  At  the  dinner  given  him  in  London 
his  address  Avas  largely  made  up  of  reminiscences.  He  reviewed  the 
progress  of  civilization  during  the  last  century  and  made  a  series  of 
brilliant  and  startling  contrasts  between  the  England  of  1813  and  the 
world  of  1913.  He  affirmed  that  our  progress  is  only  seeming  and  not 
real.  Professor  Wallace  insists  that  the  painters,  the  sculptors,  the 
architects  of  Athens  and  Rome  were  so  superior  to  the  modern  men 
that  the  very  fragments  of  their  marbles  and  temples  are  the  despair 
of  the  present-day  artists.  He  tells  us  that  man  has  improved  his 
telescope  and  spectacles,  but  that  he  is  losing  his  eyesight ;  that  man 
is  improving  his  looms,  but  stiffening  his  fingers ;  improving  his 
automobile  and  his  locomotive,  but  losing  his  legs;  improving  his 
foods,  but  losing  his  digestion.  He  adds  that  the  modern  white  slave 
traffic,  orphan  asylums,  and  tenement  house  life  in  factory  towns  make 
a  black  page  in  the  history  of  the  twentieth  century. 

THE   ENGLISH   REPORT 

Professor  Wallace's  views  are  reinforced  by  the  report  of  the 
commission  of  Parliament  on  the  causes  of  the  deterioration  of  the 
factory  class  people.  In  our  own  country  Professor  Jordan  warns  us 
against  war,  intemperance,  overworking,  underfeeding  of  poor  chil- 
dren, and  disturbs  our  contentment  with  his  ''Harvest  of  Blood." 
Professor  Jenks  is  more  pessimistic.  He  thinks  that  the  pace,  the 
climate  and  the  stress  of  city  life  has  broken  down  the  Puritan  stock, 


SCHOOL    AND    INDUSTRIAL    HYGIENE  351 

that  in  another  century  our  old  families  will  be  extinct,  and  that  the 
flood  of  inuhigration  means  a  Niagara  of  muddy  waters  fouling  the 
pure  springs  of  American  life.  In  his  address  in  New  Haven  Professor 
Kellogg  calls  the  roll  of  the  signs  of  race  degeneracy  and  tells  us  that 
this  deterioration  even  indicates  a  trend  toward  race  extinction. 
From  every  side  come  warnings  to  the  American  people.  Books 
and  magazines,  fresh  from  the  press,  tell  us  plainly  that  our  people  are 
fronting  a  social  crisis.  Scarcely  a  single  city  in  our  land  that  is  not 
conducting  an  investigation  of  the  police  and  exposing  the  social  evil. 
A  wave  of  immorality  has  swept  over  the  country.  It  is  the  subject 
of  conversation  in  the  street  cars,  in  the  office  and  store,  and  at  the 
family  board.  Such  authorities  as  Doctor  Kelley,  of  Baltimore,  and 
Dr.  W.  W.  Keen,  the  great  surgeon,  of  Philadelphia,  find  the  ex- 
planation of  this  singular  breakdown  in  and  decay  of  morals,  first,  in 
the  incoming  of  the  Huns  and  Vandals,  with  the  low  ideals  of  the  Old 
"World,  and  second,  in  the  breakdown  of  character  among  our  wealthy 
classes,  with  their  debauchery,  their  divorces  and  their  unending 
scandals,  that  lie  like  a  black  stain  across  the  page  of  each  morning, 
paper.  To  all  other  causes  we  must  add  the  influence  of  a  group  of 
degenerate  authors  and,  worst  of  all,  of  authoresses.  Sinclair  says: 
"What  we  call  prostitutes  are  not  the  worst,  but  generally  the  best 
of  the  poorer  classes ;  people  of  fine  physique,  who  cannot  get  their 
true  match  in  the  sphere  where  they  were  born,  and  must,  by  the 
holiest  of  all  instincts,  that  of  truth,  seek  upward  by  any  means." 
A  popular  American  actor  has  had  so  many  wives  that  he  now  speaks 
of  them  by  number,  and  recently  defended  American  women  against 
an  attack  of  a  Frenchman  by  saying  that  ''in  his  experience  nearly 
all  American  women  made  good  wives."  He  calls  this  loose  and  in- 
discriminate epoch  ' '  a  new  experiment  in  living. ' '  Stanley  found  in 
Africa  a  brilliant  spider  that  spread  itself  out  like  a  flower,  and 
beauty-seeking  insects,  lighting  upon  it,  found,  not  honey,  but  fetters, 
pain  and  death.  In  every  American  city  there  is  a  black  quarter  and 
above  those  streets  should  be  written  Dante's  words,  "Abandon  hope 
all  ye  who  enter  here. "  The  time  has  fully  come  for  the  public  school- 
teacher, the  editor,  the  lecturer,  the  physician,  the  parent  and  teacher 
to  end  this  guilty  silence  and  to  lift  the  wreath  from  that  diseased  hag 
named  Lust,  that  has  so  long  masqueraded  as  an  angel  of  light.  For  the 
individual  and  the  nation  it  is  true  that  "he  who  soweth  the  wind 
shall  reap  the  whirlwind." 

SIGNS   OF   RACE    DEGENERATION 

The  wise  man  always  studies  the  signs  of  his  time.     Our  experts 
are  our  ph^^sieians  and  scientists  who  have  had  an  opportunity  for 


352  FIUST    NATIONAL    CONFEUENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

observation.  'Phe  Knylisli  author,  Prof.  Watt  Smith,  tells  us  that 
in  ]8i;5  the  English  standard  for  admission  to  the  army  was  si.\  feet; 
in  1845,  the  standard  was  dropped  to  five  feet  six  inches;  in  ^SS'^, 
it  was  lowered  to  five  feet  three  inches,  and  in  1901,  to  five  feet.  The 
connni.ssion  of  the  English  government,  appointed  to  study  this  sub- 
ject, says  on  page  177  of  its  report:  "In  England  degeneration  is 
especially  manifest  in  Manchester  and  other  manufacturing  districts. 
The  police  force  is  largely  recruited  from  country  districts,  it  not 
being  possible  to  find  men  who  are  large  enough  in  Manchester  and 
Salford."  Now  comes  the  report  from  the  recruiting  department  of 
England  that  "sixty  per  cent  of  the  young  men  who  offered  them- 
selves as  volunteers  for  military  duty  were  rejected  because  of  physical 
unfitness."  In  our  own  country,  the  condition  is  no  better.  The 
New  York  Bureau  of  Municipal  Research  has  published  its  examina- 
tion of  1,500  school  children  in  the  Bowery  district,  and  only  seven 
per  cent  of  these  children  had  perfect  sight,  hearing,  teeth  and  heart 
action.  One  of  the  first  signs  of  the  breakdown  of  a  race  is  the  in- 
crease of  digestive  disorders  and  the  birth  of  children  with,  poor 
teeth.  When  the  mother  has  all  the  life  and  blood  she  needs  for  her- 
self, the  excess  goes  to  build  a  perfect  babe.  In  Cambridge,  England, 
only  one  per  cent  of  the  children  of  eleven  years  of  age  had  perfect 
teeth,  yet  the  teeth  taken  from  a  plague  pit  into  which  the  bodies 
were  cast  after  the  black  death  of  two  centuries  ago  show^ed  that  the 
deterioration  is  not  only  marked,  but  appalling.  Another  sign  of  the 
breakdown  of  our  people  is  the  alarming  decrease  in  the  birth-rate, 
and  even  of  the  women  that  bear  children  Doctor  Holt  says  "three 
out  of  four  born  in  the  homes  of  the  well-to-do  classes  must  be  fed  at 
some  other  fount  than  the  maternal  breast." 

THE  INCREASE  OF  INSANITY 

More  alarming  still  is  the  increase  of  nervous  diseases.  Modern  city 
life  is  very  taxing.  The  fast  pressure  breaks  down  the  heart  and  the 
arteries.  Unable  to  keep  up,  young  men  stimulate,  and  this  excited 
condition  of  the  young  father  reappears  in  the  nerves  of  his  babe. 
Dr.  Forbes  Winslow,  one  of  the  great  authorities  on  the  brain  and 
nerves,  tells  us  in  an  article  in  the  London  Times,  that,  in  his  opinion, 
' '  the  entire  English  race  is  destined  to  become  insane. ' '  Doctor  Kellogg 
quotes  from  the  report  from  the  superintendent  of  the  insane  asylum 
in  Austin,  Texas,  and  shows  that  both  in  New  York  State,  at  the  one 
extreme  of  the  country,  and  Texas,  at  the  other,  "every  time  the 
population  doubles,  the  insane  and  defective  people  quadruple,"  so 
that  it  is  oi^ly  a  question  of  a  little  time  when  the  crazy  people  will 
"break  out  of  the  asylums  and  put  us  in."   Constant  excitement  and 


SCHOOL    AND    INDUSTRIAL    HYGIENE  353 

oyerwork  are  breaking  down  that  wonderful  engine  named  the  human 
heart.  Three  times  as  many  people  die  from  diseases  of  the  blood- 
vessels as  died  ten  years  ago.  Life  insurance  men  have  made  a 
singular  discovery.  It  has  been  found  that  during  the  last  century 
the  average  life  has  increased  from  thirty-three  years  to  forty-two 
years,  that  singularly  enough  the  gain  has  been  through  the  saving  of 
the  lives  of  children,  while  the  expectancy  of  life  after  forty  years, 
instead  of  increasing  notably,  decreased.  But  Doctor  Kellogg  tells  us 
"that  the  real  measure  and  the  physical  vigor  of  a  race  is  not  the 
age  at  which  the  average  man  dies,  but  the  proportion  of  individuals 
who  attain  great  age."  The  time  has  gone  by  when  Ave  can  any 
longer  say  that  race  degeneracy  is  simply  a  bugaboo  created  by  pessi- 
mists and  alarmists.  The  simple  fact  is,  a  tide  of  degeneracy  is  rolling 
in  upon  us,  and  the  time  has  come  to  recognize  the  fact  that  unless 
drastic  measures  are  taken,  the  whole  standard  of  civilization  will 
have  to  change  in  order  to  avert  race  extinction. 

THE   NEMESIS   OF   NATIONS 

History  is  God's  judgment  day.  Our  earth  is  the  graveyard  of  the 
races.  In  terms  of  the  eternity  of  God,  great  nations  fade  like  a 
leaf,  to  be  blown  up  and  down  the  long  aisles  of  time.  Witness 
Germany  and  England !  More  than  1.200  years  ago  alcoholic  liquors 
were  discovered  by  the  forest  children.  These  early  people  did  not 
know  how  to  drive  out  the  fusel  oil  with  other  poisons.  Nitric  acid 
bums  the  hand  and  fusel-oil  whiskey  the  stomach.  The  law  of  the 
survival  of  the  fittest  began  to  work.  Historians  believe  that  nine 
families  out  of  ten  went  to  the  wall.  Our  forefathers  had  nerve  so 
sound,  digestion  so  firm,  that  they  could  not  be  killed  off— no,  not 
even  by  filth  diseases  and  fusel-oil.  The  result  was  a  generation  im- 
mune. But  the  Indian  had  never  had  the  test  until  the  last  three 
centuries.  Under  the  influence  of  whiskey,  nicotine,  passions,  only 
125,000  remain  of  several  millions.  All  of  these  Indians  have  now 
been  charted  and  an  overwhelming  portion  have  one  of  four  diseases 
— they  are  a  vanishing  people.  The  condition  in  Mexico  is  even  more 
dreadful.  Witness  the  Mexican  colony  in  San  Antonio,  Texas,  dev- 
astated by  tuberculosis,  Bright 's  disease,  and  the  two  unmentionable 
diseases.  Of  the  41,000,000  living  in  South  America,  21,000,000  are 
native  Indians,  and  under  the  stress  of  these  terrific  tests  they  are 
dissolving  like  red  snow  flakes  in  a  river.  The  colored  people  are 
fronting  the  same  problem.  So  long  as  they  live  on  the  Southern 
plantations,  leave  stimulants  alone,  they  reproduce,  but  bring  them 
into  the  great  city,  put  them  into  competition  with  the  white  race, 
and  they  suffer  beyond  all  words.     The  white  man  has  had  centuries 

(13) 


354  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    IJETTERMENT 

of  oivilization  in  wiiieli  to  liartlon  his  nerves  and  to  hceonic  inuunnizcd. 
The  colored  man  is  now  having  his  tost  throiigli  alcohol,  nicotine  and 
morphine  and  deadly  drugs.  When  a  horse  is  tired  the  spur  in  the 
bloody  tiank  is  fatal.  "When  a  colored  man  is  tired  the  stinudant  is 
as  deadly  as  a  dagger.  In  the  city  the  colored  race  is  not  only  not 
increasing  in  population,  but  is  steadily  losing.  One-tenth  of  the 
white  race  survived,  and  if  one-tenth  of  the  colored  prove  immune  to 
these  modern  stimulants,  they  will  do  well.  IMother  Nature  is  kind 
and  tender  to  the  obedient,  but  she  is  a  stern  mother  to  the  disobedient, 
and  she  gets  rid  of  the  mifit  as  a  form  of  social  pity  and  mercy.  Not 
that  she  immediately  bows  out  of  existence  the  youth  that  has  one  of 
the  two  diseases  that  make  up  the  Red  Plague.  More  often  she 
shortens  the  life  of  the  child  of  the  diseased  man  and  in  the  next  gen- 
eration gets  rid  of  the  stock  altogether.  The  physicians  of  New  York 
have  published  a  report  of  the  number  of  men ;  225,000  cases  of  the 
worst  of  these  two  diseases,  and  three  times  as  many  more  have  tw^o 
other  diseases.  In  terms  of  three  generations  this  large  group  will  be 
wiped  out.  Only  those  who  have  sound  nerve,  rich  blood  and  the 
strong  heart  engine  can  keep  up  the  pace,  and  their  descendants  will 
people  the  earth. 

THE  CAUSES  OF  RACE  DETERIORATION 

One-half  of  our  physicians  and  scientific  experts  tell  us  that  the 
race  is  growing  taller  and  stronger  and  healthier;  the  other  half  of 
the  scientists,  headed  by  men  like  Dr.  Forbes  Winslow,  of  London,  tell 
us  that  the  race  is  degenerating,  steadily  losing  in  stature,  beauty  and 
health ;  that  it  will  wane  to  the  point  of  extinction,  begin  once  more 
on  the  edge  of  the  forest,  and  perhaps,  by  obedience  to  the  laws  of 
nature,  once  more  spread  over  the  earth.  Both  statements  are  true. 
One-half  of  our  people  are  God-fearing,  law-loving,  pure-living,  and 
their  children  and  descendants  are  growing  taller,  handsomer,  health- 
ier, happier.  The  other  half  is  living  for  pleasure,  the  body  and 
animalism,  and  their  descendants  are  deteriorating  in  health,  and  will 
finally  drop  out  of  the  world.  Our  climate  is  exciting,  being  dry,  full 
of  ozone  that  stimulates  the  nerve  and  heart.  The  undeveloped  re- 
sources of  our  country  make  a  powerful  appeal  to  ambition  and  lead 
to  overwork.  Modern  life  is  very  complex,  its  details  infinite,  and 
men  break  down  because  of  the  pace.  The  new  chemistry  has  dis- 
covered' new  stimulants.  There  are  drugs  for  the  heart  and  brain, 
and  drugs  for  the  nerves,  until  whiskey,  wine,  beer,  absinthe,  nicotine, 
opium,  morphine,  are  among  the  gentler  drugs.  In  a  damp  atmos- 
phere stimulants  are  more  easily  expelled  from  the  human  body.  In  a 
dry  atmosphere  like  ours,  stimulants  that  would  be  harmless  in  Scot- 


SCHOOL    AND    INDUSTRIAL    HYGIENE  355 

land  or  Holland  are  deadly  in  America.  In  such  a  climate  and  under 
such  conditions,  the  young  father  rearing  children  and  who  stimulates 
during  the  twenties  and  thirties  reproduces  the  stimulated  and  ex- 
citable nerv'ous  sj^stem  in  his  babe,  with  the  result  that  defective  chil- 
dren are  one  of  the  most  alarming  facts  of  our  era.  But  above  all 
other  causes  is  the  influence  of  the  Red  Plague. 

THE   GREAT   RED   PLAGUE 

A  wave  of  terror  has  swept  over  this  country.  These  infectious 
diseases  have  spread  with  such  rapidity  in  the  last  ten  years  that 
whole  states  have  become  alarmed,  and  are  passing  the  most  drastic 
laAvs.  So  many  diseased  men  are  now  on  trains  that  the  Pullman 
palace  car  is  not  allowed  to  furnish  a  glass  drinking  cup  for  ice  water. 
In  many  states  the  law  forbids  the  hotel  permitting  a  public  towel,  and 
in  some  states  only  paper  towels  are  permitted  in  hotels.  One  even 
finds  warnings  in  depots  to  safeguard  little  children  from  infection. 
In  a  through  train  from  California  the  other  day,  the  passengers 
signed  a  roundrobin,  asking  the  conductor  to  confine  in  a  stateroom  one 
man  whose  condition  Avas  obvious,  and  to  prevent  two  others  from 
entering  the  dining  car.  The  physicians  of  New  York,  Chicago, 
Philadelphia  and  Baltimore  have  sent  out  warnings  covering  the  fol- 
lowing points.  Of  the  great  plagues  afflicting  humanity,  the  Great 
Red  Plague  is  the  most  serious. 

No  man  doubts  for  one  minute  but  that  a  man  of  iron  nerve  and 
will  could  end  this  era  of  lawlessness  and  anarchy.  Either  he  must 
end  the  anarchy  or  the  lawlessness  Mali  end  our  great  cities  and  our 
republics.  On  the  slopes  of  Vesuvius  there  are  cracks  through  which 
the  sulphur  issues,  and  the  stench  of  hell  mingles  with  the  perfume 
of  orange  blossoms,  and  therefore  the  recent  burial  of  a  village  under 
ashes  and  lurid  lava.  Just  now  our  city  is  pouring  forth  passion  in 
fiery  waves,  and  our  physicians  and  scientists  are  alarmed.  But  better 
days  are  coming.  The  people  are  waking  up.  There  is  to  be  an  elect 
group,  an  aristocracy  of  health.  Instead  of  the  race  breaking  down, 
there  is  to  be  a  new  stock,  taller,  stronger,  healthier,  handsomer.  But 
meanwhile  it  is  for  the  people  of  this  nation  to  remember  that  he  who 
sows  to  the  flesh  shall  of  the  flesh  reap  corruption.  But  the  individual 
and  the  city  that  sow  through  the  school,  the  home,  the  library,  the 
factory,  the  sound  business,  shall  of  obedience  to  law  reap  health,  hap- 
piness, peace  and  social  prosperity. 


356  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

INDUSTRIAL  WELFARE 

F.   0.  Clemkn-ts,    K'epresfiitativo  of  The   Nalioiial  Cash    K('<>ister  Co.,  Day- 
ton. Ohio. 

A  great  many  industrial  concerns  practice  welfare  work,  and  it 
requires  no  extended  argument  for  justification.  It  is  right  and  fair. 
For  that  reason,  the  subject  is  of  interest  to  every  one  in  this  audi- 
ence. It  means  the  addition  to  business  of  convenience,  comfort, 
healthful  surroundings,  in  fact,  anything  that  will  assist  in  securing 
the  prosperity  and  happiness  of  the  worker.  Incidentally,  it  tends,  of 
course,  to  produce  harmonious  relations  between  men  in  the  organi- 
zation. 

Several  large  industrial  concerns  located  in  England  have  been 
pioneers  in  the  application  of  welfare  work  abroad.  One  of  them,  the 
Cadbury  Company,  chocolate  manufacturers,  has  made  a  very  enviable 
reputation  for  itself  by  introducing  a  great  deal  of  educational  work 
into  its  general  scheme  of  operation. 

The  efforts  of  Port  Sunlight,  an  English  concern  active  in  welfare 
work,  have  been  particularly  noticeable  along  the  line  of  proper  hous- 
ing for  their  people — at  least,  this  is  one  of  the  noteworthy  fea- 
tures of  their  work.  Many  industrial  concerns  in  the  United  States 
might  be  cited,  like  the  United  Shoe  Machinery  Company,  Interna- 
tional Harvester  Company,  United  States  Steel  Corporation,  and  many 
others  have  instituted  welfare  work. 

In  1892  we  found  that  our  people  had  no  heart  in  what  they  were 
doing.  They  did  not  seem  to  care  whether  the  business  succeeded  or 
not.  As  fast  as  employees  were  trained  to  the  point  where  they  would 
be  of  real  service,  they  would  leave  and  go  to  positions  elsewhere. 
There  was  no  special  inducement  or  encouragement  offered  to  keep 
them  with  us,  because  our  factory  was  no  better  than  the  average 
American  factory  of  that  time.  Five  women  left.  They  realized 
that  they  could  secure  equally  as  pleasant  and  remunerative  employ- 
ment elsewhere,  and  consequently  they  had  no  interest  in  our  business. 

Our  President,  Mr.  Patterson,  in  going  through  the  factory  one 
day,  noticed  a  woman  heating  coft'ee  on  a  radiator.  Later  he  saw  a 
group  of  girls  eating  cold  lunches  at  their  workbenches,  and  so  a 
kitchen  was  installed  and  they  are  now  sensed  a  warm  lunch  at  a 
nominal  fee.  The  lunch  furnished  consists  of  a  bowl  of  soup,  one 
vegetable,  bread  and  butter,  milk  and  fruit- — all  at  the  cost  of  five 
cents. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  business,  the  men  and  women  came  to 
work  at  the  same  time,  while  now  the  women  arrive  later  than  the  men. 
In  the  evening  they  are  well  on  their  way  home  before  the  men  leave 


SCHOOL    AND    INDUSTRIAL    HYGIENE  357 

the  factory.  In  the  old  days  all  employees  were  compelled  to  climb 
the  stairs  to  the  various  departments.  Today,  elevator  service  is  pro- 
vided in  advance  of  working  hours  for  all  employees,  with  separate 
elevator  service  for  the  women.  The  uncomfortable  stool  has  been  re- 
placed by  the  high-back  chair  and  foot  rests.  These  cost  very  little 
more  than  the  old-style  stools,  and  result  in  greater  comfort,  health, 
and  efficiency. 

The  National  Cash  Register  Company  have  installed  every  type  of 
convenience,  sanitation,  and  safety  wdthin  the  factory.  A  great  deal  of 
time  and  effort  have  been  devoted  to  the  boys.  The  particular  lo- 
cation of  this  manufacturing  plant  in  1892  was  regarded  as  the  most 
undesirable  part  of  Dayton.  It  was  called  Slidertown,  and  it  lived  up 
to  everything  that  its  name  implied.  Much  of  the  vileness  and  evil  of 
the  city  seemed  to  center  there.  The  yards  were  full  of  rubbish  and 
refuse.  Rents  were  low.  Employees  were  ashamed  to  say  that  they 
worked  at  the  factory.  In  addition,  Slidertown  was  infested  with  what 
were  believed  to  be  bad  boys.  They  broke  the  windows  of  the  factory, 
pulled  up  the  shrubbery  and  were  constantly  in  mischief.  A  picket 
fence  ten  feet  high  was  erected  around  the  factory  to  keep  these 
youngsters  out,  but  even  that  was  unavailing. 

The  President  of  the  Company  was  convinced  that  if  given  an 
opportunity,  a  boy  will  do  what  is  right  and  that  a  boy  is  bad  in  pro- 
portion as  his  mind  is  unoccupied.  This  theory  was  put  into  effect  by 
giving  them  a  meeting-place  and  by  establishing  classes  in  what  today 
would  be  called  manual  training,  and  the  setting  apart  of  a  plot  of 
ground  for  garden  work.  The  boys  were  supplied  with  seeds  and  tools 
and  put  to  work.  We  were  much  surprised  to  find  that  the  ring- 
leaders in"  the  evil  were  also  the  leaders  in  the  good.  They  were  very 
enthusiastic  when  they  found  that  they  were  going  to  do  something 
that  was  really  worth  while.  It  was  much  better  than  replacing  win- 
dow-panes and  repairing  other  damage.  It  taught  the  boys  industry 
and  perseverance.  It  improved  their  physical  lives  and  had  a  lasting 
moral  influence  upon  them.  Many  of  these  boys  have  entered  the 
factory  and  have  made  the  very  best  kind  of  apprentices  and  work- 
men. Others  have  gone  out  into  the  world  as  journeymen  workmen, 
and  most  of  them  have  been  successful.  We  have  followed  their  ca- 
reers carefully  because  we  early  believed  that  there  were  great  possi- 
bilities of  making  useful  citizens  out  of  mischievous  boys. 

To  clean  up  the  unsightly  surroundings  it  was  found  necessary  to 
do  a  great  deal  of  neighborhood  work.  Due  to  vileness  and  unsightli- 
uess  and  bad  surroundings,  it  was  impossible  to  procure  the  class  of 
help  needed  to  manufacture  a  finished  product  of  high  grade.   Skilled 


358  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

labor  would  not  come  to  Slidertown.  To  overcome  the  difficulty, 
neigliborhood  houses,  or  as  we  would  call  them  today,  social  centers, 
were  provided.  Lectures  illustrated  by  crude  slides  were  ni.ulc  up  to 
illustrate  the  proper  and  improper  way  of  beautifying  the  f^urround- 
ings. 

Good  housing  and  beautiful  surroundings  have  a  whole  lot  to  do 
with  the  Avelfare  and  health  of  people.  A  backyard  was  improved 
by  a  boy  twelve  years  of  age — just  a  little  seed  and  a  little  bit  of 
hard  work  on  the  part  of  the  boy.  Furthermore,  it  stimulates 
outdoor  life.  Efficient  work  unquestionably  depends  upon  the 
physical  condition  of  the  employee.    From  early  days  we  have  always 


PLANT   OF    THE    NATIONAL    CASH    REGISTER    COMPANY,    DAYTON,    OHIO 

believed  that  the  efficiency  of  the  worker  is  based  upon  health.  As  a 
consecpience,  for  many  years  much  of  our  type  of  instruction  has  had 
to  do  with  the  general  question  of  health,  and  I  wish  to  say  in  this 
connection  that  much  of  our  finest  inspiration  has  come  from  the 
Battle  Creek  Sanitarium — First,  Health. 

You  know  the  other  slogan  that  the  industries  are  using  so  much — 
Safety  First.  They  are  both  good.  We  do  not  believe  it  will  be 
necessary  to  produce  many  arguments  as  to  the  value  of  fresh  air. 
You  would  not  think  of  putting  an  athlete  into  the  basement  of  a 
building  to  train  for  some  athletic  event  and  expect  him  to  excel. 

Fresh  air  is  absolutely  essential,  of  course.     In  our  older  type  of 


SCHOOL    AND    INDUSTRIAL    HYGIENE 


359 


buildings,  air  is  drawn  in  through  a  ventilating  duct  from  the  top 
and  distributed  throughout  the  building.  The  aii*  is  changed  evei^y 
fifteen  minutes.  Some  of  our  more  modern  buildings  wash  and 
humidify  the  air  and  a  very  close  regulation  of  temperature  is, possibly. 
One  man  spends  his  entire  time  regulating  the -heat. of  the  buildings 
and  controlling  ventilation.  In  our  Polishing  Departinejit  ^nd 
metal  working  rooms  there  is  au  exhaust  system  installed  for  carrying 
away  the  metal  dust.  This  dust  is  discharged  into  large  bins.  About 
one  week's  accumulation  is  represented  by  nine  barrels  of  this  dust. 


AN  EXERCISING   CLASS 


This  would  have  injured  the  eyes  and  lungs  of  the  men  if  it  had 
not  been  removed  by  some  such  device. 

The  Company  makes  every  effort  possible  to  keep  every  department 
just  as  clean  and  healthful  as  possible.  The  factory,  in  a  sense, 
is  really  located  in  a  garden.  Doctor  Read  said  yesterday  "that 
flowers  upon  the  table  really  produce  a  sort  of  psychic  gastric 
juice."  Unquestionably,  beautiful  shrubbery  and  floAvers  have  a 
somewhat  analogous  effect  on  our  product.  At  least,  we  believe 
better    working    conditions    are    closely    related    to    good    business. 


360 


FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 


Shrubbery   hides  the  foundations  and   walls,   makes   a    hi-eak   in   the 
line  of  the  wall,  adding  very  much  to  tlie  beauty  of  the  stirrouiidinji^s. 

We  are  great  believers  in  exercise.  At  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning 
and  at  three  in  the  afternoon,  the  windows  in  the  office  departments 
are  thrown  open  and  the  men  and  women  indulge  in  light  exercises. 
"We  have  a  gymnasium  and  health  classes  for  increasing  the 
efficiency   of   the    office   force   and   the   women    employees.     At   the 


TENNIS  COURTS  ADJACENT  TO  FACTORY 


present  time,  these  classes  are  under  the  direction  of  a  Battle  Creek 
Sanitarium  graduate. 

The  office  clerks  meet  three  times  a  week  in  the  gymnasium  after 
working  hours.  The  athletic  fields  surrounding  the  factorj^  are  used 
by  employees  before  and  after  work  and  during  the  noon  hour.  They 
consist  of  tennis  courts,  baseball  grounds  and  gun  club  grounds. 
About  three  miles  south  of  the  factory  is  located  the  country  club, 
which  was  established  as  a  further  incentive  to  outdoor  exercise. 
It  is  located  on  a  portion  of  Hills  and  Dales,  a  1,100-acre  estate 
owned  by  the  President  of  the  Company,  which  has  been  thrown 
open  as  a  playground  not  only  to  the  employees  and  their  families, 
but  to  the  citizens  of  Dayton  as  well.     The  club  is  nearly  self-sup- 


SCHOOL    AND    INDUSTRIAL    HYGIENE 


361 


pointing,  and  every  employee  is  eligible  to  membership.    The  member- 
ship fee  is  $1.00  per  year. 

All  kinds  of  athletic  sports  are  particularly  fostered  for  the  sake  of 
the  exercise  and  fresh  air.  Scattered  throughout  Hills  and  Dales  are  a 
number  of  Adirondack  Camps.  These  are  fully  equipped  with  big  fire- 
places and  water  supply,  fuel  supply,  and  potatoes  are  to  be  found 
in  the  cupboards  for  baking.  These  camps  are  very  popular  and  can 
be  used  by  any  employee  on  application. 


THE  EMERGENCY   HOSPITAL 


The  Woman's  Century  Club  is  composed  of  the  women  employees 
nt  the  factory.  Any  woman  employee  is  eligible.  Its  object  is  to  pro- 
mote the  intellectual  and  social  welfare  of  its  members.  Meetings 
are  held  twice  monthly.  Prominent  speakers  are  engaged  from  time 
to  time  to  address  the  club  members.  A  vacation  house  located  in 
Hills  and  Dales  is  used  by  the  Woman's  Century  Club  for  entertain- 
ments, week-end  parties,  etc.  Its  main  object  is  to  teach  the  women 
how  to  manage  a  home.  The  house  will  accommodate  thirty  girls.  We 
have  about  seven  hundred  women  in  the  factory,  and  most  of  them  are 
at  this  club  for  at  least  a  few  days  during  the  summer  time.  A  Battle 
Creek  Sanitarium  graduate  was  in  charge  last  summer. 

The  NCR  Riding  Club  is  eligible  to  any  employee  owning  a  horse. 


362  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

i 

In  fact,  the  company  eneouragcs  horseback  riding  because  it  l)rings 
the  men  ont  into  the  open  air  and  gives  tliem  the  exercise  they  need. 
In  order  to  encourage  employees  to  take  part  in  this  exercise,  the  horses 
are  boarded  in  the  Company's  stables  at  cost. 

Few  people  in  the  city  are  acquainted  with  the  many  beautiful 
highways  and  lanes  which  are  to  be  found  in  the  neighboring  country. 
Nature  study  classes  and  walking  classes  make  one  realize  that  they 
have  neglected  one  great  branch  of  education ;  namely,  that  which 
Nature  teaches.  If  time  would  permit,  a  great  deal  of  attention  should 
be  paid  to  the  various  types  of  schools  connected  with  all  depart- 
ments in  our  business.  The  future  of  any  business  is  based  upon 
teaching. 

The  National  Cash  Register  Company  early  brought  the  school 
idea  into  the  business,  in  order  that  merchants  and  business  men 
throughout  the  world  might  learn  the  best  way  for  handling  their 
cash  accounts.  The  company  maintains  training  schools  in  various 
parts  of  the  world  for  its  agents.  They  also  have  advertising,  account- 
ing, apprenticeship,  physical  training,  salesmanship,  and  other  classes, 
meeting  at  regular  intervals. 

\  The  water  supply  is  very  satisfactory.  The  factory  secures  this 
Water  from  deep  wells,  samples  of  which  are  taken  every  two  weeks 
and  analyzed  and  submitted  to  a  bacteriological  test.  The  office  build- 
ing is  supplied  with  distilled  water  and  individual  cup  service. 

,  Two  hundred  and  twenty  shower  baths  are  distributed  throughout 
the  factory.  Every  employee  is  given  company  time  to  take  two 
baths  a  week,  and  can  have  as  many  more  as  desired  on  his  own 
time. 

Treatment  rooms  have  been  provided,  modeled  very  much  after 
the  hydrotherapy  methods  of  the  Sanitarium.  Tliis  is  also  in  charge 
of  two  Sanitarium  graduates.  The  benefits  to  be  derived  are  not 
confined  simply  to  the  men  higher  up.  Men  in  the  shop  needing 
attention  can  have  access  to  the  baiths.  We  have  a  good  many 
health  classes  intended  to  increase  the  efficiency,  particularly  of  our 
sedentary  workers.  Much  attention  has  been  paid  to  food.  Quite  a 
number  of  men  have  adopted  the  low-protein  diet.  They  believe  in 
the  advantages  derived  therefrom. 

Our  Officers'  Club  accommodates  about  six  hundred  people  at 
lunch.  We  serve  a  very  wholesome;  well-cooked  dinner,  very  simple 
and  very  plain.  Food  is  k;ept  hot  in  chafing  dishes  and  served  on 
plates  holding  hot  water. 

Brushes  and  combs  are  sterilized  dailv  and  washed  in  benzine,  then 


SCHOOL    AND    INDUSTRIAL    HYGIENE  363 

placed  in  sterilizers.  Roller  towels  have  been  done  away  with,  sub- 
stituting individual  hand  towels.  The  girls  are  provided  with  sleeve- 
lets and  clean  aprons  every  week.  Umbrellas  and  overshoes  are  loaned 
on  rainy  days.  They  are  issued  on  checks  and  are  returned  the  fol- 
lowing day. 

All  new  employees  must  undergo  a  physical  examination.  This  is 
done  as  a  protection  to  those  already  employed.  After  employees  are 
accepted,  great  care  is  taken  to  protect  them.  We  believe  in  periodic 
examinations,  but  have  not  done  very  much  along  this  line  to  date. 

The  employees  have  a  strong  voluntary  Relief  Association  which 
pays  sick,  accident  and  death  benefits. 

We  also  have  an  emergency  hospital  wh6re  accidents  are  cared  for. 
Our  accidents,  however,  are  reduced  to  a  minimum.  This  is  due  to 
the  safety  devices  with  which  all  machines  throughout  the  plant  are 
equipped.  We  have  a  trained  nurse  who  visits  our  sick  employees,  in 
their  homes,  offering  suggestions  and  advice.  It  is  far  more  economical 
to  keep  employees  well  than  to  employ  new  ones  in  their  places.  An 
oculist  examines  the  eyes  of  our  employees  and  decides  when  glasses 
are  needed.  Free  examination  is  afforded  and  the  company  pays  half 
of  the  price  of  the  glasses. 

A  new  building,  called  our  Hall  of  Industrial  Education  was 
erected  recently.  It  is  capable  of  seating  about  1,200  people  and 
has.  besides  a  large  auditorium,  a  number  of  small  school  rooms. 
We  are  thorough  believers  in  teaching  through  the  eye.  In  fact, 
about  eighty -five  per  cent  of  the  knowledge  which  we  acquire  comes 
through  the  eye.  Consequently  these  lecture  halls  and  school- 
rooms are  thoroughly  equipped  with  projection  apparatus.  In  the 
large  hall  the  projection  is  done  from  the  rear  through  a  glass  screen. 
Noise  is  eliminated  and  there  is  no  danger  of  fire,  both  very  attractive 
features.  This  hall  is  aptly  called  our  Power-House,  and  really  is 
more  distinctly  a  power-house  than  the  one  housing  our  turbines, 
engines,  etc.  Much  of  our  time  has  been  devoted  to  educational  talks 
on  health,  and  we  have  many  lectures  on  many  different  subjects. 
Even  a  class  of  salesmen  coming  in  to  spend  six  M^eeks  in  study  is  given 
quite  a  bit  of  training  in  hygiene.  We  believe  in  health  education  very 
thoroughly.  We  endeavor  to  make  these  talks  very  simple.  We  try 
for  short  words  and  big  ideas.  It  is  a  very  difficult  matter  to  put  up 
a  talk  in  physiology  so  simple  that  everybody  can  understand  it.  We 
have  talks  on  bacteria,  common  cold,  constipation,  and  a  great  many 
other  allied  subjects.  It  was  the  school  idea  that  saved  the  day  at 
the  time  of  the  breakdown  in  1892.  We  had  to  do  something  to  over- 
come the  inertia  or  lack  of  interest  in  the  work,  so  we  started  the 
school  idea  and  have  been  at  it  ever  since. 


3G4  FIUST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

Tlu'  slitlos  used  ill  tlu'  I'arly  (l;iys  were  extremely  eriidc  Despite 
their  enideness,  however,  they  were  of  considerable  value.  Today  our 
collection  totals  somewhere  around  fifty  thousand  different  slides.  Our 
belief  in  health  education  is  not  a  recent  move  on  our  part,  but  dates 
back  many  years.  Our  early  literature  had  little  excerpts  and  short 
sayings  relating  to  health.  Moving  picture  films,  if  they  have  any 
educational  value,  are  utilized  for  educational  purposes.  Our  weekly 
paper  helps  to  disseminate  this  type  of  information. 

A  large  number  of  our  office  employees  asked  for  a  vegetarian  table 
voluntarily.  It  is  very  difficult  to  get  the  average  man  to  understand 
what  we  mean  by  protein,  fat,  carbohydrate,  balanced  diet,  etc.  We 
spend  a  great  deal  of  time  trying  to  simplify  this  particular  subject, 
believing  it  to  be  one  of  the  most  important. 

You  will  probably  agree  with  us  when  we  say  that  welfare  work  is 
right,  but  you  may  be  just  a  bit  skeptical  when  we  repeat  it  is  an  abso- 
lute necessity  in  our  business.  AVe  feel  that  we  could  not  build  a  good 
reliable,  accurate  cash  register  without  it  because  no  system  of  in- 
spection has  been  devised  that  will  give  us  the  accuracy  we  want. 
When  an  employee  is  not  feeling  well,  he  does  poor  work,  and  when  an 
inspector  is  not  feeling  well,  he  passes  parts  that  he  would  not  pass 
ordinarily.  Welfare  work  supplies  just  that  which  is  lacking  in  the 
inspection  system.  It  brings  the  best  there  is  out  of  each  employee  and 
results  in  cooperation  and  team  play.  AVelfare  work  does  not  take 
the  place  of  wages.  It  costs  us  less  than  six  cents  per  day  per  em- 
ployee. For  that  six  cents,  we  provide  healthful  surroundings, 
personal  comfort,  recreation,  education  and  training.  We  receive  in 
return  much  more  than  six  cents'  worth  of  efficiency  from  each  em- 
ployee. So  welfare  w^ork  is  not  philanthropy.  It  is  nothing  more 
than  good  common  sense,  and  it  pays. 


CITY,  STATE  AND  NATIONAL  HYGIENE 

FUNCTION     OF     INDIVIDUAL,     CITY,     STATE     AND     NATION     IN 
RACE  BETTERMENT 

{Letter  to  the  President  of  the  Conference) 

Sir    Horace    Plunkett,    K.C.V.O.,    F.R.S.,    Ex-Minister    of    AgTieulture 
for  Ireland,  Dublin,  Ireland. 

The  work  for  which  I  suppose  I  was  born,  calls  me  home.  I 
had  hoped  that  I  might  remain  and  make  a  modest  contribution 
to  the  deliberations  over  which  those  of  us  who  were  consulted  upon 
the  program  and  arrangements  of  the  National  Eace  Betterment 
Conference  unanimously  agreed  that  you  were  the  ideal  presiding 
ofScer.  But,  as  you  know,  Ireland  just  now  needs  all  her  workers, 
and  I  must  go. 

The  program  you  will  have  to  get  through  is — to  saj'-  the  least — 
full;  and  no  one  need  regret  that  I  do  not  crowd  out  any  of  the 
absorbingly  interesting  subjects  which  are  to  be  treated,  nearly  all 
by  real  experts,  and  not  by  laymen  like  myself.  Moreover,  I  feel 
that,  as  I  cannot  be  present,  the  particular  question  I  intended  to 
discuss,  "The  Function  of  the  Individual,  City,  State  and  Nation  in 
Bringing  about  Eace  Betterment,"  would  better  be  left  over,  until, 
as  the  result  of  the  Conference's  deliberations,  we  know  the  scope 
of  the  work  which  has  to  be  done  to  attain  the  end  the  Conference 
has  in  view.  Then  only  can  the  responsibility  be  divided  and  the 
tasks  assigned  to  the  effective  agencies,  educational,  administrative, 
and  propagandist,  which  must  follow  up  the  conclusions  at  which 
the  Conference  arrives. 

Will  you  allow  me  to  make  one  suggestion  (which  is  within 
the  province  of  the  layman),  relating  to  a  real  issue  not  directly 
raised  in  any  of  the  subjects  announced  for  discussion,  and  yet  in 
a  sense  germane  to  nearly  all  of  them.  (My  own  life's  work  relates 
to  the  rural  side  of  our  civilization,  which  I  hold  to  have  been  badly 
neglected.)  The  people  of  my  own  country  are  predominantly  rural, 
and  my  experience  in  studying  and  dealing  practically  with  its 
problems  has  brought  me  into  embarrassingly  intimate  relations 
with  a  numerous  body  of  social  workers  in  the  rural  sections  of 
the  United  States.  These  workers  aim  at  a  complete  reconstruction 
of  rural  life — an  improvement  of  its  technical  and  business  methods 
and  of  its  domestic  and  social  conditions.  For  reasons  of  national 
importance  and  urgency^ — reasons  economic,  social,  and  political — 
the  settlement  of  a  much  greater  proportion  of  the  people  upon  the 

365 


366  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

farm  lands  of  the  country,  in  healthy,  happy,  and  progressire  com- 
munities, is  becoming  every  year  increasingly  the  aim  and  object 
of  philanthropic  endeavor.  These  workers  believe  that  the  country 
offers  a  far  better  hope  of  race  betterment  than  the  city.  But  in 
the  neglect  of  rural  problems,  in  the  urbanization  of  all  thought 
which  characterizes  this  age,  there  is  very  little  statistical  or  other 
material  on  which  the  rural  reformer  can  base  this  part  of  his  case. 
Speaking  as  one  of  these  workers,  may  I  ask  the  Conference  to 
bear  in  mind  the  countryside,  and  to  give  us  any  help  they  can, 
by  way  of  counsel  and  advice,  as  to  how  we  may  re-enforce  our 
plea  that  country  life  is  better  for  the  race  than  city  life,  and  how 
we  may,  by  applying  the  wisdom  of  the  Conference,  demonstrate 
that  truth.  I  won't  promise  to  preach  eugenics,  because  the  prophets 
of  that  science  tell  me  that  I  had  no  business  to  be  born.  But  in 
any  other  direction  I  will  be  guided  by  you  and  the  other  scientists 
over  whom  you  will  preside. 

May  I  say  in  conclusion  how  glad  I  am  that  the  Conference  is, 
by  the  choice  of  its  meeting-place,  doing  honor  to  and  enlarging  the 
influence  of  an  institution  and  a  body  of  workers  for  humanity 
whose  services  have  not,  I  think,  been  fully  appreciated.  You  will 
doubtless  express  far  more  clearly  and  with  tenfold  weight  my  own 
estimate  of  Doctor  Kellogg 's  and  his  staff's  efforts  in  teaching  the 
ignorant  among  us  how  to  live  that  we  may  do  well  the  work  we 
are  here  for.  In  anticipation,  may  I  associate  myself  with  all  you 
will  say  upon  this. 

I  regret  more  than  I  can  say  that  I  cannot  stand  behind  the 
venerable  physician  and  public  servant  whose  life  is  the  best  in- 
spiration my  imagination  can  conceive  for  those  who  wish,  as  I  do, 
that  the  Conference  may  mark  a  memorable  departure  in  philan- 
thropic endeavor. 


Miss  M.  E.  Bingeman,  Board  of  Education,  Rochester,  New  York. 

The  city  of  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  has  just  adopted  a  new  point  of 
view  in  this  matter  of  municipal  responsibility.  It  is  beginning  to 
see  that  as  it  suffers  economically  from  premature  death,  from  un- 
necessary inefficiency  and  unnecessary  sickness,  and  that  because 
these  three  things  are  due  in  a  general  way  to  ignorance,  it  is  the 
function  of  the  city  to  place  within  the  reach  of  every  person  in 
Rochester  the  necessary  Icnowledge.  Up  to  this  time,  people  have 
obtained  their  knowledge  about  these  things  in  a  haphazard  way.  They 
obtained  it  from  hearsay;   they  obtained  it  from  the  newspapers  and. 


CITY,    STATE   AND   NATIONAL    HYGIENE  367 

from  magazines.  At  the  same  time,  from  these  same  sources  they 
obtained  very  mistaken  ideas.  In  sorting  it  for  themselves,  they  are 
not  in  a  position  to  do  it  intelligently.  In  Rochester,  the  Women's 
Educational  and  Industrial  Union  sent  a  petition,  signed  by  three 
thousand  pastors,  to  the  Board  of  Education,  asking  them  to  furnish 
instruction  in  physiology,  hygiene,  nursing,  first  aid,  dietetics,  and 
things  of  that  description.  The  Board  of  Education  has  agreed  to 
do  this.  Beginning  next  Monday,  such  a  course  is  to  be  offered  in 
the  high  school  of  the  city.  There  will  be  a  course  of  twelve  weeks, 
two  lessons  a  week,  one  by  the  doctor  and  one  by  the  nurse,  of  an  hour 
each,  and  in  this  course  there  is  to  be  taught  physiology  and  the  care 
of  the  child  from  birth  to  two  years,  from  two  years  to  twelve  years, 
hygiene,  psychology  of  adolescence,  first  aid,  emergencies,  causes  of 
disease,  prevention  and  recognition  of  disease,  rational  principles  for 
the  cure  of  disease,  household  and  civic  hygiene,  motherhood,  and 
things  of  that  description. 

If  the  women  of  Rochester  appreciate  this  course  by  attending, 
this  work  is  to  be  enlarged,  and  every  school  in  the  city  in  turn  is 
to  have  this  instruction  offered,  so  that  by  and  by  this  instruction 
will  be  placed  within  walking  distance  of  the  women  of  the  city. 
There  are  to  be  classes  whenever  the  women  can  come  in— forenoon 
classes,  and^  if  there  is  a  demand  for  it,  afternoon  classes  from  four  to 
five,  and  evening  classes  in  the  evening  schools.  We  believe  that  in 
this  way,  with  two  teachers,  one  a  doctor  and  one  a  nurse,  we  can 
reach  six  hundred  women  a  year  if  the  women  are  ready  to  do  it. 

There  is  no  reason  why  that  six  hundred  should  not  be  sixty 
thousand  if  every  other  city  does  likewise. 


COMMUNITY    HYGIENE — WITH    SPECIAL    REFERENCE    TO 
MEAT  INSPECTION 

Rev.  Caroline  Bartlett  Crane,  A.M.,  Kalamazoo,  Michigan. 

If  we  may  speak  of  the  ''birth  of  cities,"  it  must  be  admitted 
that  thus  far  eugenics  has  played  but  an  unimportant  part  in  their 
production.  Cities  are  born  of  unions  founded  on  love  and  propin- 
quity— love  of  money  and  propinquity  to  the  main  chance.  Cities, 
by  their  forebears  affianced  from  birth  to  "Business,"  grow  up 
to  bring  forth  a  brood  of  good  and  evil  offspring.  They  are  proud 
(sometimes  not  till  years  after)  of  their  good  offspring,  while  the 


368  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

responsibility  for  the  evil  offsprin"-  they  lay  onto  the  mother,  sayinj;- 
"Business  is  Business."  When  the  evils  become  too  numerous  and 
fierce,  so  as  even  to  interfere  with  beloved  "Business,"  this  tyran- 
nical dame  consents,  perforce,  to  the  espousal  of  Hygeia,  as  a  sort 
of  supplementary  wnfe,  to  clean  things  up  a  bit. 

And  here  is  where  and  how  Community  Hygiene  begins — outside 
of  a  few  modern  and  "model"  industrial-and-army-camps,  which 
are  the  only  eugenically-&or/i  communities  we  have. 

The  genesis  of  certain  important  items  of  Community  Hygiene 
is  strikingly  illustrated  in  a  far  Western  state,  where  recently  I 
made  a  sanitary  survey  of  twelve  cities.  At  this  moment,  in  a  com- 
munity of  some  seven  thousand  persons,  a  typhoid  epidemic  is  rag- 
ing which  has  laid  low  more  than  two  hundred  persons  in  the  first 
fortnight,  out  of  which  number  nine  are  now  dead.  Fresh  cases  are 
developing  daily.  This  epidemic  is  the  natural  and  to-be-expected 
outcome  of  a  domestic  water  supply  taken  from  a  stream  polluted 
by  the  sewage  of  another  community.  For  years  the  State  Board 
of  Health  has  endeavored  to  persuade  the  city  to  purify  the  water. 
At  the  same  time  it  has  been  endeavoring  in  vain  to  persuade  the 
State  Legislature  to  pass  a  Water  and  Sewage  Bill  (similar  to  that 
now  in  effect  in  Pennsylvania),  which  would  make  such  an  epidemic 
from  such  a  source  practically  impossible.  Now,  after  the  event, 
the  State  Board  has  had  to  come  in  and  take  charge  of  affairs,  be- 
cause there  is  no  city  or  county  health  organization  worth  mention- 
ing. The  State  Board  has  installed  an  emergency  hypochlorite  plant, 
a  supervision  over  milk  and  food,  an  emergency  hospital  and  home 
nursing  service ;  a  systematic  case-reporting  scheme,  a  compre- 
hensive clean-up  campaign  for  the  whole  town,  and  free  vaccination 
of  all  the  well  against  the  disease. 

In  another  city  in  that  state,  where  public  health  work  in  general 
is  of  an  exceptionally  high  order,  some  twenty  persons,  mostly  chil- 
dren, are  daily  receiving  Pasteur  treatment.  More  than  forty  human 
beings  have  been  bitten  recently  by  rabid  dogs.  The  chief  concern 
of  the  city  council  seems  to  be  to  prevent  this  damaging  fact  from 
getting  abroad.  To  pass  an  ordinance  for  suppression  of  the  cause 
of  hydrophobia  would  be  to  advertise  the  damaging  fact  of  its  ex- 
istence. The  first  mad  dog  ever  seen  in  the  state  was  brought  from 
another  state  about  a  year  ago.  Rabies  is  now  well  entrenched  in 
a  dozen  cities  and  in  the  rural  districts  all  up  and  down  the  coast- 
side  of  that  second  state.  In  the  metropolis  of  this  same  state  some 
twenty-five  plague-infested  rats  have  been  discovered  within  the 
last  few  weeks.  The  original  plague-infested  rats  came  by  ship 
from  Asiatic  ports.    The  city  has  already  burned  dow^i  some  1,100 


CITY,    STATE   AND   NATIONAL    HYGIENE  369 

old  buildings  in  a  but  partially  successful  struggle  to  be  rid  of  rats. 

These  illustrations  serve  abundantly  to  point  out  the  fact  that 
no  community  lives  unto  itself  alone ;  that  community  hygiene  may 
depend  in  no  small  part  upon  the  behavior  of  neighboring  (but  un- 
neighborly)  communities;  upon  state  laws  and  their  administration; 
upon  national  control  of  the  movements  of  persons,  animals,  and 
things  transported  from  one  state  into  or  through  another,  to  the 
possible  injury  of  public  health;  and  upon  such  international  regu- 
lation as  may  prfevent  the  introduction  into  any  portion  of  our  coun- 
try of  disease  or  disease-producing  factors  from  regions  of  the 
world  beyond  our  direct  hygienic  control. 

Therefore,  a  proper  division  of  function,  and  proper  functioning 
in  each  division  of  public  health  work  is  of  vital  concern  to  every 
community.  The  "leading  citizen"  in  the  fever-stricken  little  city 
above  referred  to,  who  was  not  afraid  of  the  water  because  he  had 
been  drinking  it  for  seventeen  years,  is  now  in  the  emergency  hospi- 
tal. But  he  was  a  leading  citizen,  and  he  led  his  fellow-citizens  in  a 
successful  opposition  to  a  Water  and  Sewage  Bill  which  would  have 
given  the  State  Board  of  Health  some  warrant  to  interfere  with 
their  heaven-born  right  to  drink  whatever  water  they  chose.  Be- 
sides, to  have  sanctioned  the  requirement  that  the  city  higher  up 
on  the  stream  should  treat  its  sewage  before  discharging  it  into  the 
river,  would  be  a  pointed  suggestion  to  the  city  below  to  require  as 
much  of  them.  And  a  sewage-disposal  plant  would  mean  a  munici- 
pal bond  issue ;  hence,  not  to  be  thought  of. 

But  to  the  wise  and  discriminating  person,  it  is  evident  that 
each  community  must  not  only  do  its  own  part,  but  it  must  main- 
tain a  partnership  in  public  hygiene  with  other  communities,  under 
supervision  of  the  state,  which  grants  to  municipal  corporations  all 
the  rights  and  privileges  they  possess,  and  which  may  naturally 
be  looked  to  to  maintain  substantial  justice  between  these  corpora- 
tions; also,  that  states,  and  communities  within  states,  may  justly 
expect  the  national  government  to  exercise  strongly,  in  behalf  of 
the  general  welfare,  any  power  it  may  possess ;  as,  for  example,  the 
power  assumed  to  itself  by  what  is  known  as  the  "Interstate  and 
Foreign  Commerce  clause"  of  the  Federal  Constitution. 

I  have  been  asked  by  your  Committee  to  speak  this  evening  on 
"Community  Hygiene,  with  Special  Reference  to  Meat  Inspection." 

In  such  a  scheme  as  I  have  described  for  division  of  health  ad- 
ministration between  city,  state,  and  nation,  where  would  one  natu- 
rally expect  meat  inspection  to  fall?  Meat  shipped  abroad  would 
need  to  be  inspected  and  certified  by  our  Federal  Government. 
Meat  shipped  from  one  state  to  another,  becoming  an  article  of  in- 


370  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

terstate  eommorce,  wonld  also  fall  naturally  to  inspection  by  the 
federal  government.  Meat  slaughtered  for  consumption  within 
the  state  might  be  inspected  and  certified  either  by  the  state  or  by 
the  municipality  in  which  it  is  to  be  offered  for  sale. 

In  an  agricultural  region  such  as  surrounds  thousands  of  cities 
and  villages  in  the  United  States,  one  would  naturally  expect  that 
the  meat  supply,  like  the  milk  supply,  would  be  shipped  in  from 
the  surrounding  country,  and  that  each  city  might  protect  itself 
against  diseased  or  unwholesome  meat  by  a  propel  ordinance  and 
a  proper  system  of  inspection.  I  believe  that  the  general  police 
power  conferred  upon  municipalities  by  most  states  includes  the 
power  to  bar  from  entrance  into  the  city  any  meat  whose  sanitary 
character  or  condition  fails  to  comply  with  reasonable  standards 
set  by  the  city  in  question.  Just  as  a  city,  before  it  grants  a  milk 
dealer's  license,  may  send  its  inspectors  across  state  lines  to  inspect 
animals  and  stables  and  milk  houses  and  may  even  require  the 
tuberculin  test  to  be  administered  to  cows,  so  a  city  may  (and  a 
few  cities  in  this  country  already  do)  require  that  all  meats  sold 
therein  shall  either  be  slaughtered  under  municipal  inspection,  or 
the  carcasses  elsewhere  slaughtered  shall  be  subject  to  inspection 
before  they  are  admitted  to  sale  in  the  city. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  local  meat  inspection  has  lagged  very  far 
behind  local  milk  inspection,  and  federal  meat  inspection  is  gener- 
ally looked  to  in  this  country  as  a  protection  against  diseased  and 
otherwise  unwholesome  meat  and  meat  food  products.  Federal  in- 
spection, however,  was  not  instituted  for  the  sake  of  protecting  the 
American  consumer.  Nearly  thirty  years  ago  foreign  countries 
which  purchased  enormous  quantities  of  American  meats,  began  to 
put  restrictions  upon  our  meats,  especially  pork,  because  of  evi- 
dence of  disease.  These  countries,  which  carried  on  a  systematic 
inspection  of  their  own  meats,  demanded  that  American  meats 
should  be  inspected  ai;id  certified  before  they  could  be  admitted  to 
their  markets.  Thus,  federal  meat  inspection  was  inaugurated 
twenty-three  years  ago,  not  as  a  protection  to  American  consumers, 
but  to  restore  to  American  packers  an  enormous  but  rapidly  van- 
ishing foreign  trade. 

Federal  inspection  assumed  to  cover  all -meat  shipped  in  either 
foreign  or  interstate  trade,  since  inspection  was  instituted  under 
sanction  of  the  "interstate  and  foreign  commerce  clause"  of  the 
federal  constitution.  But  we  find  by  admissions  of  later  years  that 
only  a  small  percentage  of  interstate  shipments  was  inspected.  JHow- 
ever.  the  government  guarantee,  "U.  S.  Inspected  and  Passed."  was 
found  to  be  a  valuable  asset,  giving  the  great  packer  yet  one  more 


CITY,    STATE   AND   NATION^U.    HYGIENE  371 

advantage  over  the  local  independent  butcher,  and  from  year  to 
year  more  and  more  of  the  meat  shipped  interstate  has  borne  the 
federal  stamp.  Both  the  Department  of  Agriculture  and  the  pack- 
ers have  made  strenuous  efforts  to  instil  into  the  American  mind 
the  belief  that  the  stamp,  "U.  S.  Inspected  and  Passed,"  is  a  safe 
guarantee  of  the  entire  wholesomeness  of  the  meat. 

Were  this  true,  we  might  well  prefer  the  guarantee  of  our  na- 
tional government  to  that  of  any  city  or  state. 

But  it  is  not  true. 

We  all  recall  the  "Jungle"'  expose  of  1906,  followed  by  a  storm 
of  popular  disgust  and  indignation,  a  new  law,  new  regulations  and 
a  new  meat  inspection  appropriation  of  three  million  dollars  granted 
by  Congress  for  the  express  purpose  of  protecting  the  American 
consumer.  Since  that  time,  the  Department  of  Agriculture  and 
the  packers  have  redoubled  their  efforts  to  win  the  confidence  of 
the  American  people.  Many  official  bulletins  and  popular  articles 
have  been  issued,  describing  and  guaranteeing  the  inspection,  and 
it  is  argued  that  if  the  most  particular  and  suspiciously-inclined 
countries  in  the  world  accept  our  government  guarantee,  surely  the 
people  of  this  country  should  do  the  same. 

But  the  fact  is  that  the  ''most  particular  countries"  do  not  ac- 
cept our  meat  inspection  certificates  without  reservation  or  without 
requiring  tell-tale  organs  and  glands  to  be  left  in  their  natural 
attachments  for  reinspection  at  the  point  of  entry,  and  that  we  have 
never  regained  the  degree  of  European  confidence  which  was  lost 
in  1906. 

Furthermore,  Americans  should  know  that  when  a  foreign  gov- 
ernment or  purchaser  does  accept  the  meat  inspection  guarantee 
of  our  government,  it  is  a  different  and  vastly  better  guarantee 
than  our  government  gives  to  the  American  purchaser.  In  the 
very  law  of  1906  is  a  cunningly  hidden  clause  which  requires  the 
inspection  of  the  animal  while  it  is  alive,  as  well  as  the  inspection 
of  the  carcass,  of  all  meat  which  goes  abroad,  by  virtue  of  the  fact 
that  no  vessel  can  get  clearance  papers  if  it  has  on  board  any  meat 
from  this  country  unless  there  is  a  certificate  from  the  Department 
of  Agriculture  saying  that  this  meat,  and  also  the  animal  from  which 
it  was  taken,  has  been  inspected  by  federal  inspectors  and  has  been 
found  sound,  wholesome,  free  from  disease,  and  fit  for  human  food. 

Now,  for  Americans,  this  is  not  required;  there  is  no  certificate 
— nothing  except  the  stamp  upon  the  meat,  "U.  S.  Inspected  and 
Passed."  The  meat  which  goes  abroad  is  really  above  the  Regula- 
tions, because  the  Regulations  themselves  permit  the  passing  of  car- 
casses of  animals  which  on  inspection  proved  to  have  tuberculosis 


372  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

distributed  in  several  different  portions  of  the  body.  The  same  with 
lumpy  jaw;  the  same  with  animals  which  are  affected  with  tape- 
worm cysts  and  with  other  parasites ;  the  same  with  animals  which 
are  affected  by  cancer,  and  many  other  diseases.  The  Regulations 
require  the  cutting  out  of  the  visibly  diseased  portion  before  the 
carcass  is  released  for  food.  However,  I  fancy  that  I  need  not 
argue  Avith  this  audience  the  danger  of  this  proceeding.  Take 
cancer,  for  example : 

Since  we  do  not  know  the  cause  of  cancer  nor  its  method  of 
transmission,  we  are  entirely  unable  to  say  that  there  is  any  stage 
of  the  disease  in  which  any  of  the  meat  of  such  an  animal  could  be 
safely  eaten.  When  we  reflect  upon  the  eft'ect  of  even  a  fourth  of 
a  grain  of  morphine  upon  a  human  body  of  two  hundred  pounds, 
upon  the  inconceivably  minute  quantity  of  tetanus  toxin  which  will 
cause  death,  think  how  small  a  portion  of  the  cancer  cells,  or 
toxins,  or  whatever  it  is,  might  suffice  to  cause  death;  when  we 
reflect  upon  the  terrible  nature  and  increasing  frequency  with, 
which  it  affects  the  stomach,  intestines,  liver  and  other  organs  of 
the  human  abdominal  cavity,  how  is  it  possible  that  such  a  "Regu- 
lation" as  this  shall  be  allowed  to  stand? 

If  you  will  procure  the  Regulations  of  the  Bureau  of  Animal 
Industry  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  (which  were  issued  May 
1st,  1908,  and  are  the  latest  Regulations),  you  will  find  that  what  I 
say  it  true,  that  these  very  Regulations  permit  the  passing  of  the 
meat  of  animals  which,  from  my  standpoint,  at  least,  are  seriously 
diseased.  But  the  certificate  which  is  required  to  be  sent  with  meat 
which  goes  abroad  would  preclude  the  export  of  such  meat  unless 
it  is  acknowledged  that  the  export  certificate  is  false.  Therefore, 
Americans  are  discriminated  against  through  the  very  law  which 
was  supposedly  enacted  for  their  special  protection. 

Not  only  is  it  true  that  there  exists  this  discrimination  against 
Americans  in  the  law  and  in  the  printed  Regulations,  but,  also, 
this  fact:  Within  a  few  months  following  the  new  law  of  1906,  the 
Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Animal  Industry  began  to  issue  special  in- 
structions to  inspectors  subversive  of  the  Regulations  and  even  of 
the  law  under  which  the  Regulations  were  drawn.  These  special 
instructions  were  carefully  guarded  from  public  knowledge.  This 
is  made  evident,  not  only  from  the  prefatory  notes  placed  at  the 
top  of  these  confidential  circulars,  cautioning  employees  against 
giving  or  showing  copies  to  outsiders,  but,  also,  by  the  contents 
of  these  circulars,  which  are  such  as  discretion  Avould  naturally  lead 
the  Bureau  to  keep  from  knowledge  of  the  public.     An  instance 


CITY,    STATE   AND   NATIONAL    HYGIENE  373 

or  two  will  best  serve  to  illustrate  the  character  of  these  circulars 
called  "Service  Announcements." 

The  Regulations  prescribe  that  any  organ  or  part  of  a  carcass 
which  is  the  seat  of  a  tumor,  malignant  or  benign,  or  of  abscesses, 
suppurating  sores  and  the  like,  shall  be  condemned.  But  a  ' '  Service 
Announcement"  authorizes  cutting  out  "benign"  tumors  and  other 
benign  affections,  and  passing  the  remainder  of  an  "otherwise 
sound  and  fit  organ."  However,  about  a  year  later,  in  another 
"Service  Announcements"  (Oct.  15,  1909),  Chief  A.  D.  Melvin,  of 
The  Bureau  of  Animal  Industry,  relates  that  some  five  hundred 
and  eighty  (580)  cases  of  livers,  bearing  the  stamp  "U.  S.  Inspected 
and  Passed,"  have  been  seized  and  condemned  by  port  medical 
officers  in  England,  because  from  twenty  to  thirty  per  cent  (20% 
to  30%)  of  the  livers  were  mutilated  and  were  therefore  held  to  be 
diseased.  Wherefor,  Chief  Melvin  notifies  all  inspectors  that  they 
are  not  hereafter  to  certify  for  export  livers  and  similar  organs 
from  which  portions  have  been  cut  out.  All  these  delicacies  were 
to  be  reserved  for  home  consumption.  If  we  are  to  run  such  risks, 
have  we  not  a  right  to  be  forewarned  by  knowing  what  the  regula- 
tion and  practice  really  are ;  and,  also,  it  is  hardly  to  be  tolerated 
that  we  eat,  not  only  our  own  quota  of  diseased  and  mutilated 
organs,  but  Europe's  quota  also.  Dr.  W.  A.  Evans,  former  com- 
missioner of  health  in  the  city  of  Chicago,  was  asked  recently  in 
his  Chicago  Tribune  column,  whether  a  fish  which  has  a  cancer 
was  fit  to  eat.  He  replied  that  no  one  would  eat  a  fish  which  has 
a  cancer  if  he  knew  it.  I  doubt  if  the  general  public  would  be  any 
more  willing  to  eat  the  flesh  of  cancerous  cows  and  hogs.  Yet  the 
federal  Regulations  permit  the  stamping  of  such  carcasses  "U.  S. 
Inspected  and  Passed." 

The  Regulations  specify  that  the  head  and  tongue  of  all  lumpy- 
jawed  cattle  shall  be  condemned.  But  secret  instructions  authorize 
inspectors  to  cut  out  mild  ulcers  from  lumpy-jawed  tongues,  and 
pass  the  tongues ;  and  a  veterinary  inspector  who  followed  me  on 
the  witness  stand  at  the  Nelson  Meat  Inspection  Hearing  *  told  of 


*  The  dates  and  full  text  of  the  "Service  Announcements"  and  other 
orders  here  quoted  may  be  found  in  Mrs.  Bartlett  Crane's  published  testi- 
mony in  support  of  Nelson  Resolution,  512,  before  the  House  Committee  on 
Expenditures  in  the  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture,  May  8,  9,  10,  11,  1912; 
also  in  a  series  of  articles  on  "U.  S.  Inspected  and  Passed"  by  her,  pub- 
lished in  the  March,  April,  May,  June  and  July  (1912)  issues  of  Pear- 
son's  Magazine.  Also,  in  an  address  delivered  before  the  City  Club  of 
Philadelphia  and  published  in  their  March.  1913,  Bulletin.  A  lengthy  re- 
view of  the  Pearson's  Articles,  by  Mr.  Samuel  Hopkins  Adams,  appears  in 
The  Surveij  for  Sept.  6,  1913. 


374  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

being  reciuirod  to  cut  sucli  deep  ulcers  out  of  tongues  that  great 
gaping  holes  resulted.  At  the  conclusion  of  an  address  last  July 
before  the  City  Club  of  Tacoma,  a  leading  local  packer  arose  in  the 
discussion  and  emphatically  challenged  my  statements  about  the 
passing  of  mutilated  organs  and  lumpy- jaw  tongues.  He  was  cer- 
tain that  nothing  of  the  kind  was  done  by  federal  inspectors.  That 
afternoon,  accompanied  by  several  persons,  including  the  wife  of 
the  Mayor  and  a  state  and  a  city  food  inspector,  I  found  in  the 
leading  market  in  Tacoma,  mutilated  "U.  S.  Inspected  and  Passed" 
livers,  and  a  tongue  bearing  the  same  stamp,  with  a  large  deep  coni- 
cal hole  at  exactly  the  point  where  lumpy- jaw  erosions  usually 
occur.  This  tongue  was  purchased  and  when  the  Mayor  introduced 
me  at  a  mass  meeting  that  evening,  he  caused  this  tongue  to  be 
placed  where  any  curious  persons  (including  the  Tacoma  packer) 
could  procure  a  free  view. 

Much  stress  is  rightly  being  laid  today  upon  the  well-known 
practice  of  adulterating  sausages  by  a  large  per  cent  of  kiln-dried 
cereal  which  will  soak  and  hold  an  immense  quantity  of  water. 
This  is  a  fraud  which  greatly  lessens  the  food  value.  And  yet,  I 
fancy,  if  people  laiew  what  else  goes  into  federally  inspected 
and  certified  sausages,  it  might  tend  to  reconcile  them  to  bread- 
stuffs  and  HoO.  The  "Service  Announcements"  give  much  new 
and  needed  light  on  this  mystery  which  has  long  enshrouded  the 
composition  of  sausage.  In  1910  the  Department  decided  that 
cows'  udders  and  hogs'  lungs  should  no  longer  go  into  sausage.  But 
hog  skins,  palates,  snouts,  ears,  ox-lips,  hogs'  spleens,  stomachs,  and 
livers  are  specifically  mentioned  as  permitted  ingredients  of  sausage. 

As  to  sausage  casing:  The  Regulations  condemn  intestinal  cas- 
ings affected  with  worm  nodules,  but  by  a  "Service  Announce- 
ments" of  July  15,  1910,  it  is  permitted  to  scrape  off  worm  nodules 
"which  are  in  such  a  stage  of  development  as  to  be  readily  re- 
moved." In  "Service  Announcements"  we  also  learn  facts  about 
packers'  wilful  but  unpunished  breaking  of  government  car  seals  and 
the  manufacture  and  use  of  government  inspection  labels  on  unin- 
spected meats;  and  palpable  evidence  of  the  packers'  hand  in  the 
administration  of  the  meat  inspection  service.  At  the  same  time, 
we  learn  of  a  small  offender  (not  a  packer)  who  shipped  seventeen 
veal  carcasses,  some  of  which  were  immature,  across  state  lines  and 
who  was  fined  five  hundred  dollars  and  sent  for  a  year  to  the  federal 
prison  in  Atlanta. 

I  have  but  given  illustration  of  the  general  character  of  these 
confidential  circulars  to  inspectors;  not  only  "Service  Announce- 
ments" but  also  other  series  of  circulars  and  typewritten  and  mimeo- 


CITY,    STATE   AND    NATIONAL    HYGIENE  375 

graphed  instructions  which  not  even  a  demand  from  Congressman 
Nelson  could  procure  from  James  AVilson,  when  he  was  Secretary 
of  Agriculture.  Then  there  are  the  ''summer  school  instructions  to 
inspectors"  signed  by  A.  D.  Melvin,  still,  I  regret  to  say.  Chief  of 
the  Bureau  of  Animal  Industry.  Among  the  "decisions"  promul- 
gated by  him  in  this  school  in  1909  is  that  on  the  carcass  of  a  cow 
with  tuberculous  lesion  in  bronchial,  mediastinal,  and  mesenteric 
glands,  and  "several  small  nodules,  size  of  a  walnut,  in  each  lung." 
' '  Disposition — Food. ' ' 

The  Department  claims  that  its  Regulations  have  the  endorse- 
ment of  a  commission  of  eminent  scientists.  I  have  fully  answered 
their  claim  in  my  testimony  and  published  articles.  It  must  suffice 
here  to  say  that  the  opinions  of  a  majority  of  the  commission  were 
ascertained  before  they  were  appointed  by  the  Department  under 
investigation ;  that  several  of  them  were  or  had  been  connected 
with  the  Bureau  Service :  that  a  very  strong  preliminary  statement 
was  made  to  them  of  the  necessity  of  saving  from  destruction  as 
much  meat  as  was  safely  possible ;  that  the  packers  knew  of  this 
meeting  and  had  their  representative  there ;  that,  apparently,  no 
one  was.  present  to  represent  the  people ;  that  this  Commission  drew 
very  fine  scientific  lines,  presupposing  a  quality  of  inspection  such 
as,  in  fact,  is  never  carried  out,  nor  even  alleged  to  be  carried  out, 
in  any  packing  establishment  I  have  any  knowledge  of;  that  by  the 
skilful  change  and  omission  of  a  few  words  the  recommendations 
of  the  Commission  were  emasculated  of  their  most  vital  safeguards ; 
and,  that,  by  numerous  secret  orders  made  thereafter,  they  were 
further  set  at  naught;  notwithstanding  which  the  Bureau  goes  on 
quoting  the  Commission  of  1906  as  if  it  endorsed  every  practice  of 
the  service  up  to  the  present  hour. 

How  much,  if  any,  real  reform  has  taken  place  in  this  debauched 
meat  inspection  service  since  the  beginning  of  the  new  administra- 
tion, I  am  unable  to  say.  So  long  as  the  man  who  has  allowed 
things  to  come  to  such  a  pass  is  still  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Animal 
Industry,  I  am  wholly  unable  to  believe  that  we  will  ever  have  a 
federal  meat  inspection  service  in  the  real  interests  of  the  Ameri- 
caji  consumer. 

But  we  are  not  necessarily  dependent  on  federal  meat  inspec- 
tion. The  remedy  is  to  make  meat  inspection  a  detail  of  Community 
Hygiene.  There  is  no  advantage  from  a  sanitary  or  economic  view- 
point in  shipping  cattle  a  thousand  miles  or  so  to  a  packer  to  be 
slaughtered,  then  shipping  the  meat  back,  with  all  the  attending 
loss  and  deterioration  and  the  increased  prices.  We  want  to  foster 
local  packing  houses  and  local  stock  yards.    We  want  to  build  up  the 


376  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

sto(.'k-i-aisiiiii-  industry  around  about  our  own  communities.  We  must 
not  expect  help  by  getting  our  meats  from  Argentina.  The  great 
American  packers  having  skimmed  the  cream  oft*  the  beef-producing 
industry  in  this  country,  have  established  themselves  early  in  South 
America,  and  today  hold  the  balance  of  control  in  those  countries 
and  are  not  going  to  ship  meat  to  this  country  to  compete  with  their 
own  prices  here,  as  long  as  they  have  a  good  market  for  South 
American  meat  abroad.  We  want  to  cultivate  our  own  stock-rais- 
ing industry,  a  commercial  as  well  as  sanitary  benefit  to  all  our 
people. 

Then  we  should  let  the  label  tell  the  truth,  whether  upon  locally 
or  federally  inspected  meat.  If  there  are  people  willing  to  eat  meat 
from  tuberculous  and  cancerous  carcasses,  let  them;  but  let  them 
also  know  what  they  are  eating  by  the  use  of  a  special  stamp  or 
designation  which  conveys  that  knowledge.  However,  let  us  de- 
mand that  persons  who  wish  to  eat  meat — but  only  if  it  is  from  ani- 
mals free  from  disease — may  have  the  means  of  knowing  how  to  ob- 
tain such  meat. 

We  should  do  all  we  can  to  bring  about  a  reform  in  our  disgraced 
federal  service;  but,  also,  we  should  promote  local  inspection  of 
a  high  order.  In  Paris,  Texas  (the  home  of  the  first  real  municipal 
abattoir  in  this  country),  in  Montgomery,  Ala.,  and  recently  in 
Charleston,  S.  C,  are  three  good  examples  of  what  may  be  done 
through  local  inspection.  It  is  for  any  community  to  put  the  stand- 
ard just  as  high  as  it  will.  In  the  matter  of  a  milk  supply,  each 
city  may  decide  for  itself  how  many  bacteria  per  cubic  centimeter 
will  be  allowed,  and  all  other  details  of  milk  inspection.  In  the 
same  manner,  a  city  can  decide  exactly  what  standards  it  will  have 
for  its  meat  supply.  Here  is  a  department  of  "Community  Hy- 
giene" which  has  been  long  and  most  unjustifiably  neglected  and 
one  which  I  earnestly  commend  to  this  Conference,  and  to  all  mem- 
bers who  feel  an  interest  in  the  purity  of  the  public  food  supply,  the 
purity  of  governmental  administration,  and  the  prosperity  of  agri- 
culture in  this  country. 


THE  NATIONAL  DEPARTMENT  OF  HEALTH 

Introductory  Remarks 

President  Stephen  Smith,  M.D.,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

The  history  of  what  was  called  the  National  Board  of  Health 
dates  from  1878  to  1884.  The  agitation  for  it  began  as  early  as  1873, 
and  originated  at  the  first  meeting  of  the  American  Public  Health 


CITY,    STATE   AND   NATIONAL    HYGIENE  377 

Association,  which  had  been  organized  for  the  purpose  of  co-ordinating 
all  the  diiferent  boards  of  health  of  the  country,  as  far  as  possible,  in 
general  work,  and  the  promotion  of  the  public  health. 

During  that  period  the  opinion  prevailed  that  there  should  be  not 
only  a  municipal  authority  and  a  state  authority,  but  also  a  national 
authority — very  much  on  the  plan  of  the  organization  of  the  general 
government ;  that  is,  a  municipal  board  of  health  confining  its  activities 
to  the  city,  a  state  board  to  the  state  at  large,  and  a  national  board  to 
those  interests  that  affect  the  community  generally,  but  with  which 
neither  the  municipal  nor  state  boards  deal.  The  first  suggestion  was 
made  by  the  then  health  officer  of  the  city  of  Washington,  who  was 
prominent  in  the  first  movement  to  organize  a  national  board  of 
health,  but  it  took  no  form,  nor  was  there  any  organized  plan  of 
securing  a  national  board  until  considerably  later. 

The  greatest  obstacle  to  a  National  Board  was  the  State  Rights 
idea.  There  was  a  disposition  on  the  part  of  the  members  of  the 
Congress  to  ignore  altogether  the  possibility  of  a  board  of  health  that 
in  any  way  should  interfere  with  local  boards,  state  and  municipal. 
The  objection  to  the  board  was  altogether  wrong  in  that  respect.  It 
was  not  intended  by  those  who  were  in  the  original  movement  to  in- 
terfere any  further  than  the  national  government  noAv  interferes  with 
the  affairs  of  states  and  cities.  Not  much  headway  was  made  for 
several  years,  but  when  the  great  epidemic  of  yellow  fever  in  1878 
came,  its  ravages  were  so  great  that  neither  the  municipal  nor  state 
boards  in  the  South  could  control  it.  There  was  a  call  for  general  aid, 
not  from  the  government,  but  from  voluntary  organizations.  Among 
the  contributors  to  that  fund  was  a  Mrs.  Thompson,  of  New  York, 
mth  very  large  ideas  as  to  her  duty  in  the  use  of  her  wealth.  She 
contributed  a  very  large  sum  to  what  was  then  known  as  the  ]\Iarine 
Hospital  Service,  the  head  of  which  at  that  time  was  Doctor  Wood- 
ward. He  was  deputed  rather  to  use  that  fund  in  the  South,  as  far  as 
possible,  in  relieving  distress  and  promoting  efforts  to  control  the 
progress  of  the  epidemic.  Through  him  there  was  a  commission  sent 
out  to  visit  the  South  after  the  epidemic  had  subsided,  and  to  study  the 
question  of  yellow  fever  and  its  prevention.  IMrs.  Thompson  made 
prevention  a  special  feature  of  her  donation,  urging  that  the  cause  of 
.yellow  fever  be  sought  and  legislation  secured  or  such  action  as  was 
necessary  to  prevent  the  invasion  of  yellow  fever  from  that  time 
forth. 

The  idea  gradually  took  root  in  the  minds  of  sanitarians  that 
there  was  a  need  of  a  great  deal  more  thorough  work,  not  so  much 
in  an  investigation  of  the  results  of  the  yellow  fever  epidemic,  as  in 


378  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

methods  by  which  control  could  be  exercised  over  the  quarantines 
of  the  country  in  preventing  the  admission  of  yellow^  fever. 

The  first  bill  introduced  into  Congress  was  in  1879.  I  drew  the 
bill  on  the  plan  of  the  Agricultural  Department,  which  was  then  a 
comparatively  new  body  and  had  as  the  chief  officer  a  member  of  the 
Cabinet.  The  plan  fitted  exactly  the  idea  we  had  of  what  a  national 
board  should  be.  It  provided  for  a  Minister  or  Secretary  of  Health, 
who  should  be  a  member  of  the  Cabinet,  and  provided  that  the  organi- 
zation should  take  the  form  of  a  Department  of  Government  in  the 
general  work  of  promoting  public  health,  in  coordinating  as  far  as 
possible  all  the  energies  of  the  country  to  prevent  epidemics  coming, 
and  to  control  all  our  quarantines.  It  was  introduced  into  the  Senate 
by  Senator  Lamar,  of  Mississippi,  but  it  went  into  the  pigeon-hole  of 
the  committee  and  never  appeared  again.  Toward  the  close  of  that 
epidemic  the  South  became  very  much  changed  in  regard  to  the  State 
Rights  doctrine.  The  authorities  found  they  had  to  call  on  the  country 
at  large  for  help.  The  question  arose.  Why  should  not  the  national 
government  aid  us  in  these  extremities?  State  Rights — the 
popularity  of  the  old  doctrine  of  State  Rights — gradually  subsided 
under  the  pressure  of  the  epidemic  and  its  devastations  all  through 
the  South,  and  in  1879  the  opinion  had  become  very  strong  that  Con- 
gress should  take  some  action.  A  bill  was  then  prepared  that  created 
a  National  Board  of  Health,  but  it  was  drawn  in  such  form  as  to  be  of 
temporary  effect.  It  was  rather  a  board  for  investigation,  to  study  the 
question  as  to  whether  there  should  be  a  National  Department  of 
Health.  It  had  the  power  of  investigation  and  it  had  an  appropria- 
tion, I  think,  of  $50,000  for  this  temporary  work.  It  was  at  first 
limited  to  one  year  of  existence,  but  finally  it  was  allowed  a  lifetime  of 
four  years.  It  did  a  very  great  work  in  the  way  of  general  investiga- 
tion as  to  the  conditions  of  our  quarantines,  published  a  good  deal  of 
matter  on  that  subject  and  most  of  the  quarantines  were  visited.  I 
visited  a  large  number  with  the  committee,  and  prepared  a  report  that 
proposed  that  all  the  quarantines  of  the  country  should  be  placed 
under  national  authority  and  all  should  be  organized  on  a  like  ef- 
fectual basis.  ]\Iany  quarantines  were  useless.  Perhaps  the  worst 
managed  in  the  list  was  the  one  at  New  York.  The  suggestion  that 
quarantines  should  be  under  the  general  government  had  considerable 
force  and  has  gradually  been  really  carried  out. 

The  Marine  Hospital  Service,  naturally  jealous  of  its  powers — al- 
though it  did  not  have  under  this  original  construction  any  health 
duties  to  perform — began  to  agitate  the  question.  Why  should  not  the 
Marine  Hospital  Service  control  these  quarantines?     The  Secretary 


CITY,    STATE   AND    NATIONAL    HYGIENE  379 

of  the  Treasury,  in  1880,  I  think  it  was,  recommended  that  the  Marine 
Hospital  Service  should  organize  and  manage  quarantines  where  none 
existed.  That  was  the  beginning  of  a  national  authority  governing 
quarantines.  It  has  now  gone  so  far  that  they  are  very  largely  under 
the  management  of  the  Marine  Hospital  Service,  and  are  in  infinitely 
better  condition  than  they  ever  were  before.  They  ought  all  to  be  put 
under  a  national  authority,  with  such  rules  and  regulations  as  those 
that  govern  the  quarantines  of  Great  Britain,  the  best  organized, 
probably,  in  the  world. 

In  1882,  the  Marine  Hospital  Service  applied  to  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  to  have  that  fund  of  the  National  Board  transferred 
to  its  use.  Under  the  direction  of  President  Arthur,  this  fund  was 
turned  over  to  the  Marine  Hospital  Service,  which  act  deprived  the 
National  Board  of  all  means  of  active  duty.  Practically  that  was 
the  end  of  the  National  Board. 


THE  NATIONAL  DEPARTMENT  OF  HEALTH 

Henry  Bated  Favill,  M.D.,  Professor  of  Therapeutics,  Rush  Medical 
College;  Chainiian  Committee  on  Health  and  Public  Insti-uction  of  the 
American  Medical  Association,  Chicago,  Illinois. 

In  discussing  the  proposition  of  a  National  Department  of  Health 
before  this  Conference,  I  assume  that  it  is  unnecessary  to  occupy 
any  time  in  presenting  arguments  for  the  necessity  or  importance 
of  such  an  addition  to  the  Executive  Department  of  the  Govern- 
ment. It  is  equally  unnecessary  to  present  arguments  in  justifica- 
tion of  this  movement  or  in  refutation  of  the  objections  and  criti- 
cisms which  have  been  advanced  by  its  opponents,  or  to  devote 
any  time  to  the  discussion  of  a  Bureau  vs.  a  Department,  or  to 
the  exact  details  of  organization  or  of  subdivision  of  such  a  De- 
partment. 

As  the  Chairman  of  the  Council  on  Health  and  Public  Instruc- 
tion of  the  American  Medical  Association,  the  only  justification 
for  my  appearance  on  the  program  on  this  subject  is  to  present 
the  attitude  of  the  organized  medical  profession.  On  this  subject 
there  is  not  and  never  has  been  the  slightest  uncertainty.  When 
the  records  of  the  American  Medical  Association  for  the  past  sixty 
years  are  reviewed  critically,  one  cannot  but  be  impressed  by  the 
remarkable  unity  of  purpose  which  has  characterized  the  profession 
through  successive  generations.  The  first  important  point,  there- 
fore, to  which  I  wish  to  call  your  attention  is  that  the  American 
IMedical  Association,  as  representing  the  scientific  medical  profession 


380  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

of  the  United  States,  has  throughout  its  entire  history  stood  un- 
compromisingly and  unequivocally  for  a  National  Department  of 
Health  as  a  part  of  the  executive  branch  of  government.  The  first 
mention  of  such  a  plan  appears  in  the  proceedings  of  the  American 
]\redical  Association  for  1871,  shortly  after  the  organization  of  state 
boards  of  health  in  IMassachusetts  and  California,  the  proposal  first 
taking  the  form  of  a  voluntary  council  made  up  of  representatives 
from  the  various  state  boards  of  health.  In  the  following  year, 
however,  a  resolution  was  presented,  asking  Congress  to  establish 
a  National  Sanitary  Bureau.  In  1873,  the  President  of  the  Asso- 
ciation stated  that  a  bill  for  this  purpose  had  recently  been  intro- 
duced into  Congress.  In  1874  the  question  was  discussed  by  the 
Chairman  of  the  Section  on  State  Medicine  under  the  title  "The 
Waste  of  Life,"  in  which  most  of  the  subjects  which  would  now 
be  regarded  as  coming  under  the  conservation  of  human  vitality 
were  considered  and  the  organization  of  state  and  national  de- 
partments of  health  was  urged.  During  the  following  years  dis- 
cussion of  the  questions  continued,  and  various  bills  were  intro- 
duced in  Congress,  culminating,  in  1879.  in  the  adoption  of  a  bill  in- 
troduced by  Mr.  McGowan,  of  Michigan,  establishing  a  national 
board  of  health,  one  of  the  duties  of  which  was  to  report  to  Congress 
a  plan  for  a  National  Health  Organization.  This  board,  for  various 
reasons,  failed  to  take  advantage  of  its  opportunities  and,  in  1883, 
went  out  of  existence,  through  the  failure  of  Congress  to  make  any 
appropriation  for  its  maintenance.  In  1886  a  bill  was  introduced 
in  the  House  of  Representatives  by  Hon.  Robert  T.  Davis,  of  Massa- 
chusetts, providing  for  a  Bureau  of  Public  Health  in  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  Interior.  In  1891  a  bill  was  introduced  in  the  Lower 
House  providing  for  a  Department  of  Public  Health  to  include  the 
Marine  Hospital  Service,  the  Bureau  of  Education,  the  Divisions 
of  Vital  Statistics,  Animal  Diseases,  and  the  Weather  Bureau.  In 
1892  a  bill  was  introduced  in  the  Senate  by  Hon.  John  Sherman, 
of  Ohio,  and  in  the  House  of  Representatives  by  Hon.  John  A.  Col- 
well.  In  1897,  what  later  came  to  be  known  as  the  Spooner  Bill, 
was  introduced  in  the  Senate  by  Senator  Spooner,  of  Wisconsin, 
and  in  the  House  of  Representatives  by  Mr.  Otjen.  None  of  these 
bills  went  further  than  the  Committee  stage.  At  the  1907  session 
of  the  American  Medical  Association,  the  Committee  on  Medical 
Legislation  reported  that  a  preliminary  draft  of  a  bill  creating  a 
National  Department  of  Health  had  been  drawn  up  by  Doctor 
Barshfeld,  a  member  of  the  Lower  House  from  Pennsylvania ;  that 
the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science  had 
created  a  Committee  of  One  Hundred  on  National  Health  to  consider 


CITY,    STATE   AND   NATIONAL    HYGIENE  381 

methods  for  establishing-  a  National  Department  of  Health;  that  the 
draft  of  Doctor  Barshf eld's  bill  had  been  turned  over  to  Prof.  Irving 
Fisher,  President  of  the  Committee  of  One  Hundred,  in  order  that  it 
might  be  redrafted  by  some  legal  member  of  that  Committee.  The 
Reference  Committee  recommended  and  the  Association  voted  that  the 
details  of  the  plan  be  left  to  the  Committee  of  One  Hundred,  to 
which  the  Association  pledged  its  support. 

There  was  no  further  agitation  on  the  subject  until  Feb.  10,  1910, 
when  Robert  L.  Owen,  Senator  from  Oklahoma,  introduced  into  the 
United  States  Senate,  S.  B.  6049.  This  bill,  the  original  Owen  bill, 
provided  for  a  Department  of  Public  Health,  under  the  supervision 
of  a  Secretary  of  Public  Health,  who  should  be  a  member  of  the 
cabinet.  In  this  department  should  be  assembled  all  divisions  and 
bureaus  belonging  to  any  department,  except  the  Department  of 
War  and  the  Department  of  the  Navy,  affecting  the  medical,  surgi- 
cal, biologic  and  sanitary  services,  including  the  Public  Health  and 
Marine  Hospital  Service,  the  Revenue  Cutter  Service,  the  Medical 
Staff  of  the  Pension  Office,  Indian  Bureau,  Department  of  the  In- 
terior, Old  Soldiers'  Homes,  Government  Hospitals  for  the  Insane 
and  the  Freedmen's  Hospital,  the  Bureaus  of  Entomology.  Chem- 
istry and  Animal  Industry  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  the 
hospitals  of  the  Immigration  Bureau  of  the  Department  of  Com- 
merce and  Labor,  the  Emergency  Service  of  the  Government  Print- 
ing Office,  and  all  other  agencies  in  the  United  States  Government 
for  the  protection  of  human  or  animal  life.  This  bill  undertook  the 
organization  of  a  Department  of  Health  by  assembling  existing 
parts  of  the  government  machinery  in  a  new  department,  instead 
of  creating  a  department  de  novo.  The  Department  of  Public 
Health  was  given  jurisdiction  over  all  matters  within  the  control 
of  the  federal  government  relating  to  human  or  animal  health  and 
life.  The  establishment  of  bureaus  of  biology,  chemistry,  veterinary 
service  and  sanitary  engineering  was  authorized.  This  bill  was 
referred  to  the  Senate  Committee  on  Public  Health  and  National 
Quarantine,  before  which  were  held  during  the  year  following  its 
introduction  a  large  number  of  hearings.  It  was  never  reported 
on,  and  died  in  committee  with  the  expiration  of  the  Sixty-first 
Congress. 

The  Second  Owen  bill  (S.  1)  was  introduced  by  Senator  Owen, 
April  6.  1911.  This  bill  provided  for  a  Department  of  Health,  pre- 
sided over  by  a  Director  of  Health  and  an  assistant  to  be  known 
as  the  Commissioner  of  Health,  both  to  be  appointed  by  the  Presi- 
dent. The  commissioner  was  required  to  be  a  skilled  sanitarian. 
The  director  was  to  be  an  executive  officer.     The  Department  of 


382  FIRST    XATIONAT;    CONPERKNCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

Healtli  was  to  foster  and  promote  all  matters  pertaining  to  the  con- 
servation of  public  health,  and  to  collect  and  disseminate  informa- 
tion relating-  thereto.  It  was  expressly  provided  that  this  depart- 
ment should  not  exercise  any  function  belonging  to  a  state  without 
express  invitation  from  the  governor  of  the  state,  or  enter  any 
premises  in  any  state  without  the  consent  of  the  owner  or  occu- 
pant thereof.  These  two  provisos  were  to  meet  the  objections  of 
the  advocates  of  State  Rights  and  personal  liberty.  To  this  depart- 
ment were  to  be  transferred  the  Public  Health  and  Marine  Hospi- 
tal Service  from  the  Department  of  the  Treasury,  from  the  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture  that  part  of  the  Bureau  of  Chemistry  charged 
with  the  administration  of  the  Food  and  Drugs  Act,  and  from  the 
Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor  the  Division  of  Vital  Sta- 
tistics of  the  Bureau  of  the  Census.  The  President  was  authorized 
to  transfer  at  any  time,  either  in  whole  or  in  part,  any  bureau  or 
division  of  the  government  engaged  in  work  pertaining  to  public 
health,  except  the  Medical  Department  of  the  Army  and  the  Bureau 
of  Medicine  and  Surgery  of  the  Navy.  Provision  was  made  for  the 
organization  of  the  following  bureaus :  Sanitary  Research,  Child 
Hygiene,  Vital  Statistics  and  Publications,  Foods  and  Drugs,  Quar- 
antine, Sanitary  Engineering,  Government  Hospitals  and  Personnel 
and  Accounts.  An  advisory  board  of  seven  was  provided  for,  and 
provisions  were  made  for  cooperation  with  the  health  authorities 
in  the  various  states. 

This  bill  was  referred  to  the  Senate  Committee  on  Public  Health 
and  National  Quarantine,  where  it  remained  for  almost  a  year,  at 
the  end  of  which  time  it  was  reported  on  favorably,  but  with  amend- 
ments that  practically  amounted  to  a  new  bill.  As  reported  out  of 
the  committee,  April  13,  1912,  the  bill  provided  for  an  independent 
establishment  known  as  the  United  States  Public  Health  Service, 
with  a  Director  of  Health  as  the  head.  Under  the  director  were  to 
be  three  assistants  known  as  commissioners  of  health,  two  of  M^hom 
were  to  be  skilled  sanitarians  and  one  a  skilled  statistician.  The 
present  heads  of  the  Public  Health  Service,  the  Bureau  of  Chemistry 
and  the  Division  of  Vital  Statistics  were  constituted  the  three  com- 
missioners. The  duties  of  this  health  service  were  practically  the 
same  as  those  in  the  previous  bill,  with  the  proviso  that  the  health 
service  should  have  no  power  to  regulate  the  practice  of  medicine 
or  to  interfere  with  the  right  of  any  citizen  to  employ  the  practi- 
tioner of  his  choice,  and  that  all  appointments  should  be  made  with- 
out discrimination  in  favor  of  or  against  any  school  of  medicine  or 
healing.  These  restrictions  were  inserted  in  order  to  meet  the  ob- 
jections of  those  who  thought  that  the  liberty  of  the  individual  in 


CITY,    STATE   AND   NATIONAL    HYGIENE  383 

selecting  his  medical  attendant  would  be  interfered  with.  The 
bureaus  created  were  slightly  different  from  those  in  the  preceding 
bill,  being  bureaus  of  the  Public  Health  Service,  Foods  and  Drugs, 
Vital  Statistics,  Child  Conservation,  Sanitary  Engineering,  Person- 
nel and  Accounts,  and  Publications. 

Following  the  report  of  the  committee,  April  13,  1912,  the  bill 
was  placed  on  the  Senate  calendar  as  Calendar  No.  561,  where  it 
remained  until  Feb.  3,  1913,  when  it  was  called  up  on  motion  of 
Senator  Owen  that  the  Senate  proceed  to  the  consideration  of  this 
bill.  On  this  motion  the  vote  was  a  tie,  33  to  33.  The  bill  was, 
accordingly,  not  taken  up,  and  died  at  the  expiration  of  the  Sixty- 
second  Congress. 

April  7,  1913,  in  the  opening  sessions  of  the  Sixty-third  Congress, 
Senator  Owen  introduced  as  Senate  Bill  1  a  third  bill.  This  bill 
was  referred  to  the  Senate  Committee  on  Public  Health  and  Na- 
tional Quarantine. 

In  the  light  of  this  record  I  feel  justified  in  advancing  the  fol- 
lowing propositions  as  generally  accepted : 

1.  The  necessity  of  some  central  federal  health  organization  is 
agreed  upon  by  all  those  familiar  with  the  situation. 

2.  While  recognizing  the  paramount  importance  of  state  activi- 
ties, owing  to  our  existing  form  of  government,  the  importance  of 
federal  activities  cannot  be  overestimated. 

3.  The  initiative  of  the  present  movement  is  largely  due  to  the 
activity  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science 
in  the  organization  of  the  Committee  of  One  Hundred,  which  move- 
ment has  been,  from  its  beginning,. endorsed  and  supported  by  the 
American  Medical  Association. 

4.  The  American  Medical  Association  is  and  always  has  been 
fully  committed,  by  its  repeatedly  expressed  opinion  and  official 
records,  to  the  support  of  a  National  Department  of  Health. 

While  the  direct  results  secured  by  the  efforts  of  the  past  forty 
years  may  not  be  entirely  gratifying  to  the  friends  of  this  move- 
ment, the  indirect  or  reflex  effect  of  the  continued  agitation  for 
better  public  health  organization  has  been  the  stimulation  of  public 
health  functions,  both  of  the  federal  government  and  of  the  various 
states.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  present  United  States  Public  Health 
Service  would  never  have  reached  the  present  state  of  effectiveness 
without  the  stimulation  of  the  agitation  and  discussion  of  this  ques- 
tion which  has  been  carried  on.  Organized  in  1789,  there  was  very 
little  change  in  its  function  or  activities  for  nearly  one  hundred 
years,  its  work  being  limited  to  the  care  of  the  sailors  of  the  Mer- 
chant Marine.    In  1871  Congress  placed  the  supervision  of  national 


384  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

quaraiitiiie  in  the  liands  of  the  Service.  In  1899  the  name  was 
ehanoed  to  the  United  States  Public  Health  and  Marine  Hospital 
Service.  The  medical  service  was  reorganized,  the  hygienic  labora- 
tories were  established,  and  in  1912  the  name  was  again  changed 
to  the  United  States  Public  Health  Service,  and  the  medical  officers 
were  placed  on  the  same  basis  as  those  of  the  Army  and  Navy  and 
the  functions  of  the  Bureau  were  considerably  widened. 

The  part  which  the  American  Medical  Association  has  taken  in 
the  campaigns  and  discussions  of  the  past  four  years  are  too  well 
known  to  require  recital. 

Following  the  advent  of  the  new  administration  and  the  calling 
of  a  special  session  of  Congress  last  April,  a  conference  was  held 
in  Washington  on  Monday,  May  5,  attended  by  the  Council  on 
Health  and  Public  Instruction,  and  the  Special  Committee  on  Na- 
tional Health  Legislation  of  the  American  Medical  Association 
and  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Committee  of  One  Hundred 
of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science.  After 
protracted  discussion,  Professor  Fisher  formulated  a  program  which 
was  unanimously  adopted.  This  program  included  the  following 
points : 

First :  Appoint  a  committee  to  see  President  "Wilson  tomorrow, 
May  6,  at  10.45,  and  communicate  to  him  the  results  of  our  confer- 
ence and  request  him  to  decide  upon  an  administration  policy  con- 
cerning public  health  legislation. 

Second :  Recommend  to  President  Wilson  that  he  definitely  advo- 
cate the  establishment  of  a  Department  of  Health. 

Third :  That  he  cooperate  with  Representative  Foster  in  attempt- 
ing to  secure  a  Committee  on  Public  Health  in  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives during  the  present  special  session. 

Fourth :  That  he  call  a  White  House  Conference  on  Public  Health 
next  fall  somewhat  similar  to  the  Governors'  Conference  on  Con- 
servation called  by  President  Roosevelt.  The  object  of  this  confer- 
ence is  to  promote  the  success  of  the  President's  policies  and  if  nec- 
essary to  aid  in  framing  these  policies. 

Fifth :  That  at  the  next  regular  session  the  President  should  send 
a  special  message  favoring  public  health  legislation  or  else  empha- 
size it  in  his  regular  annual  message. 

Sixth:  That  the  President  should  select  for  the  first  assistant 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  someone  interested  in  public  health. 

Seventh :  That  in  the  next  regular  session  we  should  support  the 
President  in  securing  such  public  health  legislation  as  he  decides  to 
recommend. 

I  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  program  adopted  by 


CITY,    STATE   AND   NATIONAL    HYGIENE  SSij 

the  representatives  of  the  American  Medical  Association  and  the 
American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science  pledged  these 
two  bodies  to  the  support  of  such  a  program  for  public  health  legis- 
lation as  President  Wilson  may  see  fit  to  recommend  at  the  next 
regular  session  of  Congress,  and  that  the  record  so  far  established 
by  President  Wilson  in  securing  from  Congress  advanced  and  con- 
structive legislation  in  accordance  with  a  definite  policy  justifies 
the  conviction  that  when  this  subject  is  next  taken  up  in  Congress, 
it  will  be  as  an  administration  measure  having  the  support  of  the 
dominant  party  in  both  Houses  of  Congress  and  the  approval  of 
the  general  public.  In  the  meantime  and  in  anticipation  of  such 
a  situation,  the  Council  of  the  American  Medical  Association  is 
going  steadily  forward  in  its  campaign  of  public  education  on  health 
topics,  recognizing  the  fact  that  an  active  and  intelligent  public 
interest  and  support  is  of  the  first  necessity  in  securing  the  estab- 
lishment of  this  Department  of  Health,  for  which  the  Association 
has  steadfastly  stood  during  its  entire  existence. 


WHAT  THE  UNITED  STATES  PUBLIC  HEALTH  SERVICE  IS  DOING 
FOR  RACE  BETTERMENT 

H,  W.  Austin,  M.D.,  United  States  Public  Health  Service,  Detroit,  Michigan. 

I  had  no  intention  of  reading  a  paper  or  speaking  before  this 
assembly  until  a  day  or  two  ago.  I  was  delegated  to  attend  this 
meeting.  I  was  told  at  that  time  that  I  was  not  to  read  a  paper, 
but  that  I  was  simply  to  be  here  and  hear  what  was  to  be  said.  But 
one  of  your  officers  asked  me  a  few  days  ago  to  write  something 
on  what  the  Public  Health  Service  is  doing  in  the  matter  of  race 
betterment,  and  I  could  not  very  well  refuse,  although  what  I  have 
to  offer  will  be  very  short  and  perhaps  not  very  interesting. 

The  importance  of  eugenics  to  the  welfare  of  the  state  or  na- 
tion was  recognized  by  statesmen,  philosophers,  physicians  and 
poets  in  the  early  Grrecian  civilization  and  has,  since  that  remote 
period,  engaged  the  attention  in  some  degree  of  the  governments 
and  the  people  of  various  nations. 

The  measures  that  have  been  taken,  or  that  have  been  recom- 
mended for  race  betterment,  are  as  numerous  and  varied  as  are  the 
opinions  of  the  present  day  as  to  what  is  the  chief  factor  in  race 
improvement.  In  the  dialogues  of  Plato,  in  his  construction  of  a 
perfect  republic,  he  provides  for  the  improvement  of  the  race  by 
requiring  that  perfect  men  shall  marry  only  perfect  women,  and 
the  imperfect  type  of  men  shall  marry  only  the  imperfect  type  of 

(14) 


38G  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACP:    BKTTERIvrENT 

women.  That  the  proper  officers  will  take  the  offspring  of  the  good 
parents  to  the  fold  and  deposit  them  with  certain  nurses  in  a  sepa- 
rate quarter,  but  the  offspring  of  the  infirm,  or  of  the  better  class 
when  they  chance  to  be  deformed,  will  be  put  away  in  some  mys- 
terious, unknown  place,  as  they  should  be.  He  further  provides 
that  the  j)roper  genetic  period  for  man  is  from  twenty-five  to  fifty- 
five  years,  tliat  for  women  twenty  to  forty-five,  and  that  children 
born  after  these  ages  of  the  parents  respectively,  shall  be  kept  sepa- 
rate. These  ideas  would  hardly  meet  with  popular  approval  at  this 
time,  any  more  than  they  did  in  the  time  when  they  were  first 
written,  but  there  are  intelligent  men  in  this  day  who,  with  some 
modifications,  hold  similar  views  as  to  race  betterment. 

As  previously  stated,  opinions  now  differ  as  to  the  principal 
factor  in  race  improvement  and  any  one  of  the  following  is  fre- 
quently offered:  education,  physical  training,  religious  instruction, 
medical  instruction,  temperance,  chastity,  proper  mating,  sanitary 
environment  during  childhood,  hygienic  diet,  clothing  and  housing, 
social  reform,  especially  in  the  way  of  amusements  for  all  ages ; 
proper  marriage  laws,  laws  to  prevent  the  multiplication  of  the 
weak-minded,  criminals,  and  those  who  have  been  insane,  by  ster- 
ilization. U/ndoubtedly  all  of  these  may  be  useful — at  least  under 
certain  conditions — and  come  within  the  broad  scope  of  the  term 
eugenics,  now  usually  defined  as  race  betterment.  However,  in  our 
own  minds,  when  we  think  of  the  urgent  necessity  of  doing  some- 
thing in  this  direction,  the  foremost  argument  is  the  rapidly  in- 
creasing number  of  insane,  feeble-minded,  degenerate,  and  other 
mental  defectives  that  are  becoming  a  heavy  burden  upon  the 
state  or  a  menace  to  society  at  large.  Then  we  examine  carefully 
as  to  the  cause  of  this  increase  in  the  number  of  insane,  feeble- 
minded, degenerate,  etc.,  and  find  evidence  that  leads  us  to  believe 
that  in  many  of  these  mental  defectives  the  cause  can  be  traced 
to  some  disease,  inherited  or  acquired. 

There  is,  however,  no  evidence  of  disease,  acquired  or  inherited, 
in  very  many  similar  cases,  so  that  the  preventive  measures  which 
we  would  adopt  in  one  class  would  not  or  might  not  be  equally 
serviceable  in  the  other.  Such  diseases  as  chronic  alcoholism, 
syphilis,  excessive  venery  or  gonorrhea  are  frequentlj^  attributed 
as  the  original  or  primary  cause  of  the  degenerate  or  mentally  de- 
fective. It  is  not  always  possible  to  trace  inherited  diseases;  they 
may  not  be  evident  in  sfeveral  generations  and  then  reappear  in 
some  form  in  some  one  of  a  later  generation.  The  Mendelian  laws 
of  heredity,  I  believe,  are  applicable  to  certain  transmitted  dis- 
eases as  well  as  to  peculiar  traits  of  character  and  normal  physio- 


CITY,    STATE   AND   NATIONAL,    HYGIENE  '  .  387 

logical  development.  While  this  is  true,  it  is  equally  true  that  in  a 
large  majority  of  the  insane,  degenerate,  or  other  mental  defectives, 
we  do  not  know  the  actual  cause  or  origin  of  their  deficiency.  There 
may  be  other  diseases  or  nervous  conditions  that  at  present  we 
know  nothing  of,  which  retard  mental  or  physiological  develop- 
ment. It  is  but  recently  that  the  cause  of  the  mentally  and  phys- 
ically indolent  among  the  poor  in  some  of  the  Southern  States  and 
in  Porto  Rico  was  known  to  be  due  to  uncinariasis,  or  hookworm. 

I  merely  mention  a  few  of  these  well-known  facts  with  the  view 
of  showing  the  complexity  of  the  subject  and  of  the  difficulties  in 
the  way  of  attempting  to  accomplish  at  once  the  ideal  or  desired 
result  by  any  single  method  or  remedy.  Uniform  and  proper  mar- 
riage laws  that  would  prevent  the  innocent  from  contracting  dis- 
ease and  that  would  tend  to  improve  the  offspring  are  desirable; 
but  syphilis  and  other  venereal  diseases  may  be,  and  often  are,  con- 
tracted by  men  and  even  women  who  were  free  from  the  disease 
prior  to  marriage.  Therefore  to  eliminate  syphilis  as  a  cause  of 
mental  and  physical  degeneracy,  one  must  resort  to  education  as  to 
the  terrible  results  of  this  disease,  to  religious  and  moral  education, 
and  to  preventive  medicine  and  therapeutics. 

Special  laws  to  prevent  the  propagation  of  defectives,  such  as 
the  chronic  insane,  the  feeble-minded,  epileptics,  the  degenerate 
and  habitual  criminals,  would  accomplish  much  in  the  way  of  race 
betterment  provided  they  could  be  wisely  drawn  and  wisely  exe- 
cuted. There  are,  however,  many  difficulties  to  be  overcome  before 
the  successful  accomplishment  of  this  end.  I  believe  a  few  states 
have  laws  authorizing  the  sterilization  of  defectives,  and  that  these 
laws  have  never  been  executed.  The  laws  may  be  defective,  or  un- 
constitutional, or  public  opinion  may  oppose  the  enforcement  of 
the  same.  Legislation  has  been  enacted  in  many  states  for  the  pur- 
pose of  preventing  the  spread  of  venereal  diseases  by  marriage, 
but  many  of  these  laws  have  not  been  carefully  or  wisely  prepared 
and  are  faulty.  In  legislation,  as  well  as  in  social  reform  work  in- 
tended for  race  betterment,  in  which  individual  liberty  is  con- 
cerned, it  is  essential  that  we  first  have  an  actual  knowledge  or 
some  understanding  of  the  evils  which  we  are  endeavoring  to 
remedy. 

Further  scientific  investigations  are  necessary  to  accurately  de- 
termine the  causes  of  the  various  forms  of  insanity  and  other  mental 
defects,  and  the  cause  of  their  rapid  increase  in  number,  and  also 
the  best  method  to  be  adopted  to  prevent  their  multiplication.  That 
which  is  now  actually  known  should  be  frequently  published,  and 
the  public  educated  in  all  matters  relating  to  their  physical,  mental^ 


388  FIRST    NATIONAI;    CONFEKENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

ami  moral  well-boing-.  Public  discussion  of  the  subject  in  which 
men  and  women  of  national  reputation  take  part,  which  may  appear 
in  the  public  press,  would  do  much  to  educate  the  public  and  ad- 
vance the  cause  of  race  betterment. 

As  the  wisdom  and  stability  of  the  government  rests  upou  the 
intellig:ence  of  the  people,  the  government  should,  in  its  legislative 
and  administrative  functions,  do  everything  possible  to  promot<? 
race  betterment,  and  it  is  doing  much  in  this  direction  at  the  present 
time.  I  have  been  asked  to  say  something  as  to  what  the  United 
States  Public  Health  Service  is  doing  for  race  betterment,  and  I 
will  mention  some  of  the  public  health  work  that  is  being  done  by 
the  officers  of  the  Service  which  tends  to  race  betterment.  In  fact, 
it  might  be  broadly  stated  that  all  public  health  work  promotes 
race  betterment.  Under  the  direction  of  the  Surgeon-General,  medi- 
cal officers  of  the  Service  are  constantly  making  investigations 
throughout  the  country  as  to  the  cause  of  unusual  outbreaks  of 
disease,  publishing  and  distributing  the  result  of  their  investiga- 
tions. When  the  state  or  municipality  in  which  the  disease  occurs, 
requests  it,  they  aid  the  state  or  municipal  health  authorities  in  the 
suppression  or  eradication  of  diseases.  As  examples  to  illustrate 
some  of  this  work  I  will  mention  the  pellagra  investigation  now 
being  made  in  several  Southern  states ;  sanitary  investigations  as  to 
the  prevalence  of  malarial  fevers  in  certain  Southern  states;  sani- 
tary investigations  as  to  the  cause  and  prevalence  of  hookworm 
diseases  in  the  United  States  and  Porto  Rico,  and  the  work  of  aid- 
ing in  the  eradication  of  the  same.  Investigations  are  being  made 
as  to  the  cause  of  various  outbreaks  of  typhoid  fever,  diphtheria, 
infantile  paralysis,  typhus  fever.  Rocky  Mountain  spotted  fever,  etc., 
in  the  TTnited  States.  Extensive  examinations  are  being  made  of 
the  waters  of  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  rivers  of  the  United  States 
to  determine  the  amount  and  character  of  their  pollution.  Com- 
plete sanitary  surveys  are  being  made  of  all  dairy  farms,  including 
the  production  and  transportation  of  milk,  and  the  microscopic  ex- 
amination of  the  milk  supplies  of  a  large  city.  A  report  covering 
several  hundred  pages  on  this  subject  was  published  and  distributed 
to  the  health  authorities  of  the  United  States. 

Under  the  National  Quarantine  Act  the  suppression  of  epi- 
demics becomes  the  duty  of  the  Service.  In  illustration  of  the  work 
I  will  mention  that  done  by  the  Service  in  the  suppression  of  the 
yellow  fever  epidemic  in  New  Orleans  in  1905,  and  that  done  in 
San  Francisco  in  the  suppression  and  eradication  of  plague  in  1909. 
Under  the  National  Quarantine  law  the  Service  has  established  and 
maintains  quarantine  stations  at  the  large  ports  of  entry,  to  pre- 


CITY,    STATE   AND   NATIONAL    HYGIENE  389 

vent  the  entrance  of  epidemic  diseases,  and  international  border 
quarantine  for  the  same  purpose  has  also  at  times  been  established. 

Almost  from  the  beginning  of  this  government,  it  has  provided 
marine  hospitals  at  the  large  ports  of  entry,  where  all  American 
sailors  could  be  cared  for  when  they  were  sick  or  injured.  The 
administration  of  these  hospitals  is  one  of  the  functions  of  the 
Service.  There  arc,  I  think,  some  features  of  this  hospital  work 
that  are  closely  allied  with  public  health  and  eugenics,  as,  for  in- 
stance, the  isolation  and  cure  of  many  cases  of  syphilis  and  tuber- 
culosis. The  Service  has  established  a  tuberculosis  sanatorium  in 
New  Mexico,  where  tuberculous  patients  who  have  been  received 
in  United  States  marine  hospitals  are  sent.  The  result  of  this  cli- 
matic treatment  is  most  satisfactory. 

The  establishment  of  the  Hygienic  Laboratory  in  Washington 
some  years  ago  was  a  great  and  most  useful  advancement  of  the 
pubic  health  function  of  the  government.  In  this  laboratory  there 
are  a  large  number  of  medical  officers  constantly  engaged  in  scien- 
tific research  work  in  preventive  medicine.  Publication  of  their 
work  is  distributed  to  those  interested  in  public  health  matters. 

The  Public  Health  Reports,  issued  in  weekly  numbers  by  the 
United  States  Public  Health  Service,  contain  morbidity  and  mor- 
tality statistics  of  contagious  or  infectious  diseases  collected  in  va- 
rious countries  throughout  the  world,  also  much  other  information 
relating  to  hygiene.  These  reports  are  distributed  freely  to  all 
health  authorities  and  others  especially  interested  in  public  health 
matters. 

The  public  health  work  of  the  medical  officers  of  the  Service  in 
the  Philippines,  Hawaii,  and  Alaska,  includes  laboratory  investiga- 
tions of  the  many  diseases  peculiar  to  those  countries. 

The  function  of  the  Service  most  closely  related  to  eugenics  or 
race  betterment  (considering  this  country  alone)  is  the  exclusion 
from  this  country  of  immigrants  who  are  insane  or  feeble-minded; 
those  suffering  from  contagious,  infectious,  or  loathsome  diseases 
and  other  physical  or  mental  defectives.  This  is  a  tremendous  work, 
most  difficult,  and  exceedingly  important  to  the  welfare  of  the  na- 
tion. I  can  only  mention  it  in  this  paper.  The  medical  examina- 
tion to  determine  whether  there  are  any  mental  or  physical  de- 
fectives among  the  one  million  arriving  immigrants  at  Ellis  Island, 
New  York,  during  a  year  (occasionally  five  thousand  during  one 
day)  is,  from  the  race-betterment  standpoint  in  so  far  as  it  relates 
to  this  country,  most  important.  To  detect  the  feeble-minded  and 
certain  types  of  insanity  without  detention  for  observation  is  a 
problem.     It  is  well  known  that  expert  alienists  take  considerable 


390  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

time  to  decide  whether  certain  cases  are  really  insane.  The  neces- 
sary classification  and  sifting  of  those  who  are  mentally  defective, 
among  immigrants  whose  language  and  conditions  of  life  are  so 
different  from  ours,  is  difficult,  owing  to  the  limited  time  allowed 
for  the  inspections.  However,  the  medical  officers  engaged  in  this 
duty  for  a  considerable  period  of  time  become  expert  in  detecting, 
during  the  usual  rapid  inspections,  either  mental  or  physical  de- 
fectives. 

-  Officers  of  the  Public  Health  Service  frequently  address  public 
assemblies  upon  subjects  relating  to  hygiene  or  preventive  medi- 
cine, and  take  part  in  popular  campaigns  against  disease  such  as 
tuberculosis,  malaria,  pellagra,  etc. 

I  have  but  briefly  outlined  some  of  the  functions  of  the  United 
States  Public  Health  Service  which  are  concerned  in  race  better- 
ment and  which  in  general  are  along  the  lines  of  hygiene.  Ad- 
mitting that  proper  selection  in  mating  is  an  important  factor  in 
race  betterment  and  that  proper  education  of  the  people  in  this 
direction  would  be  useful,  I  believe  that  environment  and  all  that 
is  included  Avithin  this  term  has  very  much  to  do  with  race  improve- 
ment. 


THE    COST    OF    HIGH    LIVING    AS    A    FACTOR    IN    RACE 
DEGENERACY    AND    LIMITATION    OF   FAMILIES 

J.  N.  HuRTT,  M.D.,  Commissioner  of  Health,  State  of  Indiana,  Indianapolis, 
Indiana. 

I  have  to  speak  upon  the  subject  of  the  high  cost  of  living  as  re- 
lated to  race  degeneracy.  That  it  has  an  effect  upon  race  degeneracy 
or  race  betterment,  whichever  it  may  be,  I  have  no  doubt.  I  think  if 
we  examine  it  carefully,  if  we  go  into  it  profoundly,  we  will  find  that 
the  high  cost  of  certain  things  will  prove  a  benefit  to  the  human  race 
and  not  a  disadvantage.  For  instance,  if  we  could  raise  the  diseased 
meats  to  such  a  high  price  that  nobody  could  buy  them,  what  a  benefit 
it  would  be.  If  we  could  adulterate  all  whiskey  only  to  such  a  degree 
that  it  would  not  intoxicate,  or  there  would  be  practically  no  whiskey 
at  all,  and  raise  its  price  so  high  that  no  one  could  buy  it,  what  a 
benefit  that  would  be.  There  is  much  virtue  in  the  high  cost  of  food. 
We  might  apply  this  idea  further.  If  the  restaurants  and  cafes  would 
only  raise  the  price  of  banquets  so  high  that  even  bankers  could  not 
have  them,  that  also  would  be  a  very  great  benefit. 

So  we  can  well  imagine  that  the  high  cost  of  living  is  not  such 
an  awful  thing,  after  all;  that  is,  the  high  cost  of  some  kinds  of 
living.     Would  it  not  be  well  if  the  government  would  take  hold 


CITY,    STATE   AND   NATIONAL    HYGIENE  391 

of  this  subject?  In  every  privilege  of  government  the  whole  body 
of  the  people  has  a  part  to  play  without  doubt.  Suppose  a  gov- 
ernment should  take  hold  of  this  problem  and,  by  some  of  its  legal 
methods,  which  would  be  proper  and  reasonable,  raise  the  prices 
of  those  articles  of  food  which  we  know  are  degenerative  and  disease- 
producing  in  their  tendency  and  lower  the  prices  of  those  foods  which 
we  know  are  beneficial  to  mankind,  it  would  build  up  the  bodies  of 
men  as  they  should  be  built  up,  wholesome  and  well  and  strong.  Would 
not  this  be  well?  It  obviously  would.  And  so  we  can  readily  see 
that  the  high  cost  of  living,  if  it  were  only  high  enough  in  certain 
directions.  Avould  result  possibly  in  race  betterment,  and  if  it  could  only 
lower  the  prices  of  the  simple  and  plain  foods  so  that  they  would  be 
more  in  demand,  and,  in  fact,  if  they  were  the  only  food  that  certain 
ones  could  get  at  all,  how  much  better  it  would  be. 

We  know  full  well  that  the  European  peasant  is  not  to  be  pitied, 
not  at  all.  He  has  a  better  time  than  we.  I  was  recently  surprised  to 
find  how  much  work  men  could  do  on  plain  food.  I  had  occasion,  at 
one  time,  as  health  officer,  to  investigate  a  railroad  camp  where 
there  were  a  large  number  of  "hunyaks,"  as  they  were  called.  I 
was  at  the  camp  and  saw  their  dinner.  All  they  had  in  the  world 
was  vegetable  soup,  some  black  bread  and  some  raw  cabbage,  and 
those  men  could  wield  great  hea\y  hammers  all  day  long,  could  lift 
heavy  ties,  place  them  in  the  proper  position,  lift  the  rails  into  posi- 
tion, and  work  ten  hours  on  that  kind  of  food.  And  I  thought  that 
possibly  if  thej^  had  some  of  the  higher-priced  foods,  how  very  likely 
they  would  be  to  go  down. 

In  this  connection,  it  seems  proper  to  consider  briefly  the  position 
of  the  doctors  in  this  matter.  In  the  matter  of  race  betterment,  we 
place  too  much  faith  in  the  doctor  and  in  medicine.  We  think  that 
medicines  can  undo  the  wTongs  that  have  been  done  the  body.  Of 
course  they  can  do  no  such  thing.  They  cannot  renew  or  remake 
broken  organs.  The  physician  does  not  know  so  much  as  the  people 
think  he  knows ;  he  is  not  so  skilful  as  the  people  think  he  is,  and  they 
rely  upon  him  too  much;  they  have  too  much  faith  in  him.  They 
think.  "Oh.  I  can  overstep  this  little  bound  of  right  living  this  time, 
and  I  can  go  to  the  doctor  and  he  will  give  me  a  paper  and  with  that 
paper  I  will  get  a  tablet  and  I  can  swallow  the  tablet  and  undo  the 
indulgence."  A  vicious  cycle  it  is  in  realitj'-,  and  yet  it  exerts  and 
exists  almost  everywhere. 

The  whole  situation  is  illustrated  by  a  story.  Once  upon  a  time, 
a  young  man  had  earned  a  high  position  from  the  great  hospital  where 
he  had  been  graduated  in  medicine,  verv  high,  indeed,  and  the  time 


392  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

came  Avhen  he  went  to  the  hospital  niul  claimed  his  position.  They  had 
a  system.  Down  at  the  lower  office  Avas  an  expert  diagnostitian — 
Doctor  Smith  we  will  call  him.  He  made  a  provisional  diagnosis  oi' 
patients  who  were  brought  in  at  the  lower  office,  then  this  patient  was 
sent  to  the  particular  ward  where  this  Doctor  Smith  thought  he  be- 
longed. This  young  man  I  am  speaking  of  had  "Ward  A,  where  certain 
classes  were  received.  On  a  card  Doctor  Smith  would  make  out  the 
name  of  the  patient,  if  he  had  it,  the  age  if  he  could  get  it.  Then 
he  would  write  down  the  disease  that  he  thought  the  man  had.  But 
he  always  put  it  down  in  abbreviations — for  instance,  t.  f.  for 
typhoid  fever,  pn.  for  pneumonia,  etc.  Our  young  man  in  the 
upper  ward  did  not  want  to  show  that  he  was  ignorant  in  the  slight- 
est degree,  so  he  tried  to  guess  at  all  abbreviations.  He  did  pretty  well 
at  it,  too.  One  time  one  of  the  cards  had  g.  o.  k.  on  it  as  the  disease  of 
the  patient.  He  looked  through  his  books  and  his  medical  dictionaries, 
thoroughly  examined  the  man,  but  could  not  find  out  what  was  the 
matter  with  him  ;  he  could  not  make  out  the  letters  g.  o.  k.  At  last,  in 
humiliation,  he  went  to  the  office  below  to  see  the  expert  diagnostitian. 
Doctor  Smith  said,  "Why,  don't  you  know  what  that  means,  g.  o.  k.  ?" 
''No,  I  don't  know  what  it  means  at  all.  I  must  give  it  up.  Doctor.  I 
am  humiliated,  but  I  cannot  work  it  out."  Doctor  Smith  says,  "Oh, 
that  is  verv'  simple.    It  means,  '  God  only  knows '. ' ' 

And  how  very  frequently  this  happens.  We  must  not  even  trust 
medicine.  It  is  really  a  bad  thing  from  certain  points  of  view — and 
oh,  how  glorious  and  beneficent  from  other  points  of  view !  We  must 
have  medicine,  but  we  should  view  it  from  different  angles.  I  think 
the  very  best  possible  thing  is  to  eradicate  from  man's  mind  that  he 
ever  can  experience  perfect  cure  after  disease  or  after  injury  to  his 
body.  That  knowledge  w'ould  work  a  great  deal  of  good.  I  have 
handled  medicines  and  I  have  given  them  for  over  thirty-five  years  and 
watched  the  processes,  and  I  do  believe  that  when  we  attempt  to  tell 
people  these  truths  and  facts, — that  they  must  not  get  sick  and  that  get- 
ting sick  is  weakness,  it  is  not  strength,  that  it  is  folly,  it  is  not  wisdom, 
they  turn  upon  their  heel  and  go  to  the  next  doctor  that  will  give 
them  medicine.  Let  us  get  away  from  that.  I  recently  heard 
a  very  witty  man,  in  a  speech,  tell  of  another  man  who  hated 
him,  "That  man  hates  me  with  a  curious  tenderness."  I  thought 
that  perhaps  in  this  matter  of  the  high  cost  of  living  and  clothes, 
we  might  hate  the  high  cost  of  living  possibly  with  a  curious  ten- 
derness or,  better  yet,  with  a  curious  regret. 


CITY,    STATE   AND   NATION-VL    HYGIENE  393 

GOVERNMENT 
S.  S.  McClure,  L.H.D.,  President  S.   S.  MeClure  Co.,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

Fundamental  to  reforms  of  all  sorts  is  the  machinery  to  carry  out 
the  reform,  and  fundamental  to  the  machinery  are  men.  There 
is  no  possibility  of  making  proper  laws  or  enforcing  proper  laws 
unless  we  have  men  who  are  competent  to  make  the  proper  laws 
and  who  are  able  to  enforce  these  laws.  The  great  characteristic 
of  government  in  the  United  States  is  the  absence  of  men  who  are 
competent  to  make  proper  laws  and  the  absence  of  men  who  are  fit 
to  enforce  these  laws.  The  question  of  the  proper  organization  of 
government,  that  is,  the  securing  of  the  proper  personnel  to  carry 
on  the  functions  of  government,  to  make  and  administer  laws,  is 
one  of  the  pressing  problems  of  the  United  States,  and  is  funda- 
mental to  all  other  reforms,  because  no  reforms  are  of  any  serious 
value  in  the  long  run  unless  they  help  the  activity  of  all  the  people 
working  through  the  proper  machinery. 

"Wherever  people  have  advanced  in  civilization,  solving  the  va- 
rious problems  that  have  come  into  the  world,  especially  as  the  re- 
sults of  inventions  and  developments,  of  wealth  and  knowledge  of 
the  last  years — whenever  people  have  solved  these  problems,  it 
has  been  done  by  all  the  people  working  together  by  the  proper 
machinery.  I  suppose  there  has  never  been  a  body  of  printed 
material  so  absurd  and  so  far  removed  from  actual  facts  and  prin- 
ciples as  the  body  of  material  which  constitutes  the  various  charters 
and  constitutions  under  which  cities  and  states  and  this  nation  are 
governed.  I  suppose  that  no  body  of  material  of  such  importance 
in  recent  times  has  been  brought  together  other  than  by  careful 
investigation,  scientific  observation  and  deduction.  The  one  single 
important  body  of  documents  in  the  United  States  that  is  not  the 
result  of  observing  the  laws  of  men,  is  the  body  of  charters  and 
constitutions  under  which  we  are  governed. 

Now,  for  about  ten  years,  or  perhaps  longer,  I  have  been  study- 
ing simply  how  people  work  to  get  good  government.  I  have  made 
observations  of  it  as  a  man  might  make  observations  in  studying 
the  laws  of  bees,  bats,  trees,  flowers,  and,  in  the  remaining  fifteen 
minutes,  I  am  going  to  tell  you  exactly  the  result  of  my  observa- 
tions. It  is  this,  in  one  sentence :  When  masses  of  individuals  set 
out  to  cooperate  together  to  produce  some  given  result  or  to  carry- 
on  some  given  enterprise,  it  has  been  found  that  there  is  only  one 
successful  method  of  organizing,  and  that  method  is  by  the  election 
of  what  corresponds  in  all  cases,  without  any  exception,  to  what  a 
board  of  directors  is  to  a  corporation.    Now  the  plot  of  this  form  of 


394  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONPEKENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

orgaiiization  is  this:  That  the  people — whether  members  of  a  com- 
pany, stockholders  in  a  company,  or  members  of  a  church,  of  a 
hospital,  or  citizens  of  a  city — elect  only  one  kind  of  official,  namely, 
a  director  or  a  number  of  directors,  and  every  official  elected  has 
the  same  status  as  every  other  official  elected.  This  body  of  elected 
officials  is  not  those  who  have  the  competence  or  the  technical 
knowledge,  skill  or  training  to  exercise  the  various  functions  of 
government,  but  who  have  the  competence  to  select  those  who  have 
the  skill  to  exercise  the  various  functions  of  government.  The 
utmost  electoral  ability  of  the  most  highly  civilized  people  today  on 
the  globe  is  reached  by  the  election  simply  of  a  board  of  directors. 
And  if  this  body  of  people  endeavors  to  select  experts,  that  is,  to 
elect  mayors  or  judges  or  presidents  or  governors  or  any  other 
form  of  official,  the  government  under  that  form  of  election  fails. 
Now  that  is  the  universal  law  of  all  history,  of  all  contemporary 
history,  and  there  are  no  exceptions.  You  can  see  how  it  would 
work  if  the  stockholders  of  a  great  railroad  system  set  out  to  elect 
experts  who  should  run  that  railroad  ultimately,  electing  even  train 
dispatchers,  perhaps  telegraph  operators,  making  plans  as  to  who 
should  be  appointed  station  masters,  even  working  down  to  who 
would  be  the  section  bosses,  electing  a  president,  etc. — how  that 
railroad  would  very  soon  become  unreliable.  The  same  is  true  ex- 
actly with  our  ,city  governments,  because  they  are  unreliable  from 
the  standpoint  of  any  proper  test  of  efficiency. 

Let  me  explain  just  how  the  proper  form  of  government  works. 
There  is  only  one  proper  form  of  government.  Among  the  people 
who  govern  themselves  and  get  the  things  they  want  most  abso- 
lutely are  the  inhabitants  of  German  cities.  I  will  describe  one 
German  city  that  I  spent  many  weeks  studying — the  city  of  Frank- 
fort, which  is  typical  of  Germany  and  of  northern  Europe.  The 
people  elect  simply  a  board  of  directors  and  no  other  official  of 
any  kind.  They  elect  by  wards.  They  call  these  directors  ' '  council- 
men."  The  body  is  called  a  council.  They  are  elected  through 
wards,  not  on  a  ticket  at  large.  A  man  goes  to  the  polls  in  Frank- 
fort without  any  primary  nominations,  no  previous  official  work  of 
any  kind,  and  if  he  wishes  to,  he  writes  down  the  name  of  the  man 
he  wants  for  his  councilor  from  that  ward.  Now  he  can  take  any 
man,  not  only  in  Frankfort,  but  within  fifteen  miles  of  that  ward, 
to  be  his  councilman  from  that  ward.  He  demands  the  same  knowl- 
edge and  ability  in  picking  out  his  councilman  as  you  do  in  picking 
out  your  dentist,  your  lawj^er,  or  your  doctor.  He  wants  the  best 
man  he  can  get  within  fifteen  miles.  Second,  he  demands  that  he 
himself  shall  have  the  right  of  primary  nomination.     No  group  of 


CITY,    STATE   AND   NATIONAL    HYGIENE  39:5 

men  can  come  forward  and  print  a  sheet  and  say,  "This  is  the  offi- 
cial ballot."  Those  men  demand  the  right  to  make  their  own  nomi- 
nations, and  five  hundred  voters  may  nominate  five  hundred  differ- 
ent individuals  to  be  councilmen.  That  is  the  amount  of  freedom 
they  demand  to  begin  with.  It  sometimes  happens  that  no  one  has 
the  majority.  Under  those  circumstances,  and  within  eight  days, 
they  take  the  two  highest  nam6s  and  vote  between  those  two.  That 
is  all  the  election  activity  that  occurs,  in  selecting  their  govern- 
ment in  Frankfort.  It  is  so  simple  that  the  people  can  get  what  they 
want.  Now  then,  they  elect  these  men  for  six  years.  You  see  the 
electoral  activity  of  a  properly  governed  people  has  about  as  much 
to  do  with  the  life  of  that  people  as  the  electoral  life  has  to  do  with 
a  well-managed  club.  It  has  almost  nothing.  These  picked  men 
find  a  body  of  men  which  they  call  the  "magistrat  of  experts." 
One  of  them  is  mayor.  This  particular  maj^or  is  just  at  the  end  of 
his  second  twelve-year  term.  He  came  here  twenty-four  years  ago 
as  a  very  distinguished  officer  and  mayor,  because  no  German  city 
ever  experiments  on  its  mayor.  They  begin  with  a  man  competent 
for  the  job.  beginning  in  a  small  way  and  gradually  getting  on  up. 
A  man  who  becomes  an  engineer  on  the  limited  is  always  competent 
for  his  job  from  the  time  he  becomes  an  engine-wiper  in  the  round 
house.  So  these  men  are  advanced  according  to  their  competence, 
but  no  German  city  ever  employs  an  official  of  unknown  quantity. 
So  this  man  came  here  with  this  great  record  and  became  the  mayor 
of  Frankfort.  With  him  are  twelve  experts.  I  will  describe  one  of 
them: 

Some  years  ago  they  wanted  to  sell  out  their  street  railway 
system  and  they  wanted  an,  engineer  of  extraordinary  ability  to 
be  a  member  of  the  magistrat  to  govern  Frankfort,  and  they  found 
no  one,  even  in  Germany,  they  regarded  as  sufficiently  competent 
to  take  over  this  job.  They  found  a  man  in  England  who  was  fit 
for  the  job  and  they  brought  this  man  over  and  made  him  a  mem- 
ber of  the  city  government  of  Frankfort  and  he  has  remained  there 
until  now,  and  so  they  hired  these  twelve  men  who  had  a  similar 
history  to  the  mayor  and  to  this  young  man.  Then  these  men,  as 
in  all  great  concerns,  organize  down,  each  with  his  chief  and  sub- 
chief,  and  on  through  from  the  mayor  to  the  street  laborer.  They 
are  all  organized  efficiently  and  that  is  why  Germany  has  gone 
ahead  by  years  and  years  of  other  countries  in  the  march  of  social- 
izing the  new  forces  and  ideas  that  have  come  into  civilization. 
There  is  a  country  not  any  bigger  than  California,  with  sixty-five 
million  inhabitants,  increasing  a  million  a  year.  Less  than  20,000 
Germans  leave  Germany  each  year.    Emigration  has  almost  ceased. 


396  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

Now,  168.000  Americans  left  America  for  Canada  last  year.  The 
fact  that  even  20,000  leave  is  of  no  significance,  but  here  is  a  coun- 
try which  is  so  well  organized,  that  handles  all  these  problems  so 
well.  Do  they  have  hookworm?  Yes.  What  do  they  do?  Does 
Mr.  Rockefeller  go  out  and  give  a  million  dollars  and  everybody 
shouting  and  calling  conventions,  saying,  "Here  is  hookworm  kill- 
ing the  people."  No;  they  have  an  organized  government;  they 
take  up  this  hookworm  question,  they  treat  those  people  who  have 
the  hookworm  and  this  thing  is  finished  in  three  weeks.  Do  they 
have  typhoid  fever?  Not  much,  but  they  have  some.  They  remove 
it  by  getting  clean  water,  insuring  clean  water.  In  a  small  country 
with  two-thirds  the  population  of  the  United  States,  not  much 
bigger  than  California,  which  we  should  think  ought  to  be  full  of 
typhoid  fever,  they  have  six  cases  to  our  forty-six.  When  I  tell 
you  a  thing,  it  is  absolutely  the  ultimate  fact.  I  have  the  docu- 
ments, a  trunk  full  of  them.  So  much  for  the  efficiency  of  German 
government. 

We  govern  by  mayors,  untrained  people.  We  actually  elect  at 
large  our  mayors,  and  oftentimes  only  mayors  for  two  or  three  or 
four  years,  then  put  in  another,  and  a  druggist,  or  a  banker,  or 
sometimes  a  brewer,  or  what  not,  and  do  this  often ;  then  another 
man.  Government  is  the  only  business  in  this  country  that  is  run 
by  men  who  are  not  trained  for  the  job.  You  can  see  how  it  is 
possible  for  a  people  to  get  self-government,  also  expert  service. 
The  people  who  are  elected,  are  elected  for  definite  terms,  and  may 
retire.  The  people  who  are  the  experts,  are  employed  for  life,  not 
necessarily  in  one  city,  but  in  the  same  work,  in  the  same  general 
occupation.  For  instance,  a  mayor  might  be  a  mayor  in  this  town 
six  years,  then  in  another  town  six  years,  and  so  on,  and  so  with  all 
the  other  officials.  So  they  combine,  the  elective  system,  getting 
people  to  carry  out  the  wishes  of  the  masses,  who  constitute  the 
citizenship  of  a  city,  and  also  the  expert  people.  Is  that  a  mystery  ? 
That  is  exactly  the  way  that  all  businesses  all  over  the  world  are 
organized.  That  is  exactly  the  way  all  successful  governments  all 
over  the  world  are  organized.  Just  imagine  what  our  electoral  sys- 
tem brings  out  in  the  way  of  long  tickets.  How  impossible  it  is  to 
know  for  whom  you  are  voting.  I  remember  one  ticket  in  Chicago 
about  a  foot  and  a  half  wide  and  three  feet  long  in  solid  type  all 
the  way  down.  One  item  was  eighty-three  judges.  I  have  some 
friends  who  are  lawyers.  None  of  them  knew  any  one  of  these 
nominees.  Imagine  how  the  common  man  does.  There  has  never 
been  an  illustration  of  really  successful  administration  of  law 
through  the  courts  where  the  judges  are  elected.     There  has  never 


CITY,    STATE   AND   NATION.UL,    HYGIENE  397 

been  a  successful  administration  of  government  where  the  executives 
are  elected  by  the  people.  The  people  cannot  rule  through  that  ma- 
chinery. It  involves  an  almost  unworkable  electoral  system,  which 
itself  becomes  a  business  involving  the  passage  of  laws  and  then 
getting  on  before  the  courts  to  find  out  whether  they  are  legal  or 
riot.  I  think  when  you  bring  in  the  universal  method  of  organizing^ 
how  simple  is  the  election  system. 

How  does  this  system  of  government  work?  I  will  take  just  a 
few  illustrations.  "We  are,  broadly  speaking,  behind  most  of  the 
other  civilized  nations  in  the  various  socialized  laws  dealing,  for 
example,  with  the  compensation  of  workingmen,  and  so  on,  and  in 
methods  of  ameliorating  the  conditions  of  the  poor,  and  of  the 
workers.  We  are,  properly  speaking,  behind  all  other  peoples,  all 
other  civilized  nations,  but  we  will  take  some  definite  things.  When 
I  was  in  Washington  last  year  at  the  inauguration  and  saw  those 
police  deal  with  the  women's  parade,  I  saw  a  spectacle  that  could 
not  be  paralleled  in  the  civilized  world  for  inefiiciency  and  in- 
competency, so  I  went  down  to  the  police  station  next  day  and  asked 
for  the  annual  report.  They  didn't  like  to  give  it  to  me  when  I 
told  them  my  name,  still  I  was  entitled  to  it,  and  I  got  it. 

I  found,  from  their  annual  report,  this  one  fact  about  Wash- 
ington— there  are  a  great  many  others,  but  this  is  significant — that 
Washington  city,  which  is  the  same  size  as  Toronto,  had  ten  times 
the  murders  of  Toronto;  that  Washington,  D.  C,  had  two-thirds 
the  number  of  murders  as  in  all  Ireland,  more  than  double  the  num- 
ber of  murders  in  all  Canada.  They  blame  it  on  the  negroes.  Just 
that  day  I  received  a  report  from  Jamaica,  where  they  have  800,000 
negroes  and  an  average  of  seven  murders  a  year,  nine  times  the 
number  of  negroes  in  Washington,  D.  C,  and  less  than  one-quarter 
the  number  of  murders.  Washington,  D.  C,  is  the  most  criminal 
capital  city  in  the  world  today,  and  it  is  simply  a  typical  American 
city.  It  has  the  average  murder-rate  of  the  United  States.  It  is  not 
a  place  of  foreigners :  it  is  a  manufacturing  city  governed  by  the 
government  of  the  United  States  very  largely,  and  ought  to  be 
almost  a  model  city,  but  it  is  an  average  American  city.  It  has 
ten  times  the  amount  of  murders  found  in  the  civilized  countries 
of  northern  Europe,  and  it  is  an  average  American  city.  Wash- 
ington is  governed  by  a  national  board  of  aldermen  appointed  by 
Congress.  Congress  appoints  commissioners  to  govern  the  districts 
of  Columbia,  but  that  does  not  mean  that  Washington  has  the  com- 
mission form  of  government.  That  word,  anyhow,  is  a  silly  phrase. 
What  we  call  the  commission  form  of  government,  that  is,  the  pure 
form  of  government,  is  the  universal  form  of  government  that  I 


398  KIUST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

have  been  describing.  It  is  not  exactly  pure,  because  we  are  such 
fools  that  we  take  it  and  exchange  it.  They  have  not  had  the  com- 
mission form  of  government  in  Washington.  It  is  really  a  board 
of  aldermen  appointed  by  Congress,  a  large  and  powerful  board. 

All  the  papers  are  discussing  Dayton's  wonderful  experiment, 
the  working  commission  and  a  city  manager.  That  is  the  universal 
form  of  city  government  in  other  countries,  only  they  call  it  there 
the  mayor.    In  Frankfort  he  would  be  there  perhaps  for  life. 

Take  the  matter  of  fires.  We  have  men  who  are  incompetent  to 
make  proper  laws  dealing  with  fires  because  the  laws  of  combus- 
tion are  the  laws  of  nature  and  are  universally  and  inevitable,  and 
if  men  are  too  ignorant  to  understand  these  laws  and  to  make  proper 
laws  for  buildings,  those  buildings  get  burned.  Yes,  we  have  men 
who  are  incompetent  in  enforcing  these  fire  laws.  Do  you  realize 
that  you  could  not  burn  down  a  European  city?  They  never  had  a 
conflagration  in  a  European  city.  It  is  impossible.  When  they  are 
built,  they  are  built  to  make  a  general  conflagration  impossible. 
Nature  has  certain  laws,  and  they  recognize  her  laws.  For  that 
reason  I  took  twenty-one  American  cities  and  twenty-one  European 
cities,  about  the  same  size  and  status,  and  found  seven  times  the  fire 
loss  they  had  in  the  European  cities — both  of  the  same  material, 
during  the  same  time,  and  under  the  same  general  economic  condi- 
tion, because  they  had  competent  men  who  made  efficient  laws  and 
competent  men  to  enforce  the  laws.  The  same  is  true  of  accidents, 
of  all  the  operations  of  our  civilization.  Under  this  system  of  gov- 
ernment, the  loss  of  life  is  from  four  to  ten  times  as  much  from 
various  forms  of  violence  as  in  northern  European  countries.  Take 
New  York  City  alone.  I  have  the  coroner's  report  for  the  last  three 
years,  and  the  official  report  of  the  Boer  War  in  South  Africa.  The 
loss  of  life  by  violence  in  New  York  City  for  the  past  three  years 
is  equal  to  the  loss  of  life  for  the  three  years  of  the  British  armies 
in  the  Boer  War.  That  is,  in  the  one  Borough  of  Manhattan,  the 
loss  of  life  by  violence  from  daj^  to  day,  from  year  to  year,  equals 
the  loss  of  life  there  of  the  British  armies  during  the  South  African 
War  on  the  battlefields  of  South  Africa.  That  is  one  of  those  as- 
tounding statistics.  Always  when  I  lecture  on  a  subject,  I  have  my 
documents  with  me,  because  you  cannot  believe  it.  Any  test  you 
will  apply  shows  that  we  have  just  the  result  you  would  imagine 
from  the  inefficient  government  and  from  our  absurd  method  of 
organizing  government,  because  the  inefficient  form  of  our  gov- 
ernment involves  a  perfectly  unworkable  electoral  system  whereby 
the  people  cannot  get  their  will.  Who  gets  his  wishes  in  the  election 
of  all  these  long  tickets,  tip-topped  by  men  who  have  their  own 


CITY,   STATE   AND   NATIONAL    HYGIENE  399 

ends  to  serve?  We  endeavor  to  correct  this  by  going  a  step  worse.  , 
We  think  we  can  correct  these  things  by  the  initiative,  the  referen- 
dum and  the  recall.  They  must  have  direct  participation  of  the 
people  in  the  elections,  etc.  People  have  never  been  successful  other 
than  by  a  purely  representative  form  of  government,  the  board  of 
directors. 

We  think  the  recall  is  another  thing  and  everybody  gets  it  inta 
their  charters  if  they  can.  We  think  a  new  way  and  a  cumbersome 
way  of  discharging  dishonest  or  incompetent  officials  is  going  to 
help  towards  bringing  about  efficiency.  Ask  a  business  manager  if 
a  new  way  of  discharging  an  employee  is  going  to  help  build  up  an 
efficient  organization.  How  can  people  determine  laws  of  initiative 
and  referendum? 

When  I  was  in  San  Francisco,  the  women  were  very  active  and 
very  nice  indeed,  too.  They  had  forty-five  amendments  to  the 
charter,  including  pensions  for  mothers,  etc.  They  said,  "Mr.  Mc- 
Clure,  will  you  give  us  an  address  and  give  us  your  advice?"  And 
I  said,  "This  particular  minute,  if  I  had  one  or  two  of  my  best  men 
to  spend  several  months  in  making  an  investigation  in  several  coun- 
tries, then  I  would  be  willing  to  furnish  my  opinion  in  McClure's 
Magazine."  They  were  willing  to  put  their  opinions  into  the  laAV 
of  the  land,  or  forty-five  of  them,  without  any  investigation. 

Suppose  that  the  stockholders  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  had 
to  decide  whether  or  not  this  great  river  should  be  bridged  by  this 
sort  of  bridge  or  that  sort  of  bridge.  How  could  they  determine 
that  question  ?  They  could  not.  They  must  have  a  method  whereby 
they  can  secure  competent  and  skilled  advice  to  determine  those 
questions,  and  the  reason  that  Germany  does  all  these  things  so 
well  is  not  because  the  people  at  large  can  vote  on  this  or  that  ques- 
tion, because  they  are  incompetent  to  do  so,  but  because  they  have 
a  system  of  government  whereby  they  can  get  efficiency,  skill,  train- 
ing, and  scholarship  for  the  work.  Now  all  we  have  to  do  is  to 
throw  away  this  bizarre  stuff  and  adopt  the  only  universal  method 
whereby  men  can  organize  efficient  government.  Then  your  pro- 
hibition laws  will  amount  to  something,  because  you  have  men  com- 
petent to  enforce  them,  but  they  will  not  under  the  present  condi- 
tions, which  involve  inefficiency. 

In  McClure's  Magazine  I  have  spent  years,  vast  sums  of  money, 
and  able  men.  making  an  inquiry,  and  have  shown  the  most  strong 
alliance  between  keepers  of  houses  of  prostitution  and  the  saloon- 
keepers or  men  who  actually  govern  the  city.  I  will  give  you  one 
story.  This  was  a  man  whose  name  is  known  over  the  United 
States,  a  town  of  600.000  inhabitants.     A  young  girl  had  been  se- 


400  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE   ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

dueed  by  a  man  who  was  a  brother  of  a  member  of  the  city  legisla- 
ture of  that  city,  and  he  had  taken  her  around  and  used  her  as  a 
white  slave  in  different  cities,  in  Seattle,  and  so  on.  This  girl  finally 
appealed  to  a  man  of  wealth  in  that  city,  and  this  man,  having  a 
heart,  set  out  to  rescue  her.  The  case  was  brought  up  before  the 
magistrate,  and  this  man  went  to  the  magistrate  and  said,  "Now" 
here  comes  up  this  case,  and  we  want  a  verdict  according  to  the 
fact;"  and  the  magistrate  said,  "I  don't  know  as  I  can  do  anything 
in  this.  You  better  see  the  mayor."  And  this  man  and  another 
man  went  to  the  mayor  with  the  storj^  and  the  best  the  mayor  would 
do  would  be  to  agree  not  to  thwart  justice  on  account  of  the  pressure 
these  men  brought  to  bear  upon  him,  but  he  would  not  prevent  the 
magistrate  from  rendering  a  decision  in  accordance  with  the  fact. 
When  this  girl  w^as  giving  the  testimony,  she  sometimes  went  be- 
yond the  question  asked,  when  the  judge  said  to  her,  "Kindly 
answer  the  questions.  Don 't  go  beyond  the  questions. ' '  And  this 
girl  got  justice  only  on  account  of  these  men  going  to  the  officials. 
That  is  one  of  the  simpler  illustrations  of  inefficiency  in  the  form 
of  organizing  government.  The  resulting,  unworkable,  electoral 
system  of  continual  change  of  officials,  with  lack  of  any  motive 
for  any  man  going  into  this  as  a  life  work,  has  brought  about,  not 
only  inefficiency  and  the  immense  increase  of  crime  that  everybody 
deplores,  but  has  brought  about  a  thing  that  never  before  happened 
to  my  knowledge  in  human  history — a  union  of  the  lowest,  meanest, 
worst  elements  of  a  community  with  the  machine  that  actually 
governs  the  city.  When  I  was  younger  and  more  forceful  and  less 
rational  and  more  worked  up,  I  said  w^e  could  have  an  article  in 
McClure's  Magazmc  based  upon  data  that  could  be  entitled,  "From 
the  Whore  House  to  the  White  House,"  because  you  could  see  how 
they  used  all  these  places  to  get  votes  to  enable  you  to  carry  the 
precinct  and  the  city,  and  you  could  see  it  very  easily ;  the  organiza- 
tion with  a  criminal  element,  those  engaged  in  the  most  degrading 
occupations,  with  men  who  were  engaged  in  robbing  the  cities 
by  various  forms  of  franchising,  constituting  the  political  machine. 
It  is  the  same  formula  in  San  Francisco,  New  York,  Pittsburg,  Chi- 
cago, St.  Louis — everywhere  the  same  formula  in  this  country,  not 
because  w^e  are  the  most  criminal  people  in  the  w^orld,  not  because 
w^e  are  the  least  competent  for  self-government,  although  at  the 
present  time  we  are  one  of  the  least  competent  for  self-government, 
but  because  we  have  an  unworkable  system  of  government  that 
was  devised,  invented,  adapted  for  certain  theories  evolved  by  the 
French  Revolution.    But  that  is  another  lecture. 


CITY,    STATE   AND   NATIONAL    HYGIENE  401 

Discussion. 

The  Government  of  a  German  City 

Professor  Richard  T.  Ely,  University  of  Wisconsin,  Madison,  Wisconsin. 

A  great  many  people  expressed  interest  in  the  remarks  of  Mr. 
McClure,  but  I  think  he  did  not  make  it  clear  how  a  German  city 
is  governed.  Perhaps  I  can  make  a  contribution  of  a  practical  na- 
ture just  at  that  point. 

A  German  city  is  governed  just  as  the  University  of  Michigan 
is  governed.  The  people  elect  the  regents;  the  regents  elect  ex- 
perts who  carrj^  out  the  directions  and  the  policy  of  the  regents. 
The  citizens  of  a  German  city  'elect  the  council.  The  council  cor- 
responds to  the  regents.  When  the  people  elect  the  council,  they 
have  done  their  part.  When  the  people  elect  the  regents  of  the 
University  of  Michigan,  or  when  the  governor  appoints  a  regent 
of  the  University  of  Michigan,  then  their  part  is  done.  Then  the 
regents  do  the  rest.  It  is  for  the  people  to  determine  policies.  They 
determine  policies  in  Michigan  when  they  elect  the  regents.  They 
elect  regents  to  carry  out  certain  desired  policies,  then  the  regents 
select  experts.  That  is  just  the  way  the  German  city  is  governed, 
almost  precisely  in  that  way. 

Discussion. 

High  Cost  of  Living 

Byron  W.  Holt,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

I  desire  in  no  way  to  mar  the  harmony  of  this  great  discussion 
of  race  betterment.  I  would  not  chill  the  ardor  of  anyone  here. 
Good  cannot  but  result  from  the  many  able  addresses  that  have 
been  made  on  subjects  vital  to  health  and  morality;  for  the  two 
are  really  but  one. 

After  listening  to  most  of  the  speakers,  I  have,  however,  to 
conclude  that  they  have,  in  the  main,  discussed  secondary,  or  still 
more  remote,  causes  of  disease  and  race  deterioration  and  have 
largely  considered  remedies  rather  than  preventions.  Apparently 
they  were  not  searching  for  the  ounce  of  prevention  that  would 
make  unnecessary  the  pound  of  cure.  As  modern  scientists,  we 
should  try  to  find  first  causes.  When  these  are  found,  we  should 
endeavor  to  remove  them. 

It  will  hardly  be  denied  that  the  two  most  important  and  fun- 
damental caiises  of  preventable  disease,  as  well  as  of  crime  and 
race  deterioration,  are  (1)  ignorance  and  (2)  poverty.  As  to  which 
of  these  causes  is  the  more  important,  it  is  difficult  to  say.  While  they 
usually  overlap   and  run   into   each  other,   yet  we  frequently  find 


402  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

just  as  dense  ignorance  of,  and  indifference  to,  the  first  principles 
of  health  and  hygiene  on  the  part  of  the  rich  or  well-to-do  as  on 
the  part  of  the  poor.  It  is  also  just  as  true  that  the  poor  are,  be- 
cause of  their  poverty,  unable  to  obtain  proper  and  sufficient  food, 
clothing,  and  habitations  to  carry  out  their  ideas  of  right  living. 
It  is  perhaps  true  that  the  majority  of  the  people  of  this  relatively 
prosperous  country  are  unable  to  live  properly,  even  if  they  knew 
how  to  do  so. 

The  fact  that  the  cost  of  living  has,  during  the  last  fifteen  or 
twenty  years,  risen  faster  than  have  wages,  salaries,  and  incomes, 
has  lessened  the  proportion  of  those  who  can  have  proper  food  and 
clothing  and  live  in  sanitary  homes.  That  the  most  of  our  people 
could,  if  they  knew  how  to  do  so,  greatly  improve  their  present 
ways  of  living  is  indisputable.  It  is,  therefore,  well  that  we  should 
do  all  that  we  can  to  banish  ignorance.  We  should  not,  however, 
overlook  the  fact  that  we  cannot  make  great  progress  in  race  bet- 
terment until  we  remove  the  most  fundamental,  if  not  the  greatest, 
cause  of  race  deterioration — poverty. 

The  Pittsburg  ]\Iorals  Efficiency  Commission  took  a  .strong  posi- 
tion in  favor  of  eugenic  marriage  legislation.  It  also  reached  the 
conclusion  that  (as  the  New  York  Evening  Post  states  it)  "the  one 
most  potent  weapon  in  the  reduction  of  vice  the  Commission  be- 
lieves to  be  early  marriages,  to  encourage  which  it  emphasizes  good 
housing,  cheaper  living,  and  even  vocational  education,  as  per- 
mitting the  easy  conversion  of  youth  into  self-responsible,  wage- 
earning  manhood." 

But  how,  under  present  economic  conditions,  can  we  have  early 
marriages,  healthy  parents  and  well-nurtured  and  happy  children. 
Only  a  small  proportion  of  our  young  men  of  twenty-one  are  finan- 
cially competent  to  purchase  and  support  a  proper  home.  Our  young 
women  are  even  worse  conditioned.  With  most  of  them,  it  is  less 
a  question  of  eugenic  marriage  than  of  marriage  at  all.  Practically, 
they  must  take  the  man  offered  when  he  offers  himself.  These  con- 
ditions will  undoubtedly  persist,  in  more  or  less  modified  form, 
until  our  present  economic  system  is  changed  radically — assuming 
that  a  much  more  equitable  system  of  distribution  of  product  is 
possible. 

Living  conditions,  among  the  great  majority  of  workers  in  our 
homes,  in  our  factories  and  shops  and  on  our  farms  and  transporta- 
tion lines,  are  not  conducive  to  eugenic  marriages,  sound  parents 
and  healthy  offspring.  Infant  mortality  must  necessarily  be  large 
when  the  parents  work  long  hours  at  hard  labor,  have  inferior  food 
and  live  in  close  quarters  and  in  poorly  ventilated  rooms  with  un- 


CITY,    STATE   AND   NATIONAL    HYGIENE  403 

sanitary  surroundings.  Parents  of  low  vitality  cannot  possibly 
rear  strong  and  healthy  children.  Disease,  vice,  and  crime  flourish 
in  the  tenements  in  our  great  cities. 

I  wish  only  to  suggest  to  this  Conference  that  poverty  is  one  of 
the  greatest  causes  of  race  deterioration  and  that,  while  great  good 
may  result  from  increased  knowledge  of  the  evils  of  improper  liv- 
ing, yet  our  fondest  hopes  for  race  betterment  cannot  be  realized 
until  the  economic  base  of  our  society  is  changed  and  the  products 
of  labor  are  apportioned  according  to  merit — as  is  certainly  not 
the  case  today. 

I  may  say  that,  personally,  I  not  only  believe  that  a  just 
economic  system  of  distribution  is  easily  attainable,  but  that  civiliza- 
tion cannot  progress  much  further  without  it.  Our  present  unjust 
system  is  breaking  down.  The  evils  of  industrial  slavery — disease, 
vice,  insanity,  and  crime — are  greater  today  than  were  those  of 
chattel  slavery  fifty  years  ago. 


segregation- 


Hastings  H.  Haet,  LL.D.,  Director  Department  of  Child-Helping,  Russell 
Sage  Foundation,  New  York  City. 

I  wish  to  say  a  preliminary  word  which  I  feel  is  essential  in 
any  discussion  of  social  work,  and  that  is,  that  we  must  never  lose 
sight  of  the  fact  that  social  work  is  a  spiritual  work,  and  the 
worker  should  have  the  same  definite  consecration  which  we  expect  of 
people  who  engage  in  religious  or  missionary  work.  The  corollary  of 
that  is  that  in  any  line  of  social  work  j^ou  absolutelj^  fail  unless  you 
produce  a  spiritual  result.  Of  what  good  is  it  to  feed  a  hungry 
man  unless  you  inspire  in  him  the  purpose  to  feed  himself  to- 
morrow? What  advantage  is  it  to  get  a  drunken  man  sober, 
to  shut  him  up  for  ten  days  and  turn  him  out  with  a  thirst,  unless 
you  have  inspired  in  that  man's  heart  a  purpose,  a  desire,  to  resist 
temptation  and  to  stand?  What  good  is  it  to  undertake  to  put  a 
man  in  prison  or  on  parole  or  probation  and  to  watch  over  him  and 
to  guide  him  for  a  limited  time  unless  you  are  going  to  produce  in 
that  man  the  purpose  and  the  courage  which  will  enable  him  to  go 
through  the  hardness  he  must  endure  if  he  is  to  be  redeemed?  I 
want  to  have  what  I  say  this  morning  divested  of  what  will  seem 
perhaps  to  be  rather  a  hard  and  mechanical  study.  I  am  to  speak 
this  morning  on  the  subject  of  "Segregation." 

What  do  we  mean  by  segregation?  We  mean  the  separation  of 
a  group  of  people  in  a  community  from  the  rest  of  the  community 


404  FIRST    NATIONAL    CON^'ERENCE   ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

that  they  may  go  apart  and  live  by  themselves  for  a  longer  or 
shorter  time  in  order  to  produce  some  result  in  a  social  way.  Now 
what  are  the  purposes  of  segregation  ?  You  may  segregate  people 
in  order  to  make  a  diagnosis,  that  you  may  discover  what  needs 
to  be  done  for  them,  or  simply  for  temporary  care  until  you  can 
determine  what  shall  be  the  next  step.  You  may  segregate  people 
for  the  purpose  of  treatment  and  cure.  Here  are  eighteen  hun- 
dred people  segregated  in  this  institution  [Battle  Creek  Sanitarium] 
for  the  purpose  of  recovering  their  health.  You  may  segregate 
people  in  order  that  you  may  give  them  the  treatment  which  we 
accord  a  criminal.  Now  what  is  that?  We  segregate  people  for 
purposes  of  punishment,  and  we  segregate  people  for  purposes  of 
revenge.  You  will  find  that  idea  running  through  the  legislation 
of  the  states  of  the  United  States  to  this  day.  Thank  God  we  are 
learning  that  is  not  the  best  way.  You  may  segregate  people  for 
various  purposes.  You  may  set  apart  a  portion  of  yovir  town  where 
shall  congregate  the  vicious  elements,  the  gamblers  and  the  saloon- 
keepers and  the  prostitutes,  set  off  in  a  corner  by  themselves  in  order 
to  make  a  public  institution  of  those  departments  and  put  them 
under  the  care  and  supervision  of  the  police.  You  may  segregate 
people  in  order  that  you  may  simply  care  for  them  as  an  asylum,  as 
provision  to  care  for  those  who  are  helpless,  incurable,  neglected. 
Thus  we  have  homes,  houses,  and  asylums  for  certain  classes  of  the 
insane.  You  may  segregate  people  for  protection;  you  may  segre- 
gate people  to  protect  themselves ;  you  may  segregate  people  to 
protect  their  family,  or  you  may  segregate  people  to  protect  the 
community. 

I  want  to  speak  a  few  minutes  about  these  different  forms  of 
segregation.  The  first  form  of  segregation  of  which  I  spoke  is  seg- 
regation for  diagnosis  and  temporarj^  care.  Now  under  this  comes 
the  jail;  under  this  comes  what  we  call  the  detention  home  for 
delinquent  children;  under  this  comes  the  detention  hospital  for 
the  observation  of  persons  who  it  is  thought  may  be  on  the  verge 
of  becoming  insane  or  whose  sanity  or  insanity  we  desire  to  ascer- 
tain. Now  the  jail  has  served  all  three  of  these  purposes.  The 
most  inconsistent  institution  in  the  world  is  the  jail,  which  is  de- 
signed to  be  used  on  the  one  hand  for  the  humane  and  comfortable 
detention  of  insane  persons,  until  recently  for  children  brought  to- 
gether in  the  jail  for  temporary  care,  and  also  to  confine  accused 
persons.  The  Constitution  says.  "Everj^  man  shall  be  deemed  inno- 
cent until  he  is  proved  to  be  guilty."  Now  we  use  the  same  jail, 
the  same  rooms,  the  same  cells,  and  the  same  jailers,  the  same  hor- 
rible conditions  in  every  respect,  for  another  purpose,  and  that  is 


CITY,    STATE   AND   NATIONAL    HYGIENE  405 

for  the  punishment  or  the  reformation  of  certain  offenders  under 
sentence.  "What  we  call  petty  thieves  or  drunken  persons  or  disorderly 
persons  are  sent  to  jail  to  be  reformed,  and  are  given  the  same  identi- 
cal room,  the  same  identical  food,  the  same  identical  treatment 
in  every  respect,  with  the  purpose  of  making  it  to  the  one  man 
a  humane  and  an  easy  detention,  as  comfortable  as  possible,  and  of 
making  it  to  the  other  a  bitter  and  deterrent  punisliment.  You 
say  it  is  perfectly  impossible — it  cannot  be  done.  It  is;  done 
all  the  time.  There  is  one  trouble  about  it :  we  give  the  humane 
and  comfortable  detention  to  the  wrong  man,  we  give  the  bitter 
punishment  to  the  wrong  man.  That  is  w^here  it  is  unfortunate,  but 
it  is  an  absolute  fact.  We  are  doing  it  in  every  jail  almost  in  the 
United  States.  In  the  state  of  Michigan  some  years  ago,  two  men 
w^ere  traveling  with  a  team  of  horses.  It  happened  that  those  horses 
answered  the  description  of  some  horses  that  had  been  stolen,  so 
the  men  were  arrested,  tried,  charged  wdth  horse  stealing,  and 
had  to  stay  in  jail  ten  days  before  they  could  prove  their  identity. 

There  are  thousands  and  thousands  of  insane  people,  sick  people, 
and  they  are  put  into  jail.  They  are  submitted  to  ignominy  and 
suffering  and  the  rigors  of  the  jail — in  the  name  of  what?  Oh! 
to  protect  the  community  from  danger.  Not  one  in  ten  is  danger- 
ous, but  they  are  subjected  to  treatment  that  is  perfectly  horrible. 
I  have  seen  men  shut  up  for  months  in  a  jail  with  absolutely  no 
other  care  than  they  could  receive  from  fellow-prisoners  in  the  jail. 
Take  a  man  accused  of  crime.  More  than  half  of  all  the  people  who 
are  accused  of  crime,  are  never  convicted,  whether  guilty  or  not. 
I  am  speaking  literally ;  I  am  not  exaggerating.  Put  a  decent  man 
into  a  steel  cage  and  exhibit  him  like  a  wild  beast  in  a  menagerie  at 
twenty-five  cents  per  head.  Put  a  man  where  he  cannot  keep  free  from 
vermin,  and  where  he  has  no  opportunity  to  take  a  bath.  He  is  forced 
into  association  day  and  night  with  the  vilest  people.  Can  you  think 
of  a  worse  condition  for  a  decent  man  this  side  of  perdition?  On 
the  other  hand,  you  take  the  bum,  the  tramp,  the  man  who  is  de- 
graded to  the  last  degree  and  who  has  no  self-respect — what  does 
he  want?  Why,  w^e  take  a  man  like  that  and  give  him  a  warm  fire, 
plenty  of  good  food,  the  society  of  others  like  himself,  a  pack  of 
greasy  cards  and  he  is  perfectly  happy.  He  lacks  nothing.  He 
has  a  pipe  of  tobacco.  They  will  always  give  him  that.  He  may 
lack  beer  or  w^hiskej',  but  in  many  jails  he  can  get  that  if  he  has  a 
little  money,  through  the  jailer.  That  is  the  man  who  on  a  day 
like  this  will  go  down  town  and  steal  something  to  get  back  again. 
That  kind  of  segregation  is  utterly  illogical.  It  is  never  humane. 
Isn't  it  amazing  that  we  perpetuate  it  year  after  year  and  genera- 
tion after  generation? 


406  FIRST    XATIONAL    COXKERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

I  read  a  day  or  two  ago  the  official  report  of  the  examiner  of 
the  state  of  Illinois  on  the  jails  of  that  state.  This  was  an  official 
report  just  as  straight  as  could  be.  He  said  that  during  the  past 
year  the  number  of  jails  in  this  state  which  have  kangaroo  courts 
have  increased  from  twenty-six  to  twenty-nine.  A  kangaroo  court 
is  an  organization  within  the  jail  by  permission  of  the  sheriff  where- 
by the  prisoners  administer  a  rough  discipline  of  their  own.  It 
came  out  in  that  official  report  that  the  prisoners  in  the  jail  are 
accustomed  to  assign  to  a  prisoner  the  work  he  has  to  do  in  the  jail. 
In  some  they  are  given  a  dark  cell  or  dungeon  in  which  they 
punish  persons  who  disobey  the  regulations  of  the  court,  and  the 
prisoners,  if  thej^  have  money,  are  required  to  make  contributions 
for  the  benefit  of  their  fellow-prisoners.  If  the  prisoner  has  any- 
thing sent  to  him  by  his  friends,  he  must  divide  or  he  will  be  dealt 
with.  The  inspector  said  he  didn't  think  there  was  force  employed, 
but  if  a  man  refused  to  make  these  contributions,  it  would  be  made 
very  uncomfortable  for  him. 

It  was  literally  true  in  the  state  of  Illinois  that  the  prisoners  of 
the  jail  were  allowed  to  take  incoming  prisoners  and  rob  them  and 
abuse  them  physically  v/ithout  rebuke. 

I  saw  in  the  city  of  St.  Cloud,  Minn.,  a  boy  of  sixteen  who  was 
lield  as  a  witness  against  a  man  for  a  crime  against  nature,  and 
they  didn't  dare  let  the  boy  go  because  they  thought  somebody 
would  give  him  a  few  dollars  and  he  would  not  be  found.  So 
they  put  him  in  jail  as  witness  and  he  was  in  the  same  apartment 
with  that  man  against  whom  he  was  to  appear  as  a  witness — and 
the  same  thing  was  going  on.  I  am  speaking  literally  and  of  things 
that  are  not  done  here  and  there,  in  a  corner,  but  in  many  counties 
in  the  United  States.    That  kind  of  segregation  is  wrong. 

I  say  segregation  may  be  for  treatment  and  care.  You  have  in  this 
institution  an  example.  These  people  are  sent  here  for  treatment  and 
care.  Institutions  of  the  class  I  speak  of  are  the  reformatories  of  the 
United  States,  the  juvenile  reformatories,  schools  for  boys,  like  the 
one  you  have  at  Lansing  of  this  state,  schools  for  girls  like  the  one  at 
Adrian,  then  reformatories  for  young  men  and  women,  such  as 
are  now  growing  up  in  all  parts  of  the  country. 

All  of  these  institutions  ought  to  be  hospitals  in  principle — not 
only  hospitals  in  principle,  but  they  ought  to  be  literally  hospitals, 
because  more  than  half  the  people  that  come  into  these  institutions 
of  the  state  are  in  need  of  medical  or  surgical  treatment.  It  is 
only  ver\^  lately  that  people  have  waked  tip  to  the  condition  of 
the  people  who  are  in  these  institutions.  It  is  less  than  six  years 
ago  that  Miss  Marv-  Dusen  and  Mrs.   Glendower  Evans,   in  Massa- 


CITY,    STATE   AND   NATIONAL    HYGIENE         ^  407 

chusetts,  thought  that  the}'  would  undertake  au  examination.  They 
had  been  impressed  by  the  number  of  girls  brought  into  the 
Lancaster  school  who  seemed  to  be  deficient.  They  made  a  rough 
investigation  and  they  came  to  a  conclusion  that  was  perfectly 
astonishing  at  that  time,  that  probably  twenty-eight  per  cent  of  all 
the  girls  in  that  institution  w^ere  subnormal.  That  led  to  an  ex- 
amination in  the  reformatories,  the  prison  for  women  at  Bedford, 
N.  Y.,  in  the  Elmira  reformatory  for  young  men  and  the  New  Jersey 
reformatory  for  young  men,  and  in  other  institutions,  until  now  it 
is  generally  accepted  that  in  our  prisons  and  reformatories  at  least 
twenty-five  per  cent  of  the  inmates  are  defective,  or  in  our  juvenile 
reformatories  from  twenty-five  to  fifty  per  cent.  In  one  institu- 
tion where  I  employed  a  psychologist  to  go  in  and  examine  the 
girls,  we  found  that  sixty-five  per  cent  of  the  girls  a^  ere  feeble-minded. 

But  the  reformatory  is  the  wrong  institution  for  these  chil- 
dren, because  the  girls  who  are  sent  into  that  juvenile  reforma- 
tory do  not  need  reformatory  treatment.  The  girls  are  sent  there 
b}^  the  courts  as  delinquent.  They  are  put  into  that  institu- 
tion and  people  try  to  reform  them.  They  proceed  to  educate 
them,  and  to  instruct  them,  and  to  control  them,  and  to  punish 
them,  and  to  pray  over  them,  and  to  exhort  them,  but  that  is  not 
what  these  girls  need.  They  need  to  be  out  in  the  open ;  they  need 
to  have  fresh  air ;  they  need  to  have  natural  recreation ;  they  need 
a  good  time.  There  is  absolutely  nothing  delinquent  in  the  pur- 
pose of  these  children.  But  what  is  the  result?  The  result  is  that 
all  of  our  institutions  for  delinquent  girls  in  the  United  States  are 
now  so  clogged  up  with  feeble-minded  girls  it  is  impossible  to  do 
the  legitimate  work  of  the  institution  for  those  who  are  not  feeble- 
minded, and  these  feeble-minded  girls  and  boys  in  these  juvenile 
institutions  are  being  cared  for  today  in  those  institutions  at  almost 
double  the  cost  that  would  be  necessary  if  we  had  proper  institutions 
built  for  them  so  that  they  could  be  transferred  to  institutions  in- 
tended for  their  care.  "We  have  a  very  expensive  treatment  that  is 
not  intended  for  them  and  not  adapted  to  them.  In  the  same  way 
we  have  many  of  the  feeble-minded  in  our  hospitals  for  the  insane. 
And  we  are  spending  at  least  fifty  per  cent  more  for  the  care  of  these 
feeble-minded  in  the  hospitals  for  the  insane  than  we  ought  to  expend 
for  them. 

Now  let  there  be  adopted  in  each  of  our  states  a  state  program 
for  dealing  with  these  subjects,  such  a  plan  as  was  adopted  in 
the  state  of  Ohio,  and  let  the  people  of  the  state  begin  to  balance 
these  things  up  and  see  what  is  being  done  for  preventive  work 
for  feeble-minded  epileptics,  cripples,  for  dependent  children,  for 


408  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

deliiuiik'iit  I'hikhvii  and  let  tlicse  things  lie  ordered  in  some  .systeni- 
atie  way.  At  the  present  time,  this  whole  tiling  goes  haphazard, 
especially  with  reference  to  children.  It  is  often  simply  a  matter 
of  impulse,  of  some  man  who  is  making  a  will.  He  makes  a  will, 
leaving  a  sum  of  money  for  the  creation  of  an  institution  for  chil- 
dren, but  never  stops  to  consult  anybody  as  to  whether  it  is  needed. 

I  was  consulted  some  time  ago  down  in  the  state  of  Virginia. 
A  rich  man  there  who  had  built  an  institution  for  girls  sent  for  an 
expert  Avhose  advice  he  did  not  follow.  What  he  did  do  was  to  adopt 
a  charter  whereby  the  institution  should  receive  girls  who  were  entire 
orphans,  who  had  lost  both  parents,  native-born  Virginians  of  good 
character,  between  the  ages  of  four  and  twelve  years.  Absolutely  there 
was  no  class  in  the  state  of  Virginia  that  so  needed  such  provision, 
because  an  orphan  girl  who  is  a  whole  orphan  of  good  character 
can  find  a  home  any  day  of  the  week. 

"We  may  segregate  for  education  and  training.  We  send  our 
children  to  boarding  school.  We  establish  schools  for  the  deaf 
and  the  blind.  We  used  to  use  asylums  for  the  deaf  and  the  blind, 
and  orphan  asylums.  We  do  not  build  those  asylums  any  more, 
thank  God!  We  build  schools  for  the  deaf  and  the  blind,  and  we 
lead  them  to  realize  that  they  are  going  out  in  the  community  to 
care  for  themselves,  and  to  become  self-supporting  and  honorable 
citizens.  In  1876  the  state  of  Michigan  established  a  new  school  under 
the  name  of  the  "State  Public  School"  at  Coldwater.  What  is  that? 
That  is  only  a  part  of  the  name.  It  has  confused  people  a  great 
deal.  It  is  the  State  Public  School  for  Dependent  Children.  All  of  the 
children  in  the  state  of  Michigan  that  used  to  be  sent  to  the  alms- 
house are  now  gathered  up  and  sent  to  the  State  Public  School 
to  be  kept  until  they  can  receive  such  treatment  as  they  need 
in  a  medical  way  or  in  the  correction  of  bad  habits  or  in  the  direc- 
tion of  teaching  them  the  ordinaiy  decencies  of  life.  Then  they  are 
distributed  out  into  family  homes  throughout  the  state  of  Michigan. 
It  has  been  one  of  the  most  beneficent  things  that  ever  was  started 
in  the  United  States. 

I  can  never  understand  wiiy  but  three  states  have  followed  this 
state  in  that  respect — the  state  of  Minnesota,  the  state  of  Wiscon- 
sin, and  the  state  of  Colorado. 

We  may  have  segregation  for  punishment  and  revenge.  Isn't 
it  a  horrible  thing  at  this  day  that  we  should  be  establishing 
institutions  with  the  declared  purpose  to  get  even  with  a  man,  to 
give  him  what  is  coming  to  him.  A  man  is  brought  before  the  court, 
the  judge  sits  on  the  bench,  listens  to  the  testimony  which  may  last 
an  hour  or  two  hours,  possibly  two  or  three  days  if  the  man  has 


CITY,    STATE   AND   NATIONAL    HYGIENE  409 

money  enough  to  employ  lawyers  to  defend  him,  and  when  that 
is  through,  the  judge  measures  up  the  deserts  of  that  man,  two 
years,  five  years,  ten  years,  fifteen  years,  of  life.  Why,  friends, 
what  does  the  judge  on  the  bench  or  you  and  I  know  about  the 
deserts  of  a  human  soul?  Who  can  measure  evil?  Why,  it  is  only 
the  Almighty  who  sees  the  springs  of  human  action,  who  knows  the 
history  of  that  individual  from  the  beginning  of  his  life  and  clear 
back  to  his  grandfather  and  great-grandfather,  who  knows  all  of 
the  influences  of  environment  and  all  of  the  temptations  to  which 
he  has  been  subjected  and  the  injustice  he  has  suffered.  Only  the 
Almighty  can  measure  human  guilt,  and  yet  up  to  this  day  we  are 
attempting  to  give  men  what  is  coming  to  them.  That  idea  is 
exploded.  We  got  rid  of  it  with  children  many  years  ago  and 
began  to  send  children  to  the  juvenile  reformatories  for  care  and 
training.  Then  we  got  rid  of  it  with  j^oung  men,  and  began  to 
send  young  men  to  the  state  reformatories,  and  gave  them  what 
we  call  an  indefinite  sentence.  In  other  words,  to  be  taught, 
trained,  and  cured,  is  the  basic  idea  of  it.  Now  just  as  soon  as 
there  is  reason  to  believe  that  a  man,  if  dismissed  from  state's 
prison,  will  lead  an  honorable,  upright  life,  out  he  goes. 

We  are  also  learning  that  there  is  a  better  thing  to  do  with  men 
or  women,  boys  or  girls,  than  to  send  them  to  prison ;  so  there  has 
come  about  the  probation  system,  where  if  there  is  a  person  who 
is  not  in  any  way  confirmed  in  crime,  and  has  given  pretty  good 
evidence  of  reform,  he  is  turned  over  to  the  watchful  care  of  a 
person  who  will  care  for  him  and  guide  him. 

The  most  imperative  duty  of  a  community  at  the  present  time 
is  the  custodial  care  of  the  feeble-minded  girl.  The  work  for  the 
feeble-minded  began  at  the  wrong  end  sixty  years  ago  in  this  coun- 
try with  the  young  child.  We  let  the  older  girl  run  loose,  and  she 
is  perpetuating  and  multiplying  her  kind.  We  have  just  discovered 
that  the  feeble-minded  woman  is  twice  as  prolific  as  the  normal 
woman.  This  is  a  scientific  fact.  If  a  feeble-minded  woman  con- 
sorts with  a  feeble-minded  man,  the  offspring  is  sure  to  be  feeble- 
minded. If  she  consorts  with  a  normal  man,  the  chances  are  more 
than  half  that  the  offspring  will  be  in  some  way  defective.  Yet 
we  are  going  on  with  that  thing,  gathering  up  these  little  children, 
putting  them  into  schools  and  training  them  and  letting  the  girls 
run  loose.  The  thing  to  be  done  is  to  stop  the  admission  of  children 
under  twelve  years  old  until  we  have  gotten  all  the  others  taken 
care  of.  We  are  taking  care  of  the  insane  women,  but  not  the 
feeble-minded  women.  The  feeble-minded  woman  is  twice  as  dan- 
gerous to  the  community  as  the  insane  woman.    Why  ?    It  was  said 


410  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

here  yesterday  that  insanity  is  a  disease  of  old  age,  and  feeble- 
mindedness is  a  disease  of  youth.  Young  women  become  mothers  and 
it  is  the  highest  economic  duty  to  protect  them.  I  do  not  know  any- 
body who  is  more  deserving  of  fostering  care  than  these  girls  of 
fifteen,  sixteen,  and  seventeen  who  have  the  mind  of  a  child  of  seven 
or  eight  and  the  body  of  a  w^oman.  They  ought  to  have  the  same  pro- 
tection we  give  to  a  little  girl,  but  instead  they  are  pursued,  hunted 
doMTi.  and  destroyed  like  rabbits. 


THE  NEGRO  RACE 

Booker  T.  Washington,  LL.D.,  Principal  The  Tuskegee  Normal  and  In- 
dustrial Institute,  Tuskegee,  Alabama. 

I  am  very  glad  that  those  in  charge  of  this  Conference  have  seen 
fit  to  consider  the  race  to  which  I  belong,  in  connection  with  the 
subject  under  discussion.  Before  I  begin  what  I  have  to  say,  I  wish 
to  express  my  personal  obligation  to  Doctor  Kellogg  and  to  the 
teaching  for  which  he  stands,  because  of  the  benefit  which  I  have 
received  as  an  individual. 

Some  three  years  ago  I  found  myself  almost  out  of  commission 
physically.  Without  any  knowledge  or  consent,  my  wife  in  some 
way  got  hold  of  a  colored  man  trained  here  under  Doctor  Kellogg, 
by  the  name  of  Mr.  Crayton.  He  came  to  Tuskegee,  he  was  in- 
stalled in  my  home  by  my  wife  and  for  six  months  he  had  charge 
of  me.  At  the  end  of  that  six  months,  I  was  a  new  man,  and  not 
only  a  new  man,  but  I  knew  more  about  living  and  enjoying  life 
than  I  had  .ever  knownti  before.  And  so  I  want  to  express  to  you, 
Doctor  Kellogg,  my  deep  personal  gratitude. 

Some  years  ago  I  was  traveling  through  a  certain  section  of 
the  South  with  a  friend.  We  chanced  to  stop  over  night  in  one  of 
the  cabins  which  is  common  to  that  section  of  the  country.  The 
next  morning,  when  we  went  to  the  breakfast  table,  the  good  host- 
ess asked  us  whether  we  wanted  long  or  short  sweetening  in  our 
coffee.  (I  am  aware  that  I  am  getting  on  tender  ground  when  I 
attempt  to  discuss  the  question  of  food  here  and  especially  coffee.) 
But  this  good  lady  asked  w^hether  we  wanted  long  or  short  sweet- 
ening in  our  coffee.  Neither  of  us  had  ever  heard  the  question  put 
in  that  form  before  and  each  was  puzzled.  She  looked  at  one  and 
then  at  the  other  for  an  answ^er.  I  punched  my  friend  rather  gently 
and  slyly  in  the  side  and  suggested  that  he  answer  first.  With  a 
good  deal  of  courage  he  finally  said  he  M'ould  take  long  sweetening. 
With  that  the  good  w^oman  put  one  of  her  fingers  into  a  cup  of 


CITY,    STATE   AND   NATIONAL    HYGIENE  411 

molasses — that  is  allowable — and  then  she  put  that  same  finger  into 
his  coffee.  Now  that  was  one  sweetening.  Then  she  turned  to 
me  and  asked  what  I  wanted,  long  or  short.  I  said  I  would  take 
short !  Then  she  put  her  hand  into  another  cup,  took  out  something 
that  resembled  a  lump  of  maple  sugar,  put  it  between  her  teeth, 
bit  it  into  two  parts,  put  one  part  into  her  coffee  and  the  other 
part  into  my  coffee.  That  was  short  sweetening.  Now  Mr.  Chair- 
man, I  do  not  know  what  you  want  or  expect  of  me  in  the  way  of 
an  address,  but  I  wish  to  assure  you  in  the  beginning  that  both  my 
long  and  short  addresses  are  rather  disagreeable.  Under  the  cir- 
cumstances I  shall  have  to  choose  short  sweetening,  if  any  at  all. 

Few  races  in  history  have  been  subjected  to  so  many  sudden, 
violent,  and  trying  changes  as  is  true  of  the  African  Negro  within 
a  short  period  of  years.  First  there  was  a  tremendous  transition 
from  Africa  to  America,  from  free  life  to  slave  life,  then  from  slave 
life  into  free  life,  and  then  there  has  been  a  change  which  a  large 
proportion  of  my  race  has  experienced  of  moving  from  the  South 
into  the  North.  But  in  spite  of  all  of  these  changes,  the  negro  has 
lived  and  is  living  and  intends  to  live,  in  my  opinion.  Now  I  know 
sometimes  people  get  a  little  impatient  with  us  because  we  do  change 
so  suddenly  and  frequently.  I  remember  that  some  years  ago  I 
was  in  Jacksonville,  Fla.,  visiting  a  friend  of  mine  who  had  become 
a  prosperous  lawyer.  He  had  recently  built  a  new  house  and  he 
took  me  into  his  rooms  and  showed  me  over  the  fine  mansion,  which 
it  really  was — into  his  bedrooms,  bathrooms,  kitchen,  and  dining 
room.  When  we  went  into  the  beautiful  dining  room,  there  was  a 
bell  under  the  table  (one  of  his  truss  bells),  and  he  put  his  foot 
on  it  and  pressed  it  and  a  servant  appeared  at  the  door.  He  pressed 
it  again  and  the  servant  appeared  the  second  time.  Then  a  third 
and  a  fourth  time  he  pressed  on  the  bell  and  the  servant  appeared. 
And  I  said  to  him,  ''My  friend,  why  in  the  world  are  you  calling 
that  servant  through  the  medium  of  that  bell  so  often  when  you 
do  not  seem  to  have  any  need  for  the  servant?"  "Why,"  he  said, 
"Mr.  Washington,  the  fact  is  only  a  few  years  ago  I  used  to  be 
bell  man  to  Colonel  Porter  myself  and  I  always  came  when  the  bell 
rang  and  I  am  trying  to  readjust  myself  to  the  changed  conditions 
in  life." 

So  you  have  to  be  a  little  patient  with  a  negro  while  he  is  trying 
to  readjust  himself,  through  all  these  changed  conditions — changed 
conditions  physically,  industrially,  socially,  morally,  from  almost 
every  point  of  view. 

We  have  in  this  country  about  ten  million  members  of  my  race. 
The  number,  in  spite  of  predictions  to  the  contrary,  is  not  decreas- 


412  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

ing.  We  are  growing;  at  a  reasonably  healthy  rate,  not  only  from 
within,  but  from  without.  Some  years  ago  the  United  States  began 
to  manifest  an  interest  in  the  people  of  Cuba,  Porto  Rico,  Hawaii, 
and  the  Philippine  Islands,  and  those  people  began  coming  over 
here  in  pretty  good  numbers.  I  noticed  that  when  they  landed, 
either  on  the  Atlantic  or  Pacific  coast,  the  White  Man  looked  at  them 
very  closely,  critically :  he  examined  their  skin  through  a  microscope, 
felt  of  their  hair,  looked  at  their  noses.  He  did  not  know  exactly 
how  to  classify  those  people,  and  he  finally  said,  "We  better  be  on 
the  safe  side  and  give  them  to  the  negro."  Now  we  are  getting 
most  all  of  them,  so  that  we  are  increasing  at  a  reasonably  rapid 
rate.  Nine  millions  of  the  families  of  black  people  reside  in  our 
Southern  states,  one  million  reside  in  the  Northern  and  Western 
states.  Eighty-five  per  cent  of  those  residing  in  the  Southern  states 
are  at  present  to  be  found  either  in  small  towns  or  rural  districts 
of  the  South. 

Now,  in  my  opinion,  these  people  are  worth  saving,  are  worth 
making  a  strong,  helpful  part  of  the  American  body  politic.  They 
have  already  indicated,  within  their  fifty  years  of  freedom,  some 
signs  of  being  worth  saving.  In  the  first  place,  from  a  physical 
point  of  view  they  have  lived;  that  is,  they  have  survived.  That 
is  not  an  easy  thing  for  any  dark-skinned  race  to  do  when  it  is 
near  you.  Now,  my  friends,  study  history  and  you  will  discover 
that  the  American  negro  is  practically  the  only  race  with  a  dark 
skin  that  has  ever  undergone  the  test  of  living  by  the  side  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon,  looking  him  in  the  face  and  really  surviving.  All 
others  that  have  tried  that  experiment  have  departed  or  they  are 
departing.  Now  we  have  lived.  Not  only  that,  but  we  have  sup- 
ported ourselves  from  a  physical  point  of  view.  When  Mr.  Lincoln 
said  fifty  years  ago,  or  a  little  more,  that  he  was  going  to  free  us, 
some  people  said,  "Don't  free  those  negroes.  They  will  prove  a 
perpetual  burden  upon  the  pocketbook  of  the  nation."  Somebody 
said  that  from  a  physical  and  economic  point  of  view  they  would 
not  support  themselves,  they  would  not  clothe  themselves,  they 
would  not  shift  for  themselves,  they  would  not  feed  themselves. 
If  you  will  study  the  records  of  the  American  Indians — and  I 
have  nothing  but  the  highest  respect  and  love  for  the  American 
Indian — you  will  find  that  Congress  is  called  on  to  appropriate 
every  year  between  ten  and  twelve  millions  of  dollars  to  be  used 
in  providing  food,  clothing,  and  shelter  for  about  three  hundred 
thousand  American  Indians.  My  own  race  in  this  country  has  been 
free  fifty  years,  and  never,  since  the  days  of  reconstruction,  has  the 


CITY,    STATE   AND   NATIONAL    HYGIENE  413 

American  negro  asked  Congress  to  appropriate  a  single  dollar  to 
be  used  in  providing  food  and  clothing  for  his  people. 

Absolutely,  from  a  physical  point  of  view,  we  have  cared  for 
ourselves — and  once  in  a  while  we  have  had  a  little  something  to 
do  in  caring  for  somebody  else.  Some  time  ago  in  Dallas  County,  near 
where  I  live,  the  white  people  were  having  a  convention.  There 
was  an  old  colored  man  who  was  janitor  of  the  convention  who 
usually  managed  to  find  out  what  was  the  object  of  every  meeting 
the  white  people  held  in  that  court  house.  But  this  was  a  new 
kind  of  convention  and  the  old  colored  man  could  not  seem  to 
analyze  it.  After  it  was  over,  he  found  the  president  of  the  con- 
vention, Colonel  Jones  (who  used  to  own  him),  and  he  said.  "Colonel 
Jones,  you  white  people  is  up  to  something.  You  is  having  a  meetin' 
in  this  court  house,  and  I  can't  understand  what  you  drivin'  at. 
What  is  the  object  of  this  here  meetin'.  Colonel  Jones?"  He  re- 
plied, "Uncle  Jim,  it  is  simply  an  immigration  convention.  "We 
are  trying  to  devise  ways  and  means  by  which  we  can  induce  more 
white  people  from  Europe  and  the  West  and  North  to  come  here 
and  settle  in  Dallas  County."  The  old  colored  man  scratched  his 
head  and  said,  "Oh  de  Lord,  Brother  Jones;  we  niggers  in  Dallas 
County  have  got  just  as  many  white  people  in  Dallas  County  now 
as  we  can  support."  We  have  had  to  support  ourselves  and  we 
have  had  a  little  to  do  once  and  again  in  supporting  somebody  else, 
and  while  we  have  not  paid  a  great  deal  of  taxes  directly  to  the 
support  of  Government,  we  have  made  it  mighty  convenient  for 
somebody  else  to  pay  the  taxes  through  our  labor. 

If  you  will  study  the  economic  life  of  the  South,  you  will  find 
that  a  very  large  part  of  the  expense  of  Government  in  the  South, 
as  I  said — and  I  say  it,  my  friends,  with  regret — a  very  large  part 
of  the  expense  of  carrying  on  the  Government  comes  from  the  labor 
of  convicts,  a  \evy  large  proportion  of  whom  are  black  people. 
That  is,  they  have  not  yet  gotten  out  from  the  condition  ^vhere  we 
yield  to  the  temptation  of  using  the  convicts  for  profit.  Of  course, 
the  more  convicts,  the  more  profit.  That  is  something  that  the  civili- 
zation of  the  South  is  working  away  from  gradually,  but  in  my 
opinion,  slowly. 

Some  years  ago  we  discovered  that  the  people  of  Great  Britain 
were  spending  annually  not  far  from  fifty  millions  of  dollars  in  an 
attempt  to  rescue  the  drunkard,  the  gambler,  the  loafer  and  the 
misfits  of  life ;  in  a  word,  they  were  spending  not  far  from  fifty 
millions  of  dollars  in  an  attempt  to  get  people  up  out  of  the  ditch. 
Now,  my  friends,  with  all  our  weaknesses  and  shortcomings — and 
I  fully  recognize  what  these  weaknesses  and  shortcomings  are  sur- 


414  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

ronndiug  my  race — we  are  not  yet  in  the  ditch.  How  much  wiser 
is  it.  how  much  more  economical  is  it,  how  much  more  interesting 
is  it,  for  us  not  to  wait  till  these  millions  of  black  people  get  into 
the  ditch  and  then  have  to  spend  millions  in  getting  them  out,  but 
to  spend  millions,  if  necessary,  in  saving  them  before  they  get  into 
the  ditch.  That,  in  a  word,  is  a  problem  that  is  before  the  people 
of  this  eountr3^ 

Then,  in  a  word,  I  represent  a  kind  of  new  race.  You  know 
some  races  are  so  old.  They  have  been  where  they  are  going.  They 
have  their  history  behind  them.  Mine  is  before  it.  Some  time  ago, 
I  met  an  old  colored  woman  on  the  public  road  at  Tuskegee  one 
Sunday  morning,  and  I  turned  to  her  and  said,  "Aunt  Caroline, 
where  are  you  going  this  morning?"  Quick  as  a  flash  she  turned 
and  said,  "Why,  Mr.  Washington,  I's  done  been  where  I's  goin'." 
These  black  people  in  the  South  are  tremendously  interesting  from 
this  point  of  view,  in  that  they  have  not  been  where  they  are  going. 
They  are  just  on  the  way,  and  if  we  deal  with  them  wisely,  intelli- 
gently, frankly,  sympathetically,  I  repeat  that  we  .will  make  them 
a  strong,  helpful  part  of  our  citizenship. 

Now  how?  In  the  first  place,  we  should  use  our  influence,  if  we 
would  better  the  condition  of  my  race,  to  keep  the  masses  of  our 
people  in  the  country  districts  and  out  of  contact  with  the  large, 
complex  problems  of  city  life,  either  North  or  South.  The  negro, 
as  I  have  observed  and  studied  him,  is  best  off  near  the  soil,  near 
Nature,  in  the  rural  districts — as  a  rule.  He  is  worse  off  in  contact 
with  large,  complex  city  life.  And  I  go  further.  The  negro  on  the 
whole  (I  know  there  are  many  fine  exceptions)  is  better  off  in  our 
Southern  states  than  he  is  anywhere  else  in  this  country.  He  finds 
opportunities  in  the  South  for  progress  that  he  does  not  find  in 
lik;e  degree  outside  of  the  South. 

Those  of  you  who  would  keep  the  body  of  my  race  strong,  vigor- 
ous, and  useful,  should  use  your  influence  to  keep  whiskey  away 
from  the  negro  race.  I  am  no  professional  advocate  of  temperance, 
but  I  have  observed  the  effects  of  the  use  of  liquor  on  my  people 
in  the  South  and  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  in  the  counties 
and  in  the  states  where  we  have  no  open  bar-rooms,  the  black  man 
— from  every  point  of  view — is  fifty  per  cent  better  off  than  he  is 
in  the  counties  and  states  where  they  have  the  open  bar-rooms.  I 
know  it  is  often  said  that  shutting  up  the  bar-room  does  no  good, 
because  people  get  whiskej^  by  other  means.  I  am  speaking  of 
conditions  in  the  South  where  I  know  them.  The  difficulty  in  judg- 
ing correctly  grows  out  of  the  fact  that  you  hear  of  a  man  who  gets 
whiskey  in  a  closed  bar-room,  but  you  do  not  hear  of  the  ten  men  or 


CITY,    STATE   AND   NATIONAL    HYGIENE  415 

nine  men. who  fail  to  get  whiskey  in  these  prohibition  counties.  In 
my  own  county  in  Alabama — and  it  is  typical  of  a  large  section  of 
the  South — we  have  had  no  open  bar-rooms  for  twenty  years.  A  bar- 
room in  our  county  would  be  a  curiosity  to  a  large  proportion  of 
children,  white  and  black.  That  means  that  the  people  have  be- 
come weaned  away  from  the  love  of  whiskey,  even  from  the  taste 
of  whiskey.  And  so  if  you  would  help  my  race  better  itself  physi- 
cally, use  your  influence  everywhere  to  keep  the  bar-room  closed, 
to  keep  whiskey  away  from  them. 

And  then,  with  equal  emphasis,  I  want  to  ask  you  to  use  your 
influence  to  keep  the  patent  medicines  away  from  my  race.  Now 
I  suspect  I  am  getting  a  little  personal  here  in  the  North,  because 
most  of  these  things  are  manufactured  up  here  and  the  South  seems 
to  be  a  kind  of  dumping-ground  for  them.  When  a  patent  medi- 
cine is  so  vile  that  you  cannot  find  a  market  for  it  in  the  North, 
it  is  dumped  down  in  the  South  on  my  race.  Now  keep  the  whiskey 
and  patent  medicines  from  my  race  and  you  \^dll  help  make  them 
a  strong  and  better  race  of  people. 

Now,  I  have  said,  in  connection  with  that,  keep  them  in  the  coun- 
try districts,  but,  my  friends,  the  negro  has  a  great  deal  of  human 
nature,  and  he  wants  education  for  his  children  and  he  is  not  going 
to  stay  in  the  country  districts  unless  he  finds  as  good  school  oppor- 
tunities, as  good  church  facilities,  as  he  finds  in  the  smaller  towns 
and  larger  cities  of  his  country. 

Again,  from  an  industrial  point  of  view — and  this  applies  to  all 
sections  of  the  country,  North  and  South — those  who  would  better 
my  race  I  hope  will  learn  to  reward  the  race  more  as  individuals 
and  not  so  much  as  a  race.  There  are  certain  opportunities  in 
industrial  directions  that  are  closed  against  the  negro  simply  be- 
cause he  belongs  to  a  certain  race.  You  know  what  I  mean.  Now 
that  is  unfair,  my  friends;  that  discourages  and  holds  back  some 
of  the  strongest  and  best  men  of  my  race. 

Now,  my  friends,  more  and  more  the  American  white  man  should 
come  to  the  point  where  he  deals  with  my  race  as  individuals,  and  not 
so  much  with  the  race  as  a  whole.  That  is  the  way  other  races  are 
dealt  with.  You  will  find  that  in  proportion  as  my  race  is  studied 
and  helped  and  encouraged,  it  will  add  to  the  strength  of  the 
economic  life  of  this  country. 

In  that  section  of  our  country  where  the  negro  is  dependent  upon 
others  largely  for  work  (I  do  not  mean  the  discussion  of  the  theory 
of  work  or  these  economic  theories,  but  actual  work — I  do  not 
mean  the  discussion  of  home  economics  and  domestic  art  and  do- 
mestic science,  but  I  mean  only  one  thing),  the  negro  woman  is  de- 


416  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

peiuled  upon  for  cookinji'.  You  know  sometimes  you  get  cooking 
mixed  up  with  domestic  art  and  domestic  science  and  have  a  lot 
of  trouble.  Now  doM'n  there  where  the  negro  woman  is  depended 
upon  for  cooking",  where  the  black  man  is  depended  upon  for  work 
in  the  field  and  in  the  shop,  there  is  a  tremendous  waste  of  economic 
life  to  the  white  man  because  of  the  weak  and  sickly  bodies  of  thou- 
sands of  my  race.  I  speak  with  care  when  I  say  that  at  the  present 
time  there  are — at  least  in  the  Southern  states — two  hundred  thou- 
sand black  people  who  are  sick,  who  ought  to  be  well.  And  some- 
body is  paying  the  cost  of  that  sickness.  There  are  two  hundred 
thousand  colored  people  in  the  South  today  who  are  sick  from  pre- 
ventable causes,  and  your  duty  as  American  citizens  will  not  be 
accomplished  until  you  reach  this  class  of  our  people. 

You  cannot  help  the  negro  very  much  and  you  do  not  help  the 
white  man  very  much  by  yielding  to'  the  temptation  of  trying  to 
shut  the  race  off  in  certain  segregated  parts  of  American  cities. 
The  negro  race  is  just  as  proud  of  associating  with  his  race  as  the 
white  man  is  of  associating  with  his  race.  I  would  not  change  races 
or  colors  with  the  whitest  man  in  America.  No  man  can  be  more 
proud  of  his  race  than  I  am  of  mine.  No  man  can  be  better  satisfied  in 
association  with  his  race  than  I  am  when  associating  with  members 
of  my  race.  But,  my  friends,  according  to  our  complex  form  of 
Republican  Government,  when  you  shut  the  negro  off  in  any  cer- 
tain section  of  a  city  or  community,  the  negro  objects,  because  he 
knows  that  he  is  going  to  receive  an  unfair  deal.  Where?  How? 
In  the  first  place,  he  knows  that  when  you  shut  him  off  from  the 
rest  of  the  population,  he  is  not  going  to  have  a  fair  chance  from 
the  health  point  of  view,  from  a  moral  point  of  view,  from  a  physical 
point  of  view.  He  knows  that  the  lights  in  that  section  of  the  com- 
munity are  not  going  to  be  so  good  as  they  are  in  the  other  section. 
He  knows  that  the  streets  are  not  going  to  be  so  well  kept  up  as 
is  true  in  other  sections  of  the  community.  He  knows,  above  all 
things,  that  the  sewerage  is  going  to  be  neglected  in  his  portion 
of  the  city.  He  knows  that  he  is  not  going  to  receive  the  same 
police  protection  that  other  people  receive  in  the  same  city.  He 
knows  that  he  is  going  to  be  kept  out  of  churches,  of  the  influences 
of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  of  the  library,  of  the  hospital.  And  he  knows, 
further,  that  he  is  going  to  be  compelled  to  pay  a  tax  that  is  equiva- 
lent to  the  tax  paid  by  the  rest  of  the  community  who  receive 
the  benefit  of  all  the  conveniences  and  comforts  of  civilization. 

Now,  my  friends,  our  two  races  are  going  to  remain  in  this 
country  together.  We  are  going  to  touch  each  other  at  some  points. 
You  cannot  shut  the  negro  away  from  the  white  man.    If  you  would 


CITY,    STATE   AND   NATIONAL    HYGIENE  417 

4 

build  a  wall  around  the  negro,  he  would  get  over  that  wall  and  then 
you  would  have  to  build  five  walls  around  the  negro  to  keep  the 
white  man  away  from  the  negro.  We  are  going  to  live  here  in  this 
country  together.  In  fact,  we  are  more  like  you  than  any  other 
race,  aside  from  the  color  of  our  skin,  that  comes  into  America. 
We  speak  the  same  language  that  you  do,  we  eat  the  same  food  that 
you  do,  we  profess  the  same  religion  that  you  profess,  we  have  all 
the  ambitions  and  aspirations  that  you  have,  we  understand  the 
genesis  of  your  local  institutions,  we  have  the  same  local  and  na- 
tional pride  that  you  have,  we  love  the  same  American  flag  with  just 
as  great  fervor  as  you  do.  We  are  American  citizens  and  we  are 
going  to  stay  here  with  you.  That  means  we  are  going  to  help  you, 
or  we  are  going  to  hurt  you,  and  we  want  you  to  help  us  to  get  to 
the  point  where  we  can  help  you.  We  want  to  help  you  and  we 
want  to  help  ourselves. 

I  am  interested  ia  the  negro  race ;  I  am  equally  interested  in 
the  white  race  in  this  country.  I  used  to  be  a  hater  of  the  white 
race,  but  I  soon  learned  that  hating  the  white  man  did  not  do  him 
any  harm  and  it  certainly  was  narrowing  up  my  soul  and  making  me 
a  little  bit  of  a  human  being,  and  so  I  said,  "I  will  quit  hating  the 
white  man."  I  want  to  get  the  negro  on  his  feet  for  his  sake  and 
equally  for  your  sake.  I  protest  against  the  lynching  and  against 
burning  of  human  beings  in  the  South,  not  only  because  of  the 
interest  that  I  have  in  my  race,  but  equally  because  I  don't  want 
to  see  any  of  God's  sons  and  daughters  having  their  souls  lowered, 
narrowed,  and  embittered  by  inflicting  unjust  punishment  upon 
any  section  of  the  human  family.  As  I  said,  I  am  interested  in  my 
race,  and  interested  in  your  race.  We  touch  each  other  everywhere ; 
in  the  South,  especially  when  food  is  to  be  prepared,  the  negro 
touches  the  life  of  the  white  man.  When  clothes  are  being 
laundered,  the  negro  touches  the  life  of  the  white  man.  Often  the 
clothes  in  the  South  go  from  the  rich  mansion  to  the  dirty  and 
filthy  hovel  of  the  ignorant  colored  woman  who  has  had  no  oppor- 
tunity to  learn  the  lessons  of  health.  We  are  bound  together  by  ties  we 
cannot  tear  asunder  if  we  would.  In  their  most  tender  years  thou- 
sands and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  little  children  in  the  South 
spend  their  years  in  the  presence  and  in  the  hands  of  colored 
women,  or  rather  colored  girls.  It  is  inunensely  important,  for 
the  sake  of  the  colored  women,  and  equally  important  for  the  sake 
of  the  health,  happiness,  and  upbuilding  of  your  race,  that  that 
colored  woman  or  colored  girl  who  plays  such  an  important  part 
in  the  rearing  of  a  large  portion  of  the  white  people — it  is  mighty 
important  that  she  should  be  intelligent,  that  she  should  be  clean, 

(15) 


418  FIRST    NATIONAT,    CONFERENCK    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

t.liat  slio  slioukl.  tibovc  all  tliin<;-s,  ho  vii'tiioiis.  We  want  you  to  help 
us. 

You  can  help  the  negTo  in  two  ways — by  being  frank  with  him, 
telling  him  about  his  faults,  and  by  praising  him  just  a  little  more. 
The  ne^o  likes  praise.  I  know  him  pretty  well,  and  there  are 
few  races  that  will  improve  so  much  under  the  influence  of  praise 
as  will  my  race.  I  remember  when  I  Avas  a  young  fellow,  just  about 
the  close  of  the  War,  I  had  a  few  dollars.  I  had  said  that  when  I 
got  enough  money  the  first  thing  I  was  going  to  buy  was  a  store 
suit  of  clothes.  So  I  went  straight  to  the  store,  when  I  thought  I  had 
cash  enough.  The  man  in  charge  of  this  store,  when  he  found  I  had 
the  money  and  wanted  to  buy  a  suit  of  clothes,  said  he  had  exactly 
the  suit  of  clothes  I  needed,  bought  for  my  special  benefit.  He 
began  to  describe  the  suit  of  clothes,  and  I  looked  it  over.  He  was 
looking  at  my  pocket  at  the  same  time.  The  first  thing  I  knew  he 
had  the  coat  on.  I  began  to  feel  around  and  the  sleeves  were  about 
six  inches  too  short.  Then  the  waist  band  came  nearly  up  to  my 
neck  so  I  could  not  twist  about  or  move  much.  But  the  storekeeper 
caught  hold  of  the  sleeves  and  began  to  pull  them  down  and  press 
them  and  praise  the  coat.  Then  he  went  around  and  pulled  down 
the  back  part  of  the  coat  and  began  to  praise  that — said  it  was  an 
imported  coat,  bought  for  my  special  benefit.  Before  I  knew  it  I 
thought  it  was  a  pretty  good  coat.  He  got  the  pants  on  me  and  they 
were  about  six  inches  from  my  shoes,  but  he  praised  the  pants, 
pulled  the  legs  down,  patted  them,  and  pulled  them  down  until  I 
thought  it  was  a  pretty  good  pair  of  pants  and  a  pretty  good  suit 
of  clothes.  He  got  my  money  and  I  got  the  suit  of  clothes.  I  went 
home.  The  next  day  Avas  Sunday  and  I  went  to  church.  While  at 
church  a  rain  storm  came  on  and  the  suit  of  clothes  got  wet.  When 
it  dried  out  it  was  about  the  size  of  a  fig  leaf.  Now  it  was  a  pretty 
good  suit  of  clothes,  friends,  so  long  as  it  had  somebody  to  praise 
it.  I  have  found  that  you  can  make  very  often  a  pretty  good  man 
of  an  indifferent  man  by  praising  him  a  little  bit  more.  Whenever 
you  have  an  opportunity,  praise  my  race.  As  you  come  in  contact 
with  them  as  individuals,  or  in  large  numbers — whenever  you  can 
honestly  do  so,  praise  them. 

And,  lastly,  when  you  go  "back  to  your  own  homes,  seek  an  oppor- 
tunity to  actually  get  acquainted  with  my  race.  There  are  a  lot  of 
people  in  this  country  who  know  about  the  negro,  who  hear  about 
him,  who  study  him,  who.  have  examined  him  at  a  distance,  but, 
my  friends,  very  few  people  actually  know  my  race.  If  you  will 
take  the  time  and  the  trouble  to  go  into  their  homes,  to  get  into 
the  life  of  my'people.  to  go  into  their  churches,  into  their  Sunday- 


CITY,    STATE.  AND   NATIONAL    HYGIENE  419 

schools,  in  every  one  of  your  communities,  you  will  find  the  negro 
has  virtues  you  never  dreamed  of.  I  was  in  Sicily  some  years  ago. 
I  had  always  trained  myself  to  hate  the  Sicilians  and  thought  thej^ 
were  the  most  lawless  and  hateful  and  dreaded  people  in  the  world. 
I  went  away  out  into  the  country.  I  went  among  the  peasant  classes 
in  Sicily  and  I  ate  their  food,  lived  in  their  houses,  lived  their  life 
for  a  number  of  days,  and  I  came  back  loving  the  Sicilians  a'nd 
honoring  them  more  than  I  had  ever  loved  and  honored  any  others 
outside  of  my  own  country  before.  I  found  I  had  not  known  the 
Sicilians.  So  when  you  go  back  home  and  find  a  negro,  just  one, 
say  to  yourself,  "I  am  going  to  know  this  individual,  I  am  going 
to  put  my  life  in  touch  Avith  his  life."  I  was  in  a  college  town  a 
few  months  ago  where  there  was  great  interest  in  the  education  of 
the  colored  people  and  after  I  had  spoken  to  the  students,  as  I 
usually  do,  I  said  to  the  college  president,  "Now  I  want  to  go  to 
the  colored  church.  I  want  to  speak  there,"  and  he  turned  up  his 
ears  and  eyes  and  said,  "Well,  where  is  the  colored  church?"  Now 
there  were  seventy-five  colored  people  right  there  in  the  shadow  of 
that  college  and  yet  the  college  president  did  not  know  where  the 
negro  church  was.  So,  my  friends,  every  one  of  you,  in  your  own 
way,  at  your  own  turn,  get  into  the  life  of  the  members  of  my  race. 
And  finally,  let  me  thank  all  of  you,  notwithstanding  the  fault  that 
I  have  seemed  to  find  with  you — let  me  thank  all  of  you  for  what 
you  have  done  in  bringing  about  race  betterment  among  my  race. 
Despite  all  the  faults  of  America,  and  despite  all  the  shortcomings 
of  the  white  men  and  of  the  black  men,  when  we  look  at  this  matter 
in  the  large — not  in  the  little — you  cannot  find  ten  millions  of  ne- 
groes anywhere  in  the  civilized  or  uncivilized  world  who  have  made 
such  tremendous  progress  industrially,  educationally,  morally,  and 
religiously  as  is  true  of  the  ten  millions  of  negroes  in  the  United 
States,  and  a  very  large  proportion  of  that  progress  is  owing  to  the 
fact  that  you  have  been  more  generous  in  helping  forward  my  race 
than  was  ever  true  in  all  the  history  of  the  world  when  one  race  of  a 
different  history,  of  a  different  color,  was  dealing  with  the  members 
of  another  race. 

And  so,  Doctor  Kellogg,  we  thank  you  for  this  opportunity  of 
coming  here  and  getting  this  inspiration,  coming  here  and  getting 
opportunity  to  resolve  again  and  again  that  each  will  go  back  home 
and  do  our  part  in  making  our  races  better,  more  useful,  more 
righteous.  In  doing  that  we  shall  have  to  overlook  the  little  things 
that  will  be  perplexing,  the  short-lived  things  of  life.  I  was  once 
traveling  with  an  old  man  in  South  Carolina.  When  we  got  to  Colum- 
bia, he  went  up  to  the  city  and  stayed  longer  than  he  should.     In 


420  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERF^NXMi:    OX    RACK    BETTERMENT 

order  to  catch  the  last  train  by  which  we  were  traveling,  and  in  his 
haste  to  get  to  the  railroad  station,  he  went  to  the  first  hack  driver 
he  saw  and  said,  "Take  me  to  the  railroad  station  right  away." 
The  first  hack  driver  was  a  white  man.  He  had  never  driven  a 
black  man  in  his  hack.  He  said,  "I  have  never  driven  a  black  man 
in  my  hack."  The  negro  said,  "Boss,  I  have  just  got  to  get  to  the 
railroad  station,  that  is  all.  I  ain't  got  no  time  to  discuss  details." 
Then  he  said,  "Mr.  Whiteman,  I  will  show  you  how  to  fix  it.  Just 
keep  quiet.  You  just  take  the  back  seat  and  do  the  riding  and  I 
will  take  the  front  seat  and  do  the  driving."  Overlooking  per- 
plexities, overlooking  all  these  details,  in  a  few  minutes  the  white 
man  and  the  black  man,  together,  Avere  at  the  railroad  station.  The 
white  man  got  his  quarter  and  the  negro  got  his  train.  Overlooking 
all  these  little  perplexing,  tantalizing,  short-lived  details,  through 
the  leadership  of  this  great  movement,  let  us  go  forward  with  the 
surety  that  every  day  in  the  North  and  in  the  South  and  through- 
out the  country  white  people  and  black  people  together  are  moving 
in  the  direction  of  the  railroad  station. 

Discussion. 

Sanitary  Kitchens 

Hastings  H.  Hart. 
I  have  been  impressed  as  much  as  by  any  other  thing  since  I 
have  been  here  with  the  messages  which  we  have  had  from  Doctor 
Searcy,  of  Alabama.  I  do  not  know  how  far  you  know  the  social 
movement  of  the  South.  The  South  is  awakening  with  extraordi- 
nary force.  In  the  state  of  Virginia  there  is  a  perfectly  splendid 
social  movement  which  has  as  leaders  a  group  of  young  physicians 
who  are  going  ahead  and  are  doing  things  in  the  very  finest  pos- 
sible social  spirit.  The  spirit  of  Tennessee  is  waking  up.  The  Na- 
tional Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction  is  to  meet  in  the  city 
of  Memphis  this  spring  and  throughout  the  state  of  Tennessee  you 
find  a  struggling  and  a  striving  toward  the  best  things.  Even  the 
state  of  Mississippi  is  doing  some  fine  things.  I  was  perfectly 
astonished  to  find  in  the  city  of  Jackson  last  year  the  finest  kitchen 
I  ever  expect  to  see  this  side  of  heaven,  a  sanitary  kitchen  in  the 
school  for  the  deaf.  The  school  superintendent  searched  the  world 
over  for  ideas,  then  built  an  institution  that  may  serve  as  a  model 
for  at  least  the  whole  Southern  country.  Somebody  gave  him  five 
thousand  dollars  and  he  has  established  a  sanitary  kitchen  which 
is  beyond  our  conception.  I  do  not  know^  of  any  sanitarium  or  hotel 
in  the  United  States  that  has  such  a  kitchen  as  that  and  that  is  an 
object  lesson  for  the  whole  TTnited  States. 


CITY,    STATE   AND   NATIONAL    HYGIENE  421 

The  state  of  Alabama  has  been  struggling  with  the  prison  ques- 
tion and  doing  away  with  the  contract  system,  which  was  a  most 
unfortunate  thing.  In  the  state  of  Florida  there  is  an  awakening 
along  the  line  of  children's  work  which  is  magnificent.  The  whole 
state  has  taken  hold  of  the  child  and  is  developing  in  the  state  of 
Florida  ideas  that  are  fine.  I  had  occasion  to  say  to  a  Southern 
audience  some  time  ago  that  the  South  has  the  greatest  possible 
opportunities,  just  as  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota  and  some  of  the 
other  Western  states  have  developed  magnificent  state  institutions 
by  profiting  by  the  experience  of  the  older  states.  Now  the  South 
has  its  opportunity  to  do  the  best  things  that  can  be  done  iii  the 
United  States  because  it  has  the  benefit  of  the  experiments  that 
have  been  carried  out  by  educational  and  philanthropic  institutions 
and  social  settlement  and  by  the  medical  work  of  our  great  Boards 
of  Health  throughout  the  United  States  in  experiments  that  have 
cost  millions  of  dollars.  The  South  can  avail  itself  of  them  by 
simply  going  and  looking  at  them,  and  when  Doctor  Searcy's  prede- 
cessor, Doctor  Price,  built  up  in  Alabama  one  of  the  most  noble  in- 
stitutions for  the  insane  in  the  United  States  and  became  a  leader 
in  that  specialty,  he  did  for  the  South  an  incalculable  good.  When 
he  died,  it  was  in  the  province  of  God  that  such  a  man  was  put  at 
the  head  of  that  institution.  Now  the  South  is  entitled  to  all  the 
help  we  can  give  them.  I  am  going  from  this  place  to  Nashville 
to  spend  a  Aveek,  by  request,  in  lecturing  in  a  very  remarkable 
school,  because  it  is  a  school  where  there  is  established,  side  by  side, 
training  for  the  white  students  and  training  for  the  colored  stu- 
dents and  preparation  for  the  social  and  Christian  work  in  the 
South. 


THE  SOCIAL  PROGRAM 

Luther  H.   Gulick,  M.D.,  Mrs.  Luther  H.   Gulick,  New  York,   N.   Y. 

We  are  in  substantial  ag:reement  as  to  the  steps  that  ought  to  be 
taken  for  race  betterment,  and  we  have  been  for  years,  but  the 
steps  are  not  taken.    What  is  the  matter? 

In  the  first  place,  I  wish  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  the 
program  of  society  is  mainly  either  to  cure  disease  and  evil  or  to 
prevent  it.  I  wish  to  affirm  that  that  is  not  an  adequate  program 
for  society,  any  more  than  to  keep  a  vessel  off  the  rocks  is  an  ade- 
quate set  of  instructions  for  the  commander  of  a  fighting  fleet. 

This  is  the  best  conference  which  has  been  held  on  the  subject 
of  race  betterment,  but  let  me  read  to  you  some  of  the  titles  of 
the  subjects  discussed  at  this  splendid  Conference:  "Apparent  In- 
crease in  Degenerative  Diseases,"  "The  Prevention  of  Arte- 
riosclerosis," "The  Significance  of  a  Declining  Death-Rate,"  "Some 
Efficient  Causes  of  Crime,"  "Sterilization,"  "Hookworm,"  "The 
Deterioration  of  Civilized  Woman,"  "The  Cost  of  High  Living  as 
a  Factor  in  Race  Degeneracy,"  "Factory  Degeneration,"  "The 
Health  Certificate  a  Safeguard  against  Vicious  Selection  in  Mar- 
riage," "Unbiological  Habits,"  "Tobacco  as  a  Race  Poison,"  "Some 
Suggestions  for  a  More  Rational  Solution  of  the  Tuberculosis  Prob- 
lem in  the  United  States,"  "The  Effect  of  Alcohol  on  Longevity," 
"Alcohol:  What  Shall  We  Do  about  it?"  "The  Effect  of  Philan- 
thropy and  Medicine  upon  Race  Progress,"  "The  Function  of  the 
Dentist  in  Race  Betterment,"  "Public  Repression  of  the  Social 
Evil."  I  affirm  that  these  things,  and  consideration  of  these  topics, 
are  necessary,  but  properly  fail  as  a  program  for  society,  and  that 
there  has  not  been  proposed  any  program  for  society  as  yet.  These 
are  mainly  steps  to  prevent  race  degeneration.  We  need  measures 
by  which  we  may  better  the  race.  To  get  a  load  up  a  hill  is  not 
identical  with  keeping  it  from  sliding  down  hill:  one  needs  power; 
the  other  can  be  accomplished  by  blocking  the  wheels. 

I  cannot  better  illustrate  the  stupidity,  the  ignorance,  of  our 
present  method  of  dealing  with  social  questions  than  to  refer  to 
two  specific  questions. 

Take  the  subject  of  dancing.  There  are  no  statistics  on  dancing, 
because  Ave  all  dance.  During  the  last  few  years  there  have  arisen 
in  the  civilized  world  new  forms  of  dancing.  They  have  more  com- 
pletely broken  the  traditions  of  the  past,  concerning  dancing,  than 
has  ever  been  the  case  with  the  traditions  of  any  other  art;  thej^ 
have  completely  shattered  them. 

Apparently  society  has  objected.    During  the  early  stages  of  the 


THE    SOCIAL    PROGRAM  423 

dance  craze,  infatuation,  hypnotism,  movement — whatever  word 
you  please — there  was  practically  unanimous  condemnation  by 
social  workers,  college  presidents,  w^omen's  clubs,  newspapers,  maga- 
zines, the  Queen  of  England,  the  Pope  in  Rome,  and  all  the  rest  of 
us.  It  had  not  one  atom  of  effect  upon  the  progress  of  the  dance. 
That  is,  the  measures  which  we  directed,  in  the  endeavor  either  to 
check  or  to  control  the  flow  of  this  public  desire,  were  completely 
wide  of  the  mark.  We  were  stupid  and  ignorant  of  how  to  control 
dancing. 

As  was  told  us  so  graphically  and  I  think  so  truly  last  night,  there 
is  substantial  agreement  on  the  part  of  all  students  of  psychology 
and  students  of  medicine  and  among  most  all  thinking  men  and 
women  that  alcohol  is  damaging  to  the  individual,  to  the  home, 
and  to  the  race ;  but  seventy  years  of  progressive  warfare  against 
it  have  been  accomplished  with  a  rather  steady  increase  in  its  use. 

I  was  talking  about  constructive  philanthropy  not  very  long 
ago  and  closed  it  by  an  appeal  for  what  I  called  universal  mother- 
hood and  universal  fatherhood,  the  reaching  out  of  every  mother 
and  every  father  to  feel  responsible  that  all  the  children  in  the 
community  should  have  an  opportunity  for  wholesome  living.  The 
distinguished  superintendent  of  schools,  who  was  presiding,  arose 
and  said  he  endorsed  every  word  I  said;  that  he  believed  that  if 
every  father  of  that  community  would  reprove  every  boy  every 
time  he  saw  him  doing  wrong,  the  race  would  be  greatly  benefited. 
Could  anything  better  illustrate  w^rong  method?  For  if  there  is 
anything  that  will  as  surely  damn  every  boy  and  girl,  it  is  to  be 
reproved  every  time  they  make  a  mistake  or  even  do  wrong  de- 
liberatelj'.  We  have  as  yet  developed  practically  no  devices  for 
the  discovery  of  individual  power  or  of  community  power  or  of 
righteousness.  We  have  developed  great  engines  for  the  discovery 
of  weakness. 

We  do  not  succeed  in  the  world  because  we  have  not  diseases,  or 
because  we  have  not  weaknesses.  We  succeed  in  the  world,  and 
are  worth  while  and  significant  in  the  Province  of  God,  in  so  far 
as  we  have  some  power.  Can  this  generation  devise  a  way  of  find- 
ing power? 

Persons  like  ourselves  are  largely  outside  of  the  stream  of  hu- 
man progress.  What  you  and  I  do  and  think  is  interesting,  but  it 
has  as  much  effect  upon  what  the  world  does  as  what  we  said  and 
did  had  upon  how  the  world  danced.  It  is  well  to  remember  that, 
and  that  the  world  is  not  changed  by  "resolutions."  The  age  of 
specialization  is  making  life  stupid.  The  world  will  not  tolerate 
monotony,  but  to  avoid  it  will,  if  more  interesting  ways  are  not 


424  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTIOKMENT 

provided,  drink,  dauce,  smoke  and  chew,  and  take  cocaine  and  go 
on  sprees.     It  will  go  on  the  street,  and  live  in  cities. 

I  speak  now  of  the  voice  of  the  world-spirit.  The  human  soul 
is  not  a  thing  primarily  related  to  food  and  shelter  and  clothing; 
it  is  related  to  aspiration,  and  faith,  and  hope,  and  desire.  The 
thing  that  burns  inside  is  not  to  "never  do"  things.  It  is  for  the 
chance  to  do  where  there  is  adventure,  where  there  is  romance, 
where  there  is  something  going  on.  That  chance  we  are  taking 
away,  and,  so  surely  as  that  chance  is  taken  away  in  one  way,  it 
will  be  taken  in  some  other  way.  Drink  and  all  these  things  are 
surely  destined  to  increase  unless  there  be  ample  opportunity  for 
the  human  spirit  to  reach  out  into  the  world  of  beauty,  into  the 
Avorld  of  romance,  into  the  world  of  idealism.  That  "push  up" 
which  has  made  mankind  is  the  thing  that  makes  life  worth  living. 

I  am  to  speak  of  this  subject  specifically  with  reference  to  girls. 
I  am  to  endeavor  to  present  to  you  an  illustration — not  because 
"^^e  think  that  this  is  any  general  solution  of  these  difficulties,  but 
because  it  is  an  endeavor  of  a  constructive  type — the  organiza- 
tion which  we  know  as  the  Camp  Fire  Girls.  I  have  prepared  a 
brief  statement  of  what  we  are  trying  to  do. 

More  than  one-half  of  all  the  men  and  women — more  than  half 
is  conservative — are  going  to  have  homes  and  are  going  to  have 
children.  In  this,  the  finest  occupation  of  human  kind,  the  most 
Avholesome  women  have  the  responsibility,  the  primary  responsi- 
bility, of  determining  the  character  of  the  home  and  the  character 
of  the  children.  In  view  of  this  fact,  the  first  education  of  all 
women  should  be  that  education  which  fits  them  to  be  good  wives 
and  mothers.  It  is  also  true  in  regard  to  the  other  careers — teach- 
ing, medicine,  nursing,  working  in  stores,  and  the  like.  It  is  also 
true  that  these  careers  into  which  women  are  entering  rest  upon 
those  qualities  which  are  developed  in  connection  with  the  home. 
Hence,  again,  all  education  for  women  should  be  based  upon  the 
idea  of  her  being  a  home-maker,  and  at  least  using  the  qualities 
which  are  developed  by  home-making. 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  educational,  religious,  recreational,  in- 
dustrial, and  many  other  activities  which  used  to  be  carried  out 
under  woman's  control  in  the  home,  are  now  carried  out  in  the 
community,  it  has  become  evident  that  social  affairs,  such  as  gar- 
bage disposal  and  water  supply,  can  no  longer  be  handled  by  homes, 
but  belong  to  the  community.  The  time  is  past  when  each  man  can 
get  clean  water  by  going  out  and  digging  in  his  front  yard.  The 
same  principle  applies  to  social  life,  because  social  life  is  in  the 
school,  in  the  church,  at  the  movies,  on  the  street,  in  many  other 


THE    SOCIAL    PROGRAM 


421 


places  than  in  the  home.  The  same  kind  of  organization  and 
finance  and  business  administration  which  is  demanded  for  a  water 
supply  is  demanded  for  a  social  supply. 

Hence,  while  the  Camp  Fire  Girls  base  their  ideals  and  program 
upon  the  home,  they  see  that  this  ideal  and  program  divinely  in- 
volves the  entire  community.  The  Camp  Fire  Girls,  then,  is  an  or- 
ganization of  girls  and  women  for  the  purpose  of  preparing  for 
and  carrying  on  what  always  has  been  woman's  work,  but  which  now 
involves  the  entire  community — that  is,  the  making  of  the  spirit 
of  the  home  dominant  throughout  the  entire  community.  The  Camp 
Fire  is  a  mode  of  organizing  the  activities  of  every  day  into  a  defi- 
nite, interesting  program,  and  of  revealing  it  as  the  most  romantic 
and  most  desirable  of  anything  there  is  in  life.  It  is  our  aim, 
through  the  use  of  poetry,  through  the  use  of  costume,  through  the 
use  of  design,  through  the  use  of  ritual,  of  business,  of  ceremony, 
to  brush  off  from  the  acts  of  daily  life  those  things  which  prevent 
us  from  seeing  that  they  are  the  things  which  are  the  most  inter- 
esting. 

Now  very  much  against  her  feelings,  I  am  asking  Mrs.  Gulick, 
Hiltini  (for  each  Camp  Fire  Girl  has  a  new  name  which  expresses 
her  ideals),  to  tell  you  something  more  about  this  subject.  I  think 
she  will  forgive  me  if  I  tell  you  what  Ililtiid  means.  It  means  the 
desire  of  accomplishment.    Her  sign  is  three  points  down  this  way: 


I  have  asked  her  to  put  on  her  ceremonial  gown,  which  is  not 
usually  shown  in  public,  and  to  wear  her  honor  beads,  which  belong 
to  her  own  Camp  Fire  circle  only,  and  to  tell  you,  as  she  may,  a 
bit  about  how  romance  is  expressed. 

Mrs.  Luther  H.  Gulick 

Last  evening  a  mother,  who  is  also  a  Guardian  of  a  group  of 
Camp  Fire  Girls,  said  to  me  that  the  movement  was  the  first  one  she 
had  felt  that  she  could  go  into  and  work,  and  at  the  same  time  be 
true  to  her  home.  Some  of  our  strongest  groups  of  Camp  Fire 
Girls  are  conducted  by  mothers  who  have  daughters  of  their  own. 
"We  want  these  mothers  in  the  movement. 


426  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

The  schools,  and  most  organizations  for  girls,  are  taking 
daughters  away  from  the  mothers.  These  organizations  make  things 
center  around  themselves.  In  every  way  possible,  Camp  Fire 
Girls  are  fostering  the  mother-daughter  relation.  And  how  the 
mothers  love  it!  I  want  to  read  you  a  poem  from  a  mother.  We 
are  getting  hundreds  of  poems,  and  many  plays,  which  are  inspired 
by  the  romance  of  this  movement: 

THE  BEADS 

It  was  a  busy  Saturday, 

The  day  of  all  the  week 
When  we  of  doing  what  we  ought 

Grow  weary,  so  to  speak; 
I  faced  the  dinner  dishes,  when 

My  daughter  came  with  speed, 
Saying,  "Mamma,  I'll  do  them  all, 
I  want  to  earn  a  bead." 

Surprised  and  pleased  I  went  upstaii's 

With  dustpan,  brash  and  broom, 
Thinking  I  Avould  her  reward 

By  clearing  up  her  room ; 
She  heard  my  steps  upon  the  floor 

And  of  my  work  took  heed, 
"Please  do  not  touch  my  room,  Mamma, 

Or  I  shall  lose  a  bead." 

That  night  a  sudden  gale  arose. 

So  softly  as  I  could 
I  put  one  of  her  windows  down, 

As  any  mother  would; 
A  sleepy  voice  came  from  the  dark, 

"It  isn't  going  to  rain, 
Both  windows  must  be  opened  wide 

If  I  a  bead  would  gain." 

An  air  of  interest  now  surrounds 

The  most  prosaic  task; 
I  scarcely  dare  my  work  to  do 

Till  I  permission  ask, 
Lest  I  should  make  my  daughter  break 

Some  rule  which  she  should  heed, 
And  so,  though  inadvertently. 

Cause  her  to  lose  a  bead ! 

But  when  her  cord  at  length  is  full. 

Its  varied  tints  will  tell 
Of  patient  effort  day  by  day. 

And  many  tasks  done  well; 
And  as  I  realize  how  time 

Rich  fruitage  brings  from  seeds, 
I  say,  God  bless  the  Camp  Fire  Girls, 

And  their  quaint  chain  of  beads! 


THE    SOCIAL    PROGRAM  427 

Another  mother  sent  us  a  few  days  ago  a  poem  which  she  said 
was  her:  first  attempt  at  writing  in  rhythm.  What  is  beautiful  about 
this  is  that  our  ceremonies,  costumes,  beads  and  desires  are  awaken- 
ing the  imaginations  of  girls  and  mothers,  and  they  are  doing  things 
that  they  had  no  idea  they  could  do.  We  are  looking  for  beauty, 
and  it  is  surprising  how  it  comes  out.  The  "counts,"  the  official 
records  of  meetings,  are  written  in  as  beautiful  a  form  as  possible, 
and  the  girls  are  illustrating  the  good  times  they  have  together. 
They  draw  because  they  have  something  to  draw;  they  write  be- 
cause they  have  something  to  write  about,  and  they  are  encouraged 
in  every  attempt.  It  is  surprising  how  easy  it  is  for  a  girl  to  ex- 
press herself  in  the  Hiawatha  rhythm,  if  you  tell  her  that  she  can. 
The  writing  in  rhythm  makes  her  see  things  that  she  would  not 
otherwnse  see.  She  notices  the  sunsets,  the  birds,  the  shadows,  the 
beauty  in  the  people  about  her. 

Here  is  a  letter  from  a  girl: 

"Camp  Fire  work  has  meant  a  great  deal  to  me.  It  has  made 
me  think  of  things  that  I  would  not  otherwise  have  thought  of. 
For  instance,  it  has  made  me  want  to  do  work  around  the  house 
which  I  used  to  think  myself  too  preoccupied  to  think  of  doing. 
Of  course  I  did  such  things  as  make  my  bed,  put  my  room  in  order, 
make  cakes,  cook,  sew,  wash  and  iron,  but  when  I  did  them  to  win 
honors,  I  began  to  find  out  that  I  liked  to  do  them  and  did  them 
afterward  because  I  wanted  to. 

"Then  again  I  was  never  very  much  interested  in  facts  con- 
cerning my  health.  Always  having  had  good  health,  I  had  noth- 
ing to  remind  me  of  little  and  sometimes  big  things  which  might 
prove  injurious,  for  mother  always  took  care  of  my  health  for  me 
and  when  I  wasn't  with  mother  any  more,  I  left  my  health  to  take 
care  of  itself,  but  Camp  Fire  has  taught  me  why  I  should  think 
seriously  of  these  things  and  try  to  hold  on  to  the  good  health  God 
gave  me.  .'>'fvj 

"Camp  Fire  has  given  me  many  happy  evenings.  One  thiiig 
that  I  dearly  love  is  for  a  'bunch'  of  girls  to  get  together  and 
laugh,  talk  and  have  a  .ioUy  good  time.  I  love  all  kinds  of  out- 
door sports  and  I  love  Camp  Fire  because  it  approves  of  all  the 
things  I  love  and  assures  me  that  a  girl  has  a  perfect  right  to  ancl 
in  fact  should  care  for  such  things." 

Another  girl  vrrites : 

"I  have  become  acquainted  with  a  number  of  very  nice  girls 
because  when  they  see  I  am  a  Camp  Fire  Girl  (which  they  see  by 


428  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

my  ring),  they  begin  to  talk  to  me  and  we  soon  are  carrying  on  a 
very  interesting  conversation  about  our  respective  Camp  Fires.'' 

I  can't  tell  you  much  in  the  few  minutes  I  have.  Much  of  the 
work  of  the  Camp  Fire  Girls  is  difficult  to  put  into  words.  It  is  a 
viewpoint,  a  spirit.  Some  of  the  things  that  are  happening  can 
be  described,  but  the  spirit  that  is  binding  girls  closer  to  their 
mothers  and  older  girls  to  little  girls  through  the  new  organiza- 
tion of  the  Blue  Birds  is  not  on  paper.  There  is  a  most  beautiful 
story  to  be  told  sometime  about  this  part  of  our  work  which  has 
only  begun.  How  the  little  girls  love  the  attention  of  their  older 
sisters  or  their  sisters'  friend!  Think  of  all  that  may  grow  out  of 
that  relation!  Older  sisters  like  the  excuse  of  helping  to  dress 
dolls,  for  are  they  not  going  to  have  to  dress  their  own  little  chil- 
dren in  the  near  future !  Girls  love  it  and  there  is  every  reason  in 
the  world  why  they  should  love  it,  only  we  do  not  give  them  half 
a  chance. 

Dr.  Luther  H.  Gulick 

I  wish  to  close  with  another  illustration  of  a  positive  program. 
During  my  own  college  days  I  made  the  usual  number  of  good  reso- 
lutions and  broke  them.  I  would  resolve  to  take  exercise  every 
day,  then  days  would  come  when  I  could  not.  I  resolved  to  do  so 
much  good  reading  every  day,  then  days  would  come  when  I  could 
not,  and  finally  I  give  up  making  good  resolutions,  realizing — 
and  it  is  a  very  bad  thing  to  realize  it,  whether  it  is  true  or  not — 
that  I  was  a  moral  weakling.  Now  the  trouble  with  my  resolutions 
was  that  they  were  based  on  a  twenty-four-hour  program.  We 
cannot  live  on  a  twenty-four-hour  day.  We  can  live  on  a  week's 
program. 

Now  this  program  which  is  announced  tonight  for  the  first  time 
publicly,  although  it  has  been  in  print,  is  called  the  "  straight-on " 
program.  It  is  a  device  to  enlist  custom  and  attention  in  favor  of 
the  things  that  you  and  I  have  believed  in  since  we  were  children, 
but  which  have  never  been  put  together  as  a  definite  program  be- 
fore— the  kind  of  custom  that  makes  us  men  wear  our  hair  short 
or  relatively  short  and  you  women  Avear  it  long.  Those  are  the 
forces  I  am  talking  about.  I  am  not  talking  about  conventions  or 
resolutions.  It  is  called  the  "straight-on"  program.  It  is  for  per- 
sons eighteen  and  over.  A  "straight-on"  is  a  person  who  keeps 
his  body,  mind,  and  heart  fit  for  their  most  splendid  work  by  living 
straight-on.  A  straight-on  refuses  to  be  diverted  from  the  main 
business   of  life   by   opportunity   or  temptations.     Opportunity   is 


THE    SOCIAL    PROGRAM  429 

sometimes  even  worse  than  temptation.  A  straight-on  refuses  to 
undertake  more  than  her  time  and  strength  allow,  for  she  sees  that 
this  is  foolish  and  short-sighted.  She  goes  straight  on,  quietly, 
graciously,  steadily,  but  always  straight-on.  The  pin  is  to  be  a 
little  half-inch  bar  of  gold  which  may  be  worn  here  on  the  left 
breast  when  one  has  lived  the  "straight-on"  program  for  one 
month.  It  may  be  taken  off  any  moment.  Then  you  are  free.  But 
it  cannot  be  put  on  again  until  you  have  lived  it  a  month — and 
you  are  the  only  judge.  There  is  no  promise,  or  oath,  or  resolu- 
tion. This  particular  thing  is  a  device  for  standardizing,  and  mak- 
ing practical,  ideal  resolutions. 

The  program  is  as  follows.  It  is  divided  into  three  parts :  Physi- 
cal, mental,  and  spiritual. 

PHYSICAL :  Sleep  not  less  than  sixty  hours  per  week.  Now  if 
you  want  to  sit  up,  or  stand  up,  or  waltz  up,  at  a  dance  till  two  or 
three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  all  right,  do  it,  but  pay  up.  If  there 
is  sickness  in  your  family  and  you  ought  to  stay  up  at  night,  get 
up,  but  pay  up,  too :  for  that  is  required  as  much  as  the  other.  The 
person  who  does  not  know  enough  to  pay  his  debts  has  no  right 
to  go  on.  Sleep  sixty  hours  per  week  as  a  minimum.  Many  need 
more  than  seven  hours  of  outdoor  exercise  each  week.  Some  days 
you  cannot  pay  up.  That  counts.  Walk  to  your  work,  to  school 
and  home  a^ain.  The  great  majority  of  us  who  lead  sedentary  lives 
do  not  average  one  hour  per  day  of  outdoor  exercise.  Those  two 
things  alone  will  alter  the  lives  of  most  of  the  people  in  most  com- 
munities. Eat  between  meals  only  when  it  is  socially  necessary, 
and  then  as  sparingly  as  possible. 

This  aims  to  be  a  practical  program,  not  one  of  these  theoretical 
things  you  can  defend  with  eloquence  but  cannot  really  live  up  to. 
You  can  live  up  to  that.  Keep  clean  inside  and  outside.  Do  it 
regularly  and  thoroughly.  Ideas  spread  curiously.  In  business, 
in  school,  on  the  street,  dress  as  quietly  and  simply  as  custom  per- 
mits. At  other  times,  make  it  a  point  to  add  the  charm  of  form 
and  color  to  social  life.  That  is  all  there  is  under  the  head  of  physi- 
cal.  That  is  practical,  isn't  it?   Isn't  it  more  than  some  of  you  do? 

MENTAL:  Read,  own  and  reread  each  year  not  less  than  three 
strong  books  having  thought  new  to  you,  not  fiction  or  poetry — 
not  that  fiction  and  poetry  do  not  have  their  place,  but  they  belong 
in  another  place.  Most  people,  as  James  says,  "stop  thinking  before 
they  are  thirty."  No  new  social  enterprise  was  ever  carried  through 
by  the  change  of  public  opinion  in  people  who  are  middle  aged. 
There  was  practically  not  one  prominent  Englishman  of  science  over, 
forty  who  publicly  acceded  to  Darwin's  position.     It  involved  too 


430  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

great  a  mental  adjustment.  He  had  to  wait  for  a  generation.  The 
reason  the  Camp  Fire  Girls  begin  with  girls,  instead  of  with  you, 
is  because  girls  are  more  susceptible  of  new  ideals  than  we  are.  To 
read  three  new  books  each  year  means  permanently  keeping  out 
of  intellectual  ruts.  Carry  on  some  course  of  study  by  mail  or 
otherwise,  a  course  of  lectures  or  anything  that  means  going  on, 
going  on,  going  on.  There  is  no  physiological  or  psychological 
reason  for  stoppage  of  growths. 

SPIRITUAL:  Be  alone  and  think  out  your  own  ideals  toward 
progress  at  least  for  four  fifteen-minute  periods  a  week.  How  fares 
it  with  you,  your  ideals  for  the  expression  of  affection  in  your  own 
home,  your  own  brothers  and  sisters,  your  schoolmates?  How  about 
that  old  misunderstanding?  Is  there  some  way  of  cleaning  it  up? 
Be  alone,  face  to  face  with  your  own  soul,  fifteen  minutes  four  times 
a  week.  Get  acquainted  with  some  great  poetical  message  each 
year. 

That  is  the  "straight-on"  program.  And  I  want  to  give  a  guess 
that  there  are  going  to  be  tens  of  thousands  of  young  people  who 
will  say,  "That  is  what  I  want  to  dp."  And  I  think  that  is  what 
this  Conference  desires  to  do,  to  propose  definite,  concrete  subjects 
of  a  practical  kind  by  which  people  may  attain  these  large  results 
towards  which  we  aim. 

We  have  learned  to  take  the  genius  of  an  Edison  and  organize 
great  corporations.  The  telephone  and  the  telegraph  form  a  net- 
work over  the  entire  world.  The  genius  of  the  one  man  influences 
the  lives  of  all  civilized  beings.  We  have  learned  how  to  develop 
and  use  the  genius  in  the  world  of  physics,  in  the  world  of  chem- 
istry, in  architecture.  Can  we  devise  a  social  instrument  by  which 
human  combination  shall  be  brought  about  so  that  ideals  of  beauty 
and  romance  and  adventure  shall  be  given  opportunity  in  lines  that 
make  for  wholesomeness  of  human  living?  That  is  the  spiritual 
again.  '  We  can  get  on  with  our  diseases,  we  can  get  on  with  our 
degenerates,  we  can  survive  with  some  insanity;  but  we  cannot 
survive  without  an  opportunity  for  the  human  spirit  to  reach  out 
into  lines  that  are  good  and  wholesome.  "Man  shall  not  live  by  bread 
alone." 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION 

NEEDED — A  NEW  HUMAN  BACE 

J.    H.   Kellogg,    LL.D.,    M.D.,    Superintendent    Battle    Creek    Sanitarium^ 
Battle  Creek,  Michigan. 

We  have  wonderful  new  races  of  horses,  cows,  and  pigs.  Why 
should  we  not  have  a  new  and  improved  race  of  men? 

When  Boston  Blue  trotted  a  mile  in  three  minutes  and  won  a 
prize  of  $1,000  in  1818,  the  world  was  more  surprised  than  when 
Lou  Dillon  made  a  mile  in  two  minutes  at  Readville  in  1903.  A 
century  of  breeding  and  training  added  fifty  per  cent  to  the  effi- 
ciency of  the  trotting  horse.  During  this  same  century  the  appli- 
cation of  the  laws  of  eugenics  and  euthenics  to  animal  breeding 
has  produced  many  varieties  of  thoroughbred  livestock  which,  in 
some  cases,  are  possessed  of  such  superior  and  remarkable  char- 
acteristics as  to  virtually  constitute  new  species.  This  has  been 
accomplished  by  breeding  out  defects  and  supplying  through  suc- 
cessive generations  environmental  conditions  the  most  favorable 
possible  for  the  development  of  desirable  characteristics. 

A  new  species  of  milch  cow  has  been  produced  which  shows  a 
continuous  record  for  seven  days  of  more  than  three  pounds  of  fat 
per  day. 

A  new  species  of  hen  has  been  developed  which  lays  300  eggs  a 
year.  Every  animal  which  man  has  gathered  from  the  forest  and 
the  plain  and  domesticated,  he  has  improved  until  they  are  more 
efficient  and  in  every  way  finer  than  their  wild  ancestors. 

By  the  application  of  the  same  principles  to  the  vegetable  world, 
even  more  marvelous  results  have  been  produced.  From  the  little 
sour  wild  apple  has  been  developed  the  hundreds  of  varieties  of 
delicious  apples  which  load  our  orchards  every  autumn.  New  spe- 
cies of  wheat  and  corn  have  been  created  which  produce  double 
crops,  that  are  able  to  thrive  in  deserts.  The  little  tasteless  watery 
tuber  found  in  the  Andes  has  been  transformed  into  the  wonderful 
potato,  which  gives  us  our  most  important  vegetable  crop.  Insignifi- 
cant desert  weeds,  by  the  magic  hand  of  a  Burbank,  have  become 
the  floral  marvels  of  our  greenhouses  and  parks.  The  United  States 
Agricultural  Department  has  just  announced  the  perfection  of  a 
blueberry  nearly  three-quarters  of  an  inch  in  diameter,  which  may 
be  cultivated  the  same  as  any  other  garden  fru-it. 

Man  has  improved  every  useful  creature  and  every  useful  plant 


432  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

with  which  he  has  come  in  contact — with  the  exception  of  his  own 
species. 

The  attitude  of  the  average  man  toward  the  question  of  human 
eugenics  is  well  illustrated  by  the  story  told  of  a  New  York  mer- 
chant, who  had  four  full-blooded  dogs  and  two  young  sons.  A 
friend,  observing  that  he  employed  a  tutor  for  his  boys  while  he 
cared  for  his  dogs  himself,  said  to  him  one  day: 

"Mr.  Smith,  why  do  you  give  your  personal  attention  to  your 
dogs  and  turn  your  boys  over  to  a  tutor?" 

"Oh,"  said  the  merchant,  "my  dogs  have  a  pedigree." 

To  one  who  has  not  given  this  matter  special  thought,  the  idea 
x)f  a  new  human  race  will  probably  seem  absurd,  almost  ridiculous. 
Isn't  the  genus  homo  the  finest  thing  on  earth,  and  isn't  the  race 
making  marvelous  progress  every  year?  Why  talk  about  a  new 
race  when  the  average  length^of  human  life  has  doubled  within  two 
centuries,  and  when  greater  progress  in  the  arts  and  sciences  has 
been  made  within  a  century  than  in  all  the  previous  centuries  of 
human  history? 

Unfortunately,  a  careful  examination  of  the  evidences  of  human 
progress  discloses  the  fact  that  the  upward  trend  relates  exclusively 
to  art,  science,  ethics,  and  other  matters  pertaining  to  the  intellec- 
tual and  social  life  of  the  race. 

The  idea  that  the  human  race  is  degenerating  is  very  naturally 
highly  unpopular.  Racial  and  national  pride  naturally  lead  us  to 
believe  that  the  race  is,  in  every  way,  advancing  and  improving. 
The  evidences  of  improvement  through  discovery,  invention,  and 
especially  the  accumulative  knowledge  and'  experience  of  all  past 
generations,  are  so  numerous  and  striking  that  we  naturally  con- 
clude that  the  progress,  which  is  so  apparent  in  many  directions,  is 
equally  great  in  all. 

The  fact  that  the  average  length  of  human  life  has  more  than 
doubled  in  the  last  two  hundred  years  has  been  accepted  as  con-, 
elusive  evidence  that  the  vital  stamina  of  the  race  is  improving- — 
that  longevity  is  increasing. 

Notwithstanding  this  apparent  progress,  for  nearly  half  a  cen- 
tury the  suspicion  has  been  creeping  into  the  minds  of  thinking 
men  that,  after  all,  the  human  species  may  not  be  making  such 
real  and  permanent  progress  as  might  be  supposed.  As  long  ago  as 
1892,  Prof.    Ray  Lankaster  wrote : 

"The  traditional  history  of  mankind  furnishes  us  with  notable 
examples  of  degeneration.  High  states  of  civilization  have  decayed 
and  given  place  to  low  and  degenerate  states.  At  one  time  it  was 
a  favorite  doctrine  that  the  savages  were  degenerate  descendants 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  433 

of  the  higher  and  civilized  races.  This  general  and  sweeping  appli- 
cation of  the  doctrine  of  degeneration  has  been  proved  to  be  errone- 
■  ous  by  careful  study  of  the  habits,  arts,  and  beliefs  of  savages ;  at 
the  same  time  there  is  no  doubt  that  many  savage  races,  as  we  at 
present  see  them,  are  actually  degenerate  and  descended  from  an- 
cestors possessed  of  a  relatively  elaborate  civilization.  As  such 
we  may  cite  some  of  the  Indians  of  Central  America,  the  modern 
Egyptians,  and  even  the  heirs  of  the  great  oriental  monarchies  of 
pre-Christian  times.  While  the  hypothesis  of  universal  degenera- 
tion as  an  explanation  of  savage  races  has  been  justly  discarded, 
it  yet  appears  that  degeneration  has  a  very  large  share  in  the  ex- 
planation of  the  condition  of  the  most  barbarous  races,  such  as  the 
Fuegians.  the  Bushmen,  and  even  the  Australians.  They  exhibit 
evidence  of  being  descended  from  ancestors  more  cultivated  than 
themselves. 

"With  regard  to  ourselves,  the  white  races  of  Europe,  the  pos- 
sibility of  degeneration  seems  to  be  worth  some  consideration.  In 
accordance  with  a  tacit  assumption  of  universal  progress — an  un- 
reasoning optimism — we  are  accustomed  to  regard  ourselves  as  nec- 
essarily progressing,  as  necessarily  having  arrived  at  a  higher  and 
more  elaborated  condition  than  that  which  our  ancestors  reached, 
and  as  destined  to  progress  still  further.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is 
well  to  remember  that  we  are  subject  to  the  general  laws  of  evolu- 
tion, and  are  as  likely  to  degenerate  as  to  progress.  As  compared 
with  the  immediate  forefathers  of  our  civilization — the  ancient 
Greeks — we  do  not  appear  to  have  improved  so  far  as  our  bodily 
structure  is  concerned,  nor  assuredly  so  far  as  some  of  our  mental 
capacities  are  concerned.  Our  powers  of  perceiving  and  express- 
ing beauty  of  form  have  certainly  not  increased  since  the  days  of 
the  Parthenon  and  Aphrodite  of  Helos.  In  matters  of  the  reason, 
in  the  development  of  intellect,  we  may  seriously  inquire  how  the 
case  stands.  Does  the  reason  of  the  average  man  of  civilized  Europe 
stand  out  clearly  as  an*  evidence  of  progress  when  compared  with 
that  of  the  man  of  the  by-gone  age?  Are  all  the  inventions  and 
figments  of  human  superstition  and  folly  the  self-inflicted  torturinir 
of  mind,  the  reiterated  substitution  of  wrong  for  right  and  of  false- 
hood for  truth,  which  disfigure  our  modern  civilization — are  these 
evidences  of  progress? 

"In  such  respects  we  have  at  least  reason  to  fear  that  we  may  be 
degenerate.  It  is  possible  for  us — just  as  the  Ascidian  throws  away 
its  tail  and  its  eye,  and  sinks  into  a  quiescent  state  of  inferiority — 
to  reject  the  good  gift  of  reason  with  which  every  child  is  born,  and 
to  degenerate  into  a  contented  life  of  material  enjoyment  accom- 


434  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE   BETTERMENT 

panied  by  ignorance  and  superstition.  The  unprejudiced,  all  (luestion- 
ing  spirit  of  childhood  may  not  inaptly  be  compared  to  the  tadpole 
tail  and  eye  of  the  young  Ascidian :  we  have  to  fear  lest  the  preju- " 
dices,  preoccupation  and  dogmatism  of  modern  civilization  should 
in  any  way  lead  to  the  atrophy  and  loss  of  valuable  mental 
(jualities  inherited  by  our  young  forms  from  primeval  man. 

''There  is  only  one  means  of  estimating  our  position,  only  one 
means  of  so  shaping  our  conduct  that  we  may  with  certainty  avoid 
degeneration  and  keep  an  onward  course.  We  are  as  a  race  more 
fortunate  than  our  ruined  cousins — the  degenerate  Ascidians.  For 
us  it  is  possible  to  ascertain  what  will  conduce  to  our  higher  de- 
velopment, what  will  favor  our  degeneration.  To  us  has  been 
given  the  power  'to  Imow  the  cause  of  things,'  and  by  the  use  of 
this  power  it  is  possible  for  us  to  control  our  destinies.  It  is  for  us 
by  ceaseless  and  ever  hopeful  labor  to  try  to  gain  a  knowledge  of 
man's  place  in  the  order  of  nature.  When  we  have  gained  this  fully 
and  minutely,  we  shall  be  able  by  the  light  of  the  past  to  guide  our- 
selves in  the  future. ' ' 

Scores  of  others  have  seriously  raised  this  question  of  race  de- 
generacy. In  a  recent  able  work  entitled, ' '  Is  Mankind  Advancing  ? ' ' 
Mrs.  John  Martin  strongly  discounts  our  boasted  progress.  Indeed, 
she  offers  ver^'  strong  proof  that  we  are  rapidly  drifting  in  the  op- 
posite direction.  She  declares:  "We  have  lost  our  way.  Men  are 
headed  ape-ward  quite  as  frequently  as  angel-ward.  Time  runs  an 
elevator  which  goes  both  ways,  down  as  well  as  up." 

Then  this  able  writer  draws  the  following  impressive  picture: 

"Looking  back  along  the  line  of  history,  we  can  see  that  we 
(Mankind)  have  been  traveling  a  long,  long  road  whose  winding 
way,  rising  and  falling  century  after  century,  we  can  trace  back 
for  a  few  thousand  years  until  it  enters  a  trackless  desert  and  fades 
utterly  from  our  view  in  the  mists  of  antiquity.  Immediately  be- 
hind the  spot  where  we  now  stand  there  seems  to  lie  a  downward 
slope,  that  is  to  say,  we  seem  to  have  been  ascending  since  the  eigh- 
teenth, the  seventeenth,  yes,  part  of  the  sixteenth  centuries.  But 
the  Elizabethan  era  and  the  period  of  the  Renaissance  in  Italy  do 
not  lie  below  us.  Life  was  very  full  and  splendid  then;  man  had 
climbed  to  a  higher  point  of  outlook  than  that  upon  which  we  now 
act  out  our  little  day.  Behind  those  centuries  the  way  becomes  ob- 
scure ;  it  seems  to  pass  through  deep  and  silent  forests,  over  dim, 
somnolent  plains,  in  shadowy  twilights  and  through  deserted  wastes, 
until  it  falls  away  into  a  wide,  cold  swamp,  noisome,  dark,  terrible, 
abounding  in  reptiles  and  the  horrid  monsters  of  sick  dreams.  Be- 
yond this  deathbound  stillness  of  the  Dark  Ages,  the  road  ascends 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  435 

again  into  the  upper  air.  Birds  are  singing,  the  sunlight  touches 
the  grain  fields;  the  bustle  of  human  life  appears,  troops  of  soldiery 
in  glittering  armor,  citizens  in  gorgeous  raiment,  all  the  pomp  and 
pageantry  of  the  triumphant  Roman  Empire.  Behind  Rome  the 
road  drops  away  again  suddenly,  a  deep  sharp  drop  into  a  valley, 
beyond  which  it  begins  to  rise  once  more  and,  becoming  steeper 
and  steeper,  it  lifts  our  gaze  to  the  very  mountain  top,  where  among 
the  clouds  against  the  deep  blue  sky,  swept  by  fresh  breezes,  en- 
throned amid  snow-white  temples,  gleaming  in  the  golden  sunshine, 
Greek  civilization  sits  upon  the  pinnacle  of  human  greatness." 

It  has  been  suggested  that  the  real  mental  status  of  a  people  or 
a  generation  may  be  judged  by  the  proportion  of  men  of  genius  pro- 
duced by  it.  An  examination  of  twenty-seven  names  of  men  of 
transcendent  genius,  universally  recognized  as  such,  and  represent- 
ing all  nations  and  all  time,  has  shown,  states  Mrs.  Martin,  that 
eleven  were  produced  by  one  small  district.  Ten  of  them  were 
brought  forth  by  one  small  city  about  the  size  of  Fall  River,  Mass., 
or  Paterson,  N.  J.  ' '  The  little  city  of  Athens  produced  in  a  few  years 
more  men  of  consummate  genius  than  did  all  the  millions  of  in- 
habitants of  China,  Arabia,  India,  Palestine,  Rome,  Carthage,  and 
all  of  Europe  breeding  for  two  thousand  years!"  In  the  face  of  such 
facts  can  we  feel  altogether  confident  that  the  race  is  gaining  in 
mental  fitness  and  capacity? 

Within  the  last  ten  years  numerous  scientific  men  of  world-wide 
renown  have  given  thought  to  this  question  and  have  uttered  warn- 
ings of  unmistakable  import. 

Dr.  Mayer,  of  the  Marine  Biological  I^aboratory  of  Tortuga,  in  a 
biographical  sketch  of  the  late  Prof.  Alpheus  Hyatt,  of  Boston 
University,  one  of  the  leading  biologists  of  this  country,  calls  atten- 
tion to  the  view  held  by  this  distinguished  scientist — that  the  race, 
like  the  individual,  has  only  a  limited  store  of  vitality  and  that  both 
must  develop,  progress,  decline  and  die  in  obedience  to  one  and  the 
same  law.  Thus  the  growth-stages  of  the  individual  aetualh'  re- 
semble the  stages  in  the  evolution  of  the  race  to  which  it  belongs;  as 
he  puts  it,  "the  cycle  of  ontogeny  is  an  individual  expression  and 
abbreviated  recapitulation  of  the  cycle  that  occurs  in  the  phylogeny 
of  the  same  stock."  "Phylogeny,  like  ontogeny,  is  first  progressive 
and  thus  attains  an  acme  of  progress."  This  acme  is  followed,  how- 
ever, by  a  stage  of  "retrogression  ending  in  extinction." 

He  also  believed  in  the  inheritance  of  acquired  characters,  and 
held  that  the  organism  is  plastic  and  irritable  and  responds  to  ex- 
ternal stimuli  by  internal  reactions  which  manifest  theimselves  as 
hereditary  modifications  of  structure.     It  is  interesting  to  see  that 


436  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

the  recent  researches  of  Tower  and  MacDougal  have  shown  that 
artificially  produced  changes  in  the  environment  may  affect  the 
germ-cells  and  produce  hereditary  modification  of  structure. 

Hyatt  believed  that  he  demonstrated  through  his  researches  in 
fossil  shells  that  acquired  characters  may  become  hereditary.  Con- 
cerning one  feature  to  which  Professor  Hyatt  called  attention,  Doc- 
tor Mayer  remarks : 

"It  is  hard  to  escape  the  conclusion  that  this  is  actually  an  ac- 
quired character  which  becomes  hereditary,  and  finally  appears  at 
a  stage  earlier  than  that  in  which  it  first  developed.  Indeed,  it  is 
one  of  the  classic  instances  of  an  acquired  character,  and  one  of 
the  best  established  cases  of  this  sort  in  the  whole  field  of  zoology." 

The  view  of  Professor  Hyatt,  without  some  modification,  is  in- 
deed pessimistic.  It  leaves  no  possible  room  to  escape  physical  de- 
generacy and  race  extinction.  The  race  of  man  must  become  ex- 
tinct as  have  already  most  of  the  races  of  higher  vertebrates  who 
were  the  contemporaries  of  man  in  the  Cave-dwelling  period.  The 
only  escape  from  this  dismal  end  must  be  found  in  a  recognition  of 
the  danger  and  a  race-wide  struggle  against  race  enemies.  Through 
his  intelligence  man  has  subdued  many  of  the  great  forces  of  na- 
ture, tamed  and  harnessed  them,  and  made  them  useful  servants. 
Thus  he  is  able  to  escape  the  natural  operation  of  physical  law,  to 
defy  gravitation,  to  soar  in  the  heavens  like  a  bird,  to  dodge  the 
terrors  of  the  thunderbolt  and  make  it  pull  trains  and  propel  ships. 
Likewise,  by  an  equally  intimate  study  of  the  laws  of  eugenics  and 
euthenies,  and  by  a  whole-hearted  effort  to  conform  himself  to  the 
biologic  laws  which  govern  his  being,  man  may  escape  the  destruc- 
tive influences  wiiich  have  exterminated  other  races  of  animals,  and 
which  w^ith  equal  certainty  will  destroy  man  unless  he  intelligently 
and  persistently  combats  the  exterminating  cosmic  forces  to  which 
every  living  creature  is  amenable. 

That  the  human  race  is  actually  degenerating,  at  least  in  spots, 
can  no  longer  be  doubted.  The  late  Sir  Alfred  Wallace  maintained 
that  the  race  has  not  improved  either  mentally  or  morally  since 
old  Egyptian  times.  He  insisted,  in  fact,  that  considering  our  possi- 
bilities and  our  opportunities,  we  are  worse  morally  than  were  the 
Egyptians  or  any  other  people  who  lived  before  us. 

Mr.  Charles  H.  Ward,  in  a  paper  read  at  the  thirty-seventh  an- 
nual session  of  the  American  Dental  Association,  concludes  that  the 
tooth-brush  has  not  become  a  necessity  because  of  the  special  de- 
velopment of  the  human  teeth,  but  is  required  because  man's  teeth 
are  old-fashioned,  really  out  of  date,  and  on  the  road  to  degeneracy. 

"That  a  retrograde  evolution  or  degeneration  of  these  organs  is 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  -437 

at  work  in  man  is  apparent  to  the  student  of  physical  anthropology. 
To  him  each  upward  stride  of  civilization,  of  ethnic  superiority,  is 
associated  with  indubitable  evidences  of  structural  inferiority;  so 
that  the  evolutionist's  prophetic  vision  of  the  'coming  man'  as  a 
bespectacled,  bald-headed,  and  edentulous  individual  of  infantile 
proportions  but  preternatural  intelligence,  appeals  to  him  as  a  not 
impossible  result  of  modern  life." 

Scott  Nearing,  Professor  of  Economics  in  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania,  in  the  Popular  Science  Monthly  for  January,  1911, 
showed  that  the  native-born  population  of  the  United  States  in  the 
year  1800  was  doubling  itself  by  natural  increase  every  twenty-five 
years.  A  continuation  of  this  ratio  Avould  have  made  the  native- 
born  population  in  1900  about  100,000,000.  The  same  rate  of  increase 
continued  would  have  made  a  population  of  800,000,000  by  the  year 
2000  A.  D.,  and  by  the  year  2100  A.  D.,  the  native-born  population 
of  the  Umited  States,  by  natural  increase,  would  have,  reached  the 
number  12,800,000,000.  The  native-born  population  in  1900,  instead 
of  being  100,000,000,  was  only  41,000,000.  An  examination  of  the 
census  figures  from  decade  to  decade  shows  a  steady  decline  in  the 
rate  of  increase  of  the  native  population  until,  during  the  last 
decade  of  the  century,  the  native  population  of  the  United  States 
increased  only  18  per  cent.  It  has  been  suggested  that  at  the  pres- 
ent rate  of  decrease  the  birth-rate  will  become  zero  within  a  cen- 
tury and  babies  cease  to  be  born. 

Sir  Ray  Lankaster,  in  the  London  Telegraph,  states : 
"Civilized  mankind  appears  to  be  very  nearly  completely  in  a 
condition  of  'cessation  of  selection.'  It  is  the  better-provided  and 
well-fed,  well-clothed,  protected  classes  of  the  community  in 
which  the  cessation  of  selection  is  most  complete.  Racial  degenera- 
tion is,  therefore,  to  be  looked  for  in  those  classes  quite  as  much, 
as  in  the  half-starved,  ill-clad,  struggling  poor,  if,  indeed,  it  should 
be  expected  to  be  more  strongly  marked  in  them.  These  are  facts 
which  tend  to  show  that  such  anticipations  are  well  foimded. 

"Meanwhile,  it  seems  that  the  unregulated  increase  of  the  popu- 
lation, the  indiscriminate,  unquestioning  protection  of  infant  life 
and  of  adult  life  also — without  selection  or  limitation — must  lead 
to  results  which  can  only  be  described^  as  general  degeneration. 
How  far  such  a  conclusion  is  justified,  and  what  are  the  possible 
modifying  or  counteracting  influences  at  work  which  may  affect 
the  future  of  mankind,  are  questions  of  surpassing  interest.  In  any 
case,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  cessation  of  selection  is  more 
complete,  and  the  consequent  degeneration  of  the  race  would,  there- 


438  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

fore,  seem  to  be  more  probable  in  tlie  hiylier  propertied  classes  than 
ill  the  barefooted  toilers." 

Prof.  Karl  Pearson,  Superintendent  of  the  Galton  Labora- 
tory, according  to  the  London  Standard,  utters  a  grave  warning  to 
the  effect  that  population  in  civilized  countries  is  recruited  far 
more  extensively  than  formerl.y  from  the  less  fit  elements  of  the 
community.  The  world  can  be  rescued  from  the  control  of  the 
decadent  (physically,  morally,  mentally)  only  by  rigid  applica- 
tion of  the  principles  of  eugenics.  It  is  objected  by  opponents  of 
the  theories  of  Galton  that  love  can  never  be  based  upon  a  scientific 
promise.  Hence  the  eugenic  marriage  is  not  practical.  To  this 
Prof.  Karl  Pearson  replied  in  the  words  of  the  late  Sir  Fran- 
cis Galton  that  it  is  possible  to  give  to  the  eugenic  ideal  the  force 
and  intensity  of  a  religious  idea. 

Doctor  Tredgold,  an  eminent  English  authority,  writing  on 
eugenics  in  the  Juty,  1912.  Quarterly  Review,  presents  a  number  of 
new  and  convincing  facts  showing  an  unquestionable  trend  of  the 
English  race  toward  race  degeneracy. 

First  of  all,  Professor  Tredgold  considers  the  notable  decline  in 
the  death  rate  within  the  last  half  century  and  its  relation  to  the 
question  of  race  decadence.  In  1865  the  death  rate  per  thousand 
persons  in  England  and  Wales  was  21.4  In  1911  the  death  rate 
was  only  two-thirds  as  great,  or  14.6.  Statistics  show  that  there 
has  been  in  England  a  decline  in  the  death  rate  in  all  ages  under 
55.  Notwithstanding  this,  says  Professor  Tredgold,  "it  would  be 
extremely  fallacious  to  conclude  that  a  diminished  death  rate  is 
any  indication  of  an  increased  power  of  resistance  to  disease  and 
an  improvement  in  the  inherent  vitality  of  a  people." 

The  writer  has  for  more  than  thirty  years  maintained  that  the 
death  rate,  or,  in  other  words,  the  average  longevity,  is  not  a  proper 
measure  of  the  vigor  of  a  nation,  but  rather  the  maximum  longevity. 
The  death  rate  has  declined,  as  Doctor  Tredgold  well  remarks, 
"not  because  the  nation  is  more  resistant  to  disease,  but  because 
modern  science  has  lessened  its  incidence  and  modern  skill  in  treat- 
ment has  diminished  its  fatality."  The  prevention  of  plagues  by 
quarantine,  the  suppression  of  smallpox  by  vaccination,  the  control 
of  typhoid  fever  by  safeguarding  water  supplies,  the  better  protec- 
tion in  infancy,  and  the  marvelous  strides  which  have  been  made 
in  medical  science,  have  not  improved  the  vitality  of  the  race  but 
have  simply  served  to  keep  alive  a  large  number  of  feeble  infants 
who  otherwise  Avould  have  perished.  The  result  is  that  the  benefi- 
cent activities  referred  to  have  actually  served  to  diminish  the 
average  strength  and  vigor  of  the  race. 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  439 

Doctor  Tredgold  demonstrates  by  statistics  gathered  from  va- 
rious friendly  societies  having  an  aggregate  membership  of  nearly 
a  million  and  a  half  that,  notwithstanding  all  the  advances  made  in 
the  prevention  and  cure  of  diseases,  there  has  been  a  steady  and 
marked  increase  in  the  average  amount  of  sickness  at  all  ages  as 
shown  by  the  Report  of  the  Actuaries  appointed  in  connection  with 
the  National  Insurance  Act  of  1911. 

A  careful  study  of  the  returns  of  the  Registrar-General  of  Eng- 
land shows,  according  to  Doctor  Tredgold,  that  out  of  every  1,000 
children  born  today  as  many  infants  die  from  "innate  defects  of 
constitution"  as  fifty  years  ago:  and  this  notwithstanding  that  the 
total  death  rate  of  infants  has  been  diminished  nearly  one-third. 
In  addition  to  this,  it  is  well  known  that  a  great  number  of  feeble 
infants  are  today  kept  alive  by  scientific  feeding  and  improved  care 
in  other  respects  who  fifty  years  ago  would  certainly  have  perished. 
It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  the  proportion  of  feeble  infants  born 
into  the  world  is  at  present  very  much  greater  than  fifty  years  ago. 

This  has  been  made  still  more  evident  by  reports  of  the  Chief 
Medical  Officer  to  the  Board  of  Education,  which  show  that  of  the 
six  million  children  registered  in  the  public  elementary  schools  of 
England  and  Wales,  far  more  than  half  of  the  children  show  very 
pronounced  evidence  of  inherent  constitutional  weakness.  This 
terrible  fact  perhaps  bespeaks  more  loudly  than  could  any  other 
the  presence  of  an  active  trend  in  the  English  race  toward  de- 
generacy and  ultimate  extinction. 

The  increase  of  insanity  is  cited  by  Dactor  Tredgold  as  another 
evidence  of  race  degeneracy.  While  the  increase  of  the  population 
of  England  and  Wales  in  52  years  has  been  85.8  per  cent,  the  in- 
crease of  the  certified  insane  has  been  262.2  per  cent.  At  the  pres- 
ent there  is  one  insane  person  to  every  275  of  the  normal  popula- 
tion of  England  and  Wales.  This  fact,  as  Doctor  Tredgold  says,  is, 
to  say  the  least,  "very  disquieting."  But,  as  the  Doctor  still  fur- 
ther shows,  "there  is  even  a  more  numerous  class  suffering  from 
a  still  more  serious  condition,  inasmuch  as  their  incapacity  is  not 
possibly  temporary,  but  is  permanent  and  incurable.  These  are  the 
feeble-minded." 

Of  this  class,  there  is  now  known  to  be  in  England  not  fewer 
than  150,000,  making  a  total  of  290,000  mentally  affected  persons 
in  England  and  Wales,  besides  "a  vast  horde  of  persons  dis- 
charged from  asylums,  whose  mental  condition  is  decidedly  un- 
satisfactory; and  an  additional  army  of  individuals  who,  although 
they  have  not  yet  been  committed  to  asylums,  are  nevertheless  of 
feeble  and  unstable  mental  constitution  and  may  well  be  described 


440  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

as  potential  lunatics/'  Doctor  TredgoUl  makes  the  remarkable 
statement  tlmt  in  England  and  Wales  the  mentally  infirm  consti- 
tute "well  over  one  per  cent"  of  the  entire  community. 

Another  evidence  of  racial  decline  presented  by  Doctor  Tred- 
gold  is  the  proportion  of  paupers.  The  number  of  vagrants  and 
paupers  is  shown  to  be  increasing,  and  this  notwithstanding  the 
enormous  amount  of  relief  work  afforded  by  the  church,  Salva- 
tion Army,  charitable  societies,  and  committees,  hospitals,  homes, 
refuges  and  other  charitable  agencies  of  a  private  character.  It 
is  evident  that  in  England  and  Wales  there  is  a  steady  increase 
**in  the  proportion  of  those  persons  who  are  unable  or  unwilling 
to  subsist  by  their  own  efforts,"  so  that  it  costs  Great  Britain  half 
as  much  to  support  her  army  of  paupers  as  she  expends  upon  her 
entire  military  establishment. 

The  foregoing  and  other  indisputable  facts  lead  Tredgold  to  say : 
"It  is  impossible  to  avoid  the  conclusion  that  at  present  England 
contains  an  increasing  number  of  people  who  are  failing  to  adapt 
themselves  to  the  exigencies  of  the  times,  who  are  not  keeping  pace 
with  the  increasing  demands  which  civilization  entails,  and  who 
are  deficient  in  the  capacity  to  carry  on  the  progress  of  the  nation 
and  of  the  race.  It  seems  probable,  in  view  of  the  history  of  na- 
tions in  the  past,  that  much  of  the  present  social  and  industrial  un- 
rest and  of  the  movements  towards  communism  is  also  an  expression 
of  the  same  increasing  physical  and  mental  incapacity,  and  of  a  wan- 
ing spirit  of  grit  and  independence." 

Tredgold  shows  that  mental  unsoundness,  lunacy,  idiocy,  im- 
becility, and  feeble-mindedness  may  be  traced  to  hereditary  influ- 
ence in  90  per  cent  of  the  cases.  Mr.  David  Heron  and  others  have 
shown  that  while  there  has  been  a  marked  decline  in  the  birth 
rate  in  the  population  in  general,  the  diminution  is  almost  entirely 
confined  to  the  healthy  and  thrifty  class.  In  a  section  of  popula- 
tion numbering  a  million  and  a  quarter  persons,  thrifty  and  healthy 
artisans,  the  decline  in  the  birth  rate  in  twenty-four  years,  1880  to 
1904,  was  over  52  per  cent,  or  three  times  that  in  England  and 
Wales  as  a  whole.  Study  of  a  large  number  of  families  of  the  work- 
ing class  of  incompetent  and  parasitic  character  found  that  the 
average  number  of  children  to  the  family  was  7.4.  while  in  thrifty 
and  competent  working  families  the  number  was  3.7.  In  other 
words,  the  incompetent  and  defective  classes  are  multiplying  far 
more  rapidly  than  are  the  competent  and  eiBcient. 

Doctor  Tredgold  ends  his  very  striking  presentation  of  the 
evidence  of  race  degeneracy  as  follows:  "Life  on  this  planet  is  so 
constituted  that  it  can  only  progress  by  the  survival  and  propagation 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  441 

of  the  biologically  fit  aud  the  elimination  of  the  unfit.  In  the  course 
of  man's  evolution  a  stage  has  been  reached  at  which  this  process 
has  been  reversed,  with  the  result  that  the  race  merely  marks  time, 
while  successive  nations  ebb  to  and  fro  in  a  ceaseless  rise  and  fall. 
I  believe  that  this  is  but  a  phase,  and  that  the  time  will  certainly- 
come  when  the  antidote  of  eugenics  will  be  applied,  and  man  will 
continue  his  progress;  and  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  the 
nation  which  first  grasps  and  applies  this  principle  will  thereby  se- 
cure such  an  advantage  in  increased  efSciency  that  it  will  rapidl^^ 
become  the  predominant  power." 

Numerous  other  writers  have,  in  recent  years,  called  attention 
to  the  marked  evidences  of  race  degeneracy  which  appear  at  every 
hand.  An  admirable  summary  of  the  situation  was  presented  in 
the  form  of  an  indictment  in  a  paper  by  E.  E.  Rittenhouse.  then  Con- 
servation Commissioner  of  the  Equitable  Life  Assurance  Society 
and  now  President  of  the  Life  Extension  Institute,  read  before  the  Na- 
tional Conservation  Congress,  Indianapolis,  Ind.,  Oct.  2,  1912,  which 
we  quote  as  follows: 

"With  all  its  blessings  modern  civilization  has  introduced  haz- 
ards, habits  and  conditions  of  life  which  not  only  invite,  but  which 
have  increased  in  many  ways,  physical,  mental  and  moral  de- 
generacy. 

"Our  birth  rate  is  steadily  declining,  and  at  the  same  time  the 
span  of  life  is  steadily  shortening. 

"Twenty-seven  per  cent  of  our  annual  deaths  are  of  babies 
under  age  five ;  200,000  of  them  die  from  preventable  disease ;  about 
150,000  of  these  are  under  age  one. 

"To  offset  this  waste  of  life,  large  families  are  demanded.  Would 
it  not  be  well  to  stop  this  needless  destruction  of  infants  before 
asking  for  an  increase  in  the  supply?" 

Degenerative  Diseases  Increasing  at  All  Ages 

Rittenhouse  has  shown  by  a  study  of  the  Massachusetts  State 
Registration  Reports  that  between  1880  and  1909,  a  period  of 
thirty  years,  there  was  an  increase  of  nearly  100  per  cent  in  the 
mortality  from  degenerative  diseases.  The  increase  at  each  age  is 
shown  in  the  following  table :  p  r  c  nt 

Ages  1880  1909  Increase  of  Same 

All    23.21  43.26                    20.05  86.38 

Lnder   5    7.92  10.36                       2.44  30.8 

5-9    2.95  3.95                       1.04  35.7 

10-14     2.85  4.72                       1.87  65.6 

15-19 3.10  5.43                       2.33  75.2 

20-29    4.95  8.09                       3.14  63.4 

30-39 10.13  18.79                       8.66  85.5 

40-49 19.70  37.84                    18.14  92.1 

50-59    39.01  91 . 30                    52 . 29  134 

60-69    102.05  212.93  110.88  108.7 

70  and  over    261.1  558.2  297 . 1  113 


442  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

lu  New  Jersey  betAveeu  1880  and  1910  the  mortality  rate  from 
organic  diseases  of  the  heart,  apoplexy,  aud  disease  of  the  kidney 
increased  from  16.5  to  34.3  per  ten  thousand  poj)nlation,  an  in- 
crease of  108  per  cent. 

The  death  rate  of  the  total  population,  aged  40  and  over,  in- 
creased in  thirty  years,  between  1880  and  1910,  in  Massachusetts 
and  New  Jersey  21  per  cent. 

In  sixteen  of  the  largest  cities  of  the  country  the  increase  was 
25  per  cent. 

Regarding  the  causes  of  this  increase,  Rittenhouse  says: 

"It  would  seem  an  entirely  reasonable  conclusion  that  while  the 
average  length  of  life  has  advanced,  the  extreme  span  of  life  has 
not  done  so ;  in  fact,  the  indications  are  that  it  has  been  shortened. 
Our  failure  to  adapt  ourselves  to  the  extraordinary  changes  and 
strains  of  modern  existence  is  commonly  accepted  as  the  cause  for 
this  excessive  mortality  in  the  later  age  periods.  Even  though  the 
statistics  indicated  no  increase,  the  urgent  need  for  correcting  our 
living  habits  would  still  exist. 

"We  may  agree  that  in  the  long  run  the  trend  of  humanity  is 
ever  upward,  and  that  this  is  but  a  temporary  reaction,  but  can 
we  afford  to  rest  wholly  upon  the  hope  that  race  deterioration  will 
automatically  cease  when  our  people  have  had  time  to  adjust  them- 
selves to  modern  conditions?  Wise  men  doubt  it.  This  problem 
will  not  solve  itself;  this  adverse  tendency  will  be  checked  onlj'- 
when  our  people  are  made  to  see  conditions  as  they  actually  exist, 
and  are  aroused  to  the  need  of  correcting  them." 

"Of  the  20,000,000  school  children  in  this  country  not  less  than 
75  per  cent  need  attention  for  physical  defects  which  are  preju- 
dicial to  health. 

"Insanity  and  idiocy  are  increasing. 

"Diseases  of  vice,  the  most  insidious  enemy  of  this  and  future 
generations,  are  spreading  rapidly,  according  to  medical  men.  So 
far  we  have  lacked  the  moral  courage  to  openly  recognize  and  fight 
this  scourge. 

"Alcohol  and  drug  habits  are  constantly  adding  new  victims 
to  the  degenerate  list  and  to  the  death  roll. 

"Suicides  are  increasing  and  now  reach  the  enormous  total  of 
about  15,000  annually. 

"Lynchings  and  burnings-at-the-stake  continue  and  are  common 
only  to  our  country. 

"Attempts  upon  human  life  bj^  individuals  aud  mobs  under 
trifling  provocation,  or  none  at  all,  are  obviously  increasing. 

"Over  9,000  murders  are  committed  every  year,  and  it  is  esti- 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  443 

mated  that  bnt  an  average  of  116  mnrderers  are  executed  for  their 
crimes.  "We  have  the  appalling  estimated  homicide  record  of  over 
100  per  million  population  as  against  7  in  Canada,  9  in  Great 
Britain  and  15  in  Italy. 

"In  the  United  States  the  death  rate  above  40  has  increased 
steadily  for  years  (about  27  per  cent  since  1880),  while  it  has  re- 
mained virtually  stationary  in  England  and  AA^ales. 

"The  important  organs  of  the  body  are  wearing  out  too)soon — 
the  diseases  of  old  age  are  reaching  down  into  the  younger  age 
periods. 

'"The  death  rate  from  the  degenerative  diseases  of  the  heart, 
blood-vessels,  and  kidneys,  including  apoplexy,  has  increased  over 
100  per  cent  since  1880.  These  diseases  claim  over  350,000  lives 
annually. 

"The  doctors  tell  us  that  fully  60  per  cent  of  these  deaths  are 
preventable  or  postponable  if  the  disease  is  discovered  in  time. 

"Periodical  health  examination  would  detect  these  chronic  dis- 
eases in  time  to  check  or  cure  them.  No  public  campaign  to  edu- 
cate our  people  to  this  vital  need  is  being  carried  on. 

"All  of  our  money,  all  of  our  energy,  seem  to  be  directed  against 
diseases  that  can  be  communicated.  Is  not  a  life  lost  from  Bright 's 
disease  as  valuable  as  one  lost  by  typhoid  fever? 

"The  annual  loss  from  pneumonia  aggregates  133,000  lives — a 
large  portion  of  which  is  due  to  weakened  bodily  resistance  resulting 
from  degenerative  affections. 

"Cancer,  a  baffling  disease  of  the  degenerative  class  to  which 
our  people  in  their  present  physical  condition  are  highly  susceptible, 
claims  75,000  lives  annually  and  is  increasing  verj^  fast.  Deaths 
from  external  cancer  alone  have  increased  52  per  cent  in  ten  years. 

"Pellagra,  a  deadly  plague  new  to  this  country,  is  increasing 
rapidly  in  some  of  our  Southern  states,  and  it  excites  but  slight 
public  concern. 

"Over  150,000  Americans  are  destroyed  annually  by  tuberculosis. 
We  know  how  to  prevent  it,  but  our  tax-payers  object  to  the  ex- 
pense and  leave  the  battle  almost  wholly  to  charity. 

"Nearly  a  million  afflicted  people  are  spreading  the  poison  of 
tuberculosis  to  the  w^ell,  with  virtually  no  official  restraint  or  super- 
vision because  of  the  expense. 

"Over  25,000  Americans  are  still  sacrificed  annually  to  the  pre- 
ventable filth  disease — typhoid  fever.  About  300,000  suffer  from  it 
and  are  more  or  less  impaired  by  it. 

"Other  germ  diseases  are  wasting  more  lives  than  typhoid  and 
tuberculosis  combined.     We   are  warring  against  them,   but  com- 


444  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

pared  to  the  lives  still  hoiiifj-  lost,  our  efforts  are  feeble  and  only 
partially  effective. 

"Over  90,000  Americans  are  killed  annually  by  accidents  and 
various  forms  of  violence.  Our  efforts  to  prevent  the  steady  in- 
crease of  this  waste  have  failed. 

"The  annual  economic  loss  due  to  preventable  disease  and  death 
is  conservatively  estimated  at  $1,500,00,0,000  and  our  fire  loss  at 
about  $250,000,000. 

"To  prevent  fire  waste  our  cities  spend  through  the  public  ser- 
vice approximately  $1.65  per  capita,  and  to  prevent  life  waste  33 
cents  per  capita. 

"It  is  estimated  that  1,500,000  of  our  people  are  constantly  suf- 
fering from  preventable  disease,  and  that  during  the  next  ten  years 
American  lives  equaling  the  population  of  the  Pacific  Coast  and 
Eocky  Mountain  States  (over  6,000,000)  will  be  needlessly  destroyed 
if  the  present  estimated  mortality  from  preventable  and  postpon- 
able  disease  continues." 

According  to  the  report  of  the  Committee  of  the  American 
Prison  Association,  10,000  murders  are  committed  in  the  United 
States  every  year — more  than  the  aggregate  number  in  any  other 
ten  civilized  nations,  with  the  exception  of  Russia. 

According  to  Doctor  Hoffman,  the  world's  greatest  statistician, 
a  most  conservative  authority,  homicide  in  the  United  States  is  in- 
creasing. The  rate  for  the  urban  population,  1881  to  1891,  was  5  per 
hundred  thousand.  From  1900  to  1910,  the  rate  was  7.2  per  hundred 
thousand.    In  England  the  rate  is  only  .9  per  hundred  thousand. 

This  condition,  says  Doctor  Hoffman,  "is  not  compatible  with 
the  common  assumption  that  actual  progress  is  being  made  in  the 
United  States  in  all  that  is  summed  up  under  the  term  civilization 
and  national  welfare." 

As  regards  the  causes  of  race  degeneracy,  opinions  are  divided. 
In  general,  two  great  causes  are  in  operation — heredity  and  en- 
vironment. Which  of  the  two  is  the  more  active,  it  may  be  impos- 
sible to  say.  There  are  those  who  maintain  that  environment  has 
little  if  any  influence  upon  the  germ-plasm,  and  that  acquired 
characters  are  not  transmitted  by  heredity.  The  results  of  recent 
researches,  however,  seem  to  indicate  that  the  influence  of  environ- 
ment may  be  much  greater  than  some  have  supposed.  McDougal, 
for  example,  claims  to  have  produced  mutations,  that  is,  created 
new  species  by  injecting  chemicals  into  the  ovary  of  a  plant.  Tower, 
using  heat  as  a  stimulus,  produced  a  beetle  of  a  very  light  color. 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  445 

He  proved  that  this  character  had  become  fixed  by  crossing  with  a 
beetle  of  normal  color.  Starvation  of  insects  in  the  larval  stage  has 
been  shown  to  produce  dwarfs  in  later  generations. 

Hammerer,  of  Vienna,  has  conducted  in  the  Laboratory  of  the 
Institute  for  Experimental  Evolution,  a  great  number  of  experi- 
ments for  the  purpose  of  determining  the  possibility  of  the  trans- 
mission of  acquired  characters,  and  with  some  most  remarkable 
results.  Frogs  have  been  produced  which  retain  tadpole  char- 
acteristics and  transmit  them  to  their  progeny,  in  a  manner  which 
would  be  expected  from  Mendel's  law,  but  this  question  is  largely 
technical  and  may  be  left  for  the  biologist  to  settle. 

Whether  the  results  of  bad  habits  are  directly  transmitted  or 
not,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  hygiene  or  euthenics  is  essential  to 
race  betterment.  All  the  advantages  of  the  most  desirable  heritage 
may  be  lost  as  the  result  of  an  evil  environment.  Heredity  concerns 
only  potential  capacity  or  genius.  Environment  controls  develop- 
ment. A  boy  born  into  the  world  with  the  capacity  to  become  a  giant 
might  be  dwarfed  and  weazened  hy  wrong  feeding.  The  blighting 
influence  of  s.yphilis,  of  alcohol,  tobacco,  and  other  drugs,  gluttony, 
sensuality  and  other  vices,  cannot  be  questioned,  and  these  de- 
structive influences  are  multiplying.  The  daily  poison  dose,  through 
drug  habits,  has  steadily  increased  from  year  to  year  until  now 
the  average  person  living  in  the  United  States,  including  women 
and  children  as  well  as  men,  swallows  daily  368  grains  of  poison, 
alcohol,  nicotine,  caffeine  and  opium.  This  alone  would  be  enough 
to  produce  profound  symptoms  of  degeneration  if  no  other  causes 
were  in  operation,  but  we  have  departed  far  from  the  narrow  road. 
We  have  long  been  cultivating  disease  instead  of  health. 

Other  races  of  animals  have  degenerated  and  disappeared  from 
the  earth  because  of  changes  in  their  environment  which  made  the 
conditions  of  life  to  which  they  were  subjected  inimicable  to  them. 
Man,  the  most  complicated  of  all  animal  organisms,  and  hence  the 
most  likely  to  be  injured  by  unfavorable  conditions,  finds  himself 
at  the  present  time  subjected  to  an  environment  more  dissimilar 
from  that  to  which  he  is  naturally  adapted  than  that  of  almost 
any  other  race  of  animals.  Naturally  an  out-of-door  dweller,  freely 
exposed  to  the  sunlight  and  bathed  in  pure  air,  man  has  become  a 
house  dweller,  secludes  himself  from  the  sun  and  the  air,  smothers 
himself  with  black  clothing  and  spends  the  greater  part  of  his  life 
as  a  prisoner  within  air-tight  walls,  exposed  to  a  vitiated  atmos- 
phere and  the  disease-producing  germs  which  thrive  under  such 
conditions.  Man  is  naturally  a  low-protein  feeder,  like  the  chim- 
panzee and  the  orang  and  other  primates.     In  recent  timCnS  he  has 


446  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

adopted  a  high-protein  diet,  the  diet  of  the  dog  and  the  lion,  ani- 
mals -whose  digestive  machinery  is  adaptetl  to  such  a  dietary,  which 
is  hostile  and  damaging  to  the  human  constitution. 

Primitive  man,  living  in  a  tropical  climate,  required  no  more 
clothing  than  that  provided  him  by  Nature.  Civilized  man  has  in- 
vented clothes,  but  wears  them  not  simply  to  protect  himself  from 
extremes  of  temperature  or  other  injury,  or  to  satisfy  other  bodily 
needs,  but  to  meet  the  demands  of  fashion.  Naturally  fleet  of  foot, 
agile  and  muscular,  supple  and  enduring,  by  sedentary  habits  civil- 
ized man  has  become  puny,  rheumatic,  gouty,  short  of  wind,  hob- 
bled by  flat  feet,  and  is  beginning  to  lose  his  toes.  Lack  of  exer- 
cise has  diminished  his  chest  capacity  until  he  has  lost  one  rib  and 
is  losing  others  and  has  become  an  easy  prey  to  consumption,  pneu- 
monia and  other  lung  diseases.  Man  has  acquired  a  hunting  in- 
stinct, but  has  no  natural  capacity  for  either  hunting  or  killing,  so 
when  he  goes  in  quest  of  a  quarry,  he  must  take  along  a  dog  to 
find  it  and  a  gun  with  which  to  kill  it.  Through  neglect  to  use 
his  teeth,  he  has  begun  to  lose  them.  His  third  molar  is  practically 
gone  and  other  teeth  are  often  lacking,  and  all  are  subject  to  very 
early  decay — one  of  the  most  certain  evidences  of  constitutional 
weakness  and  race  degeneracy. 

In  his  haste  to  become  civilized,  man  has  neglected  to  provide 
compensations  ■  for  the  departure  from  normal  conditions  of  life 
which  civilization  necessarily  involves.  We  need  not  return  to  sav- 
agery to  be  healthy,  but  we  must  see  that  the  air  we  breathe  is  as 
clean  as  that  which  the  savage  breathes,  that  the  food  we  eat  is  as 
wholesome  and  pure  as  the  water  we  drink.  We  must  give  our 
pale  skins  more  contact  with  the  sun  and  air  and  we  must  keep  the 
inside  of  our  bodies  as  clean  as  the  outside.  We  must  cultivate 
clean  blood,  instead  of  blue  blood.  Society  must  establish  laws 
and  sanctions  which  will  check  the  operation  of  heredity  in  the 
nmltiplication  of  the  unfit.  Eugenics  and  euthenics  must  become 
dominant  matters  of  study  and  concern. 

We  possess  knowledge  enough  of  euthenics  and  eugenics  to 
create  a  new  race  within  a  century  if  the  known  principles  of 
healthful  living  and  scientific  breeding  were  put  into  actual  prac- 
tice. 

According  to  Karl  Pearson,  "In  the  tenth  generation  man  has 
theoretically  1,024  great-grandparents.  He  is  eventually  the  prod- 
uct of  a  population  of  this  size  and  their  mean  can  hardly  differ 
from  that  of  the  general  population.  .  .  .  If  we  could  remove  the 
drag  of  the  mediocre  element  in  ancestry,  were  it  only  for  a  few 
generations,   we   should   sensibly   eliminate   regression   or   create   a 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  447 

stock  of  exceptional  men.  This  is  precisely  what  is  done  by  the 
breeder  in  selecting  and  isolating  a  stock  until  it  is  established." 

Movements  of  all  sorts  which  seek  to  promote  the  physical  wel- 
fare should  be  encouraged  and  unified.  Eugenics  and  euthenics 
should  be  magnified  before  the  people  until  their  paramount  im- 
portance is  appreciated  and  legislatures  become  willing  to  appro- 
priate funds  as  liberally  for  these  essential  means  of  race  better- 
ment as  they  are  noAv  doing  for  the  improvement  of  crops  and  farm 
animals  through  similar  means. 

Prizes  should  be  offered  for  the  finest  families  and  the  best 
health  and  endurance  records. 

Through  State  Life  Insurance,  the  whole  population  might  be 
brought  under  government  medical  supervision.  By  periodical  ex- 
aminations the  early  beginnings  of  chronic  diseases  might  be  de- 
tected and  thus  arrested  by  timely  instruction  in  regard  to  neces- 
sary changes  in  habits  or  occupations  and  every  such  case  would 
become  an  object  lesson  by  means  of  which  relatives  and  friends 
should  be  influenced  to  adopt  preventives  in  time  to  avoid  the  same 
maladies.  The  new  science  of  eugenics  founded  by  Galton,  supple- 
mented by  the  now 'nearly  perfected  science  of  euthenics,  when  they 
come  to  be  comprehended  and  put  into  practical  operation,  will 
result  in  the  creation  of  an  aristocracy  of  health,  in  the  develop- 
ment of  a  new  race  of  man.  Every  board  of  health  and  official 
health  agency  will  be  actively  engaged  in  the  battle  against  dis- 
ease and  degeneracy,  in  all  its  forms,  chronic  as  well  as  acute. 
Why  should  this  work  be  left  to  individual  initiative.  Nothing 
could  be  more  profitable  to  the  state  and  nothing  more  prolific 
of  satisfying  results  to  those  engaged  in  the  effort  than  a  thorough- 
going campaign  for  race  betterment  through  eugenics  and  sane 
living,  combined  with  scientific  sanitation.  The  establishment  of  a 
national  department  of  health  will  provide  a  central  bureau  by 
which  to  unify  the  work  and  collate  its  results  and  interpret  them 
to  the  people. 

A  Eugenics  Registry  Office  is  needed  to  establish  a  Race  of  Hu- 
man Thoroughbreds. 

It  takes  only  four  generations  to  make  a  thoroughbred  when  the 
principles  of  eugenics  have  a  fair  chance  to  operate.  Intelligent 
men  and  women  everywhere  throughout  the  civilized  world  are 
becoming  aroused  to  the  race  significance  of  these  great  biologic 
laws  and  are  anxious  to  become  informed  in  relation  to  eugenics 
and  euthenics,  and  to  conform  their  lives  to  the  principles  of  phys- 
iologic and  biologic  righteousness. 

We  have  registers  for  horses,  cattle,  sheep,  pigs,  and  even  cats 


448  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

and  dogs.  If  a  lady  wishes  to  establish  the  standiiio;  of  her  pet 
poodle  as  a  thoroughbred  she  can  do  so  by  appealing  to  an  official 
record  and  the  pnny  canine  may  lift  its  head  above  its  fellows,  a 
born  aristocrat  and  prove  its  claim;  but  nowhere  on  earth,  so  far 
as  the  Avriter  knows,  is  there  to  be  found  a  registry  for  human 
thoroughbreds. 

The  hope  is  entertained  by  the  promoters  of  this  Conference  that 
one  of  its  results  may  be  the  establishment  of  such  a  Registry.  In- 
deed, it  seems  that  the  time  has  fully  come  when  a  Eugenics  Reg- 
istry Office  should  be  established  in  which  may  be  recorded  the 
names  of  infants  born  under  eugenic  conditions  and  perhaps  also 
the  names  of  persons  who  in  person  and  pedigree  are  able  to  mea- 
sure up  to  eugenic  standards. 

The  United  States  Government  has  supplied  every  farmer  in  the 
United  States  many  times  over  with  literature  telling  how  to  raise 
the  best  crops,  how  to  produce  the  fattest  pigs  and  the  finest 
horses  and  cattle.  How  much  more  important  that  not  only  every 
farmer,  but  every  family  should  be  instructed  in  the  principles  of 
right  living — how  to  produce  strong,  sane,  healthy,  and  efficient 
human  beings! 

At  the  present  moment  degeneracy  is  rampant  in  the  earth. 
Every  day  this  upas  tree  is  planting  its  roots  deeper  and  spread- 
ing wider  its  death-dropping  branches,  but,  though  at  the  present 
time  the  prospect  may  seem  dark  and  the  future  outlook  forbidding, 
the  new  science  of  eugenics  and  the  old  but  sadly  neglected  science  of 
euthenics  rise  like  a  light-tower  in  the  darlmess  and  cast  a  flood 
of  light  and  hope  over  the  coming  years.  Following  this  beacon,  the 
outlook  is  most  optimistic.  Eugenics  and  euthenics,  applied  with 
liberal  intelligence,  will  save  the  race  from  the  destruction  which  race 
degeneracy  threatens.  Other  races  of  the  animal  kingdom  are 
helpless  to  combat  the  influences  which  produce  environmental 
changes  inimicable  to  their  existence,  hence  every  one.  sooner  or 
later,  must  succumb  to  the  destructive  action  of  these  cosmic  forces. 
The  same  fate  must  necessarily  await  the  human  race  unless  man, 
through  his  intelligence,  finds  some  way  to  avert  the  disaster. 
He  can  do  this  if  he  will.  Unfortunately  he  has  to  a  large 
extent  neglected  to  recognize  the  necessity  for  preserving,  so  far 
as  possible,  the  essential  conditions  of  his  primitive  life.  He  has 
allowed  himself  to  drift.  He  has  formed  habits  by  chance.  In- 
stead of  laboring  to  preserve  amid  the  conditions  of  civilized  life 
the  essentials  of  his  primeval  environment,  he  has  done  the  very 
opposite.  He  has  allowed  his  fancy  and  his  impulses  to  lead  him 
into  by  and  forbidden   paths  and  has  undertaken  to   compel  his 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  449 

body  to  adjust  itself  to  impossible  conditions;  and  the  result  is,, 
instead  of  lessening  he  has  intensified  the  evil  effects  of  environ 
raent.  The  same  forces '  which  have  destroyed  other  creatures, 
other  animals  and  species,  and  which  are  preying  upon  man  as  a 
member  of  the  animal  kingdom,  instead  of  being  mitigated  and  neu- 
tralized by  the  intelligence  of  man,  have  actually  been  increased 
and  exaggerated.  Man  has  thus  forced  upon  his  body  conditions 
which  are  so  far  removed  from  his  biologic  and  physiologic  re- 
quirements that,  at  the^  present  time,  he  is  actually  accentuating^ 
by  his  daily  habits  of  life  the  influence  of  those  destructive  forces 
which  have  wiped  out  generation  after  generation  of  living  beings. 
But  we  may  reverse  the  situation  by  the  intelligent  application 
of  eugenics  and  euthenics.  By  a  careful  study  of  our  biologic  needs 
and  our  physiologic  requirements  we  may  reverse  the  process  and 
compel  the  cosmic  forces  which  are  dragging  us  down,  to  lift  us 
up,  so  that  each  generation  may  be  superior  to  that  which  preceded 
it.  The  greatest  opportunity  and  the  greatest  duty  which  lies  be- 
fore civilized  man  at  the  present  moment  is  the  study  and  con- 
sideration of  the  great  questions  which  'it  is  the  purpose  of  this 
Congress  to  discuss.  The  intelligence  of  the  world  should  be  set 
to  work  to  create  new  agencies  and  to  multiply  existing  agencies  for 
the  betterment  of  the.  race.  A  biologic  survey  should  be  made  of 
every  civilized  community  and  of  savage  communities  as  well  for 
purposes  of  comparison.  The  laws  of  eugenics  and  euthenics  should 
be  taught  in  every  school  and  preached  from  every  pulpit.  Every 
teacher,  every  leader  of  human  thought,  everj^  publisher,  all  profes- 
sions, all  serious-minded  men  and  women  should  join  in  making 
known  to  every  human  being  in  every  corner  of  the  globe  the  fact 

that  the  human  race  is  dving,  and  in  seeking  to  discover  and  apply  the 

r  '  . 

remedies  necessary  for  salvation  from  this  dismal  fate. 

That  there  Avill  sometime  be  a  new  human  race,  a  race  far  supe- 
rior to  the  present,  is  believed  by  many  scientists. 

It  is  within  the  power  of  man  so  to  modify  his  environment  and 
so  to  control  the  evolutionary  forces  which  are  working  upon  him 
as  to  eliminate  the  degenerative,  destructive  tendencies  and  to  pro- 
mote, encourage  and  intensify  the  forces  which  work  for  race  bet- 
terment, and  thus  to  improve  desirable  qualities  and  eliminate  de- 
fects and  undesirable  characteristics  and  in  time  produce  a  race  of 
human  thoroughbreds  which  will  be  as  much  superior  to  the  average 
existing  man  as  is  the  thoroughbred  horse  to  the  average  horse  of 
the  farm. 

The  coming  man  will  rank  far  above  the  man  of  today  in  intel- 
ligence, in  stamina,  in  endurance,  in  length  of  days,  size  of  body, 

(16) 


450  FIRST    NATIONAT-    CONB'EBENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

bigness  of  brain  and  in  all  the  Ciiaracteristics  which  make  up  hu- 
man excellence.  He  Avill  be,  in  every  way,  a  bigger  man.  He  will 
be  a  real  aristocrat.  In  his  veins  will  course,  not  bine  blood,  but 
the  red  blood  of  abounding  health  and  vitality,  polluted  with  no 
disease  or  hereditary  taint,  equipped  with  alexins  and  anti-toxins 
capable  of  resisting  every  infectious  disease,  and  teeming  with  life 
and  vitality. 

Just  how  this  new  race  is  to  be  ushered  in,  no  man  is  today  wise 
enough  to  say.  The  object  of  this  paper  is  not  to  offer  a  formula 
for  bettering  the  race,  but  rather  to  urge  the  need  of  race  better- 
ment and  emphasize  the  importance  of  making  a  practical  applica- 
tion of  all  the  knowledge  relating  to  race  betterment  which  we 
now  possess  and  undertaking  such  researches  and  investigations  as 
may  develop  more  light  and  knowledge. 

It  is  hoped  that  this  first  Conference  on  Race  Betterment  may 
prove  to  be  the  beginning  of  a  world-wide  movement,  the  result  of 
which  will  be  a  great  enlargement  of  our  Ivuowledge  of  how  to  live 
for  personal  and  race  betterment,  and  a  more  general  and  thor- 
oughgoing application  of  such  knowledge. 


THE  IMPORTANCE   TO  THE  STATE  OF   EUGENIC  INVESTIGATION 

Charles  B.  Davenport.  Ph.D.,  Director  of  the  Carnegie  Station  for  Ex- 
perimental Evolution  and  of  the  Eugenics  Record  Office,  ( old  Spring- 
Harbor,  Long  Island,  New  York. 

Perhaps  I  may  remark  that  we  may  hope  in  the  future  to  have 
a  Conference  President  of  the  age  of  one  hundred,  provided  we  may 
find  one  who  has  the  good  sense  that  Dr.  Stephen  Smith  has  had 
to  select  parents  who  have  lived  to  an  old  age.  With  the  purpose 
of  enabling  people  to  do  this,  there  has  been  established  at  Cold 
Spring  Harbor,  on  Long  Island,  an  institution  for  the  collection  of 
data  respecting  human  inheritable  traits.  At  the  suggestion  of  some 
people,  I  have  decided  to  change  the  title  of  my  address  and  speak 
upon  the  origin  and  aims  and  ideals  of  this  Eugenics  Record  Office. 

The  beginning  was  far  back  in  1904,  shortly  after  the  opening 
of  the  new  era  in  the  study  of  heredity,  which  starts  with  the  re- 
establishment  of  Mendel's  law.  On  the  first  of  January,  1904,  there 
met  a  body  of  persons  interested  in  the  breeding  of  animals  and 
plants  at  St.  Louis  and  formed  an  American  Breeders'  Associa- 
tion. During  that  meeting,  and  the  meetings  that  followed,  mar- 
velous tales  were  told  of  successes  achieved  by  these  breeders  in 
working  with  plants  and  animals.  We  saw  there  what  rapid  de- 
velopments were  made  in  the  production  of  new  combinations  of 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  451 

features,  new  and  valuable  strains  of  carnations  and  chrysanthe-, 
mums.  We  saw  how  by  the  application  of  heredity  we  could  pro- 
duce heat-resistant  watermelons  and  other  disease-resistant  plants. 
Among  the  properties  of  animals,  it  was  shoAvn  how  races  of  hogs 
immune  to  cholera  could  be  thus  produced,  and  how  rapid  advance 
could  be  made  in  the  improvement  of  different  animals. 

The  question  kept  constantly  coming  to  those  who  attended, 
"If  such  great  achievements  can  appear  in  the  application  of  the 
laws  of  heredity  to  plants  and  animals,  why  cannot  something  be 
done  in  the  case  of  man?" 

The  need  for  studies  of  the  inheritance  of  human  traits  was  seen 
on  every  hand.  On  the  one  hand,  states  were  groaning  under  ah 
ever-increasing  burden  of  defectives.  In  the  state  of  Massachu- 
setts, during  the  past  decade,  an  average  of  thirty-five  per  cent  of 
the  total  budget  applicable  to  state  purposes  was  spent  in  the  care 
of  defectives.  In  the  state  of  New  York,  for  twelve  years,  from 
one-quarter  to  one-sixth  of  the  total  of  the  state  budget  has  been 
spent  in  this  care.  There  has  been  a  steady  increase,  also,  in  the 
total  amount  expended  by  the  state  in  the  care  of  these  classes, 
and  the  pressure  for  still  greater  increase  cannot  be  withstood.  On 
the  other  hand,  there  was  coming  home  a  realization  that  the  high 
hope  that  had  been  entertained  for  the  cure  of  the  feeble-minded  by 
placing  them  in  institutions  where  they  would  be  trained  along: 
manual  lines  and  others,  was  not  to  be  realized,  that  the  feeble- 
minded child,  one  who  was  born  feeble-minded,  would  remain  feeble- 
minded, despite  all  that  could  be  done  for  his  intellectual  improve- 
ment; the  realization,  also,  that  insane  tendencies  are  in  the  stock, 
that  in  the  ordinary  cases  of  epilepsy,  we  find  a  repetition  of  them 
in  special  families  and  that  crime  and  pauperism  have  an  inheritable 
basis.  The  recognition  of  all  these  points  also  helps  to  bring  home 
the  importance  of  the  consideration,  at  least,  of  the  possibility  of 
improving  the  human  race  through  the  application  of  the  new  laws 
of  heredity. 

The  American  Breeders'  Association  organized  a  committee  on 
heredity  in  1907,  and  this  was  later  raised  to  the  position  of  a  sec- 
tion of  the  Association  and  now  forms  one  of  its  three  principal 
research  (Committees. 

In  order  that  studies  in  human  heredity  might  be  made  on  a 
satisfactory  scale,  it  was  necessary  to  get  some  assistance.  Now 
the  matter  of  heredity  is  not  one  that  appeals  to  the  ordinary  phi- 
lanthropist. The  ordinary  philanthropist  will  respond  to  the  poor 
man  who  is  in  immediate  need  of  assistance  or  to  an  institution  that 
provides  for  the  relief  of  immediate  pain  and  trouble,  but  the  idea 


452  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

of  improving  the  human  race  tlirouf>li  deteniiining  the  laws  of 
heredity  is  such  a  long-range  proposition  that  it  takes  a  person  who 
is  capable  of  seeing  far  into  the  future  to  appreciate  its  need. 

The  matter  was  laid  before  Mrs.  E.  II.  Ilarriman,  and  in  her  was 
found  a  person  with  this  range  of  vision.  She  decided  at  once  that 
the  work  should  be  supported.  It  was  started  in  October,  1910, 
at  Cold  Spring  Harbor.  At  the  present  time  we  have  there  an  in- 
stitution, now  housed  in  a  practically  fire-proof  building,  with  its 
records  kept  in  steel  cases  and  every  precaution  taken  to  secure 
permanency.  Our  first  work  and  up  to  the  present  time,  perhaps, 
our  major  work,  has  been  in  cooperation  with  states,  especially 
through  the  state  institutions. 

We  needed,  first  of  all,  to  collect  data.  The  need  seemed  great- 
est in  the  case  of  the  defective  classes.  The  superintendents  of 
state  institutions  were  very  desirous  of  assistance.  We  were  able 
to  give  it  to  them,  and  they  to  us. 

As  a  result  of  these  studies  during  the  last  three  or  four  years, 
it  has  been  found  that  truly  the  trouble  is  that  the  state  bows  under 
a  needless,  heavy  burden,  which  has  a  hereditary  basis.  We  have 
found  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  feeble-minded,  the  great  ma- 
jority of  them,  are  such  because  they  belong  to  defective  stock. 
Similarly  the  majority  of  epileptics  have  been  demonstrated — ^Doetor 
Weeks  has  shoMii  it  in  his  studies — to  belong  to  strains  of  epileptics. 
The  same  thing  has  been  shown  for  the  insane  by  Doctor  Rosanoff ,  at 
Kings  Park  Hospital  on  Long  Island,  and  at  similar  institutions  in 
New  Jersey  by  Cotton.  These  results  have  since  been  confirmed  in 
different  countries  of  Europe,  and  we  are  now  in  a  position  to  give, 
for  certain  classes  at  least  of  these  defectives,  very  definite  informa- 
tion as  to  the  result  of  certain  matings. 

Studies  have  also  been  made  upon  the  criminalistic  strain,  espe- 
cially upon  wayward  children,  and  to  the  greatest  extent  upon  the 
wayward  girls  of  whom  we  have  heard  so  much.  We  have  been 
appalled  by  the  ignorance  possessed  by  superintendents  of  these 
institutions,  officers  of  the  state,  regarding  the  real  basis  of  the 
trouble  of  the  individuals  with  whom  they  have  to  do.  This  ig- 
norance has  led  to  procedures  on  the  part  of  these  institutions  of 
the  most  appalling  sort.  Thus  at  one  institution  where  we  visited, 
we  found  that  the  superintendent  maintained  that  seventy-five  per 
cent  of  the  girls  in  his  institution,  after  having  been  released,  as 
they  all  are,  made  good.  On  further  inquiry,  it  appeared  that 
seventy-five  per  cent  of  those  released  from  the  institution  married, 
and  further  inquiry  brought  out  that  these  were  the  seventy-five 
per  cent  who  "made  good.''     The  twenty-five  per  cent  who  did  not 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  453 

marry  went  into  lives  of  prostitution  or  of  bad  conduct  in  different 
directions.  Now  we  know  from  our  studies  that  the  highly  erotic 
girl,  and  this  is  especially  the  type  that  gets  into  the  institutions, 
Avill  have  at  least  one-half  of  her  children  with  the  same  lack  of 
control  over  their  passions  that  she  has.  One  wonders  at  the  blind- 
ness that  will  permit  these  girls  to  go  forth  and  marry,  to  have 
children  to  double  perhaps  the  burden  which  the  state  will  have 
to  carry  in  the  next  generation. 

Other  studies  that  we  have  made  have  been  in  quite  different 
fields.  Thus  we  have  studied  the  method  of  inheritance  of  skin 
color  in  crosses  between  negroes  and  whites,  a  matter  of  great  social 
importance.  We  were  led  to  this  study  from  receiving  very  pa- 
thetic letters  from  men  who  were  trying  to  marry,  but  had  learned 
that  way  back  some  generations  before  they  had  a  great-grand- 
parent, perhaps,  who  was  colored,  and  they  feared  thus  they  might 
have  colored  children  if  they  married  a  white  person.  In  order  to 
see  if  there  were  a  practical  basis  for  this  feax,  extensive  studies  were 
made  upon  something  like  two  hundred  families  in  Bermuda  and 
the  island  of  Jamaica.  We  discovered,  first  of  all,  the  interesting 
law  of  heredity  of  skin  color,  which  shows  that  it  is  no  exception 
to  the  ordinary  method  of  inheritance.  We  found,  namely,  that 
there  are  four  factors  for  the  production  of  black  skin  color  in  the 
negro,  and  it  is  because  there  are  so  many  factors  that  the  in- 
heritance appears  to  be  simple  and  is  really  so  complex.  We  found 
also  in  a  large  number  of  families  we  studied  not  only  that  the  off- 
spring that  passed  for  white,  of  an  octoroon  with  white  or  even  an 
octoroon  with  another,  that  no  such  offspring — that  passed  for  white 
— produced  brown  children.  We  could  find  no  well-authenticated 
case  of  that  sort.  We  think  we  are  justified,  in  view  of  this  interest- 
ing fact,  in  the  assertion  that  that  result  has  never  followed  from 
the  mating  of  two  white  persons,  even  though  one  or  the  other  had 
a  remote  ancestor  who  was  black. 

A  special  study  of  this  subject  has  interested  us  very  much,  a 
form  of  chorea  or  Saint  Vitus  Dance  that  occurs  in  old  age,  so-called 
Huntington's  chorea.  We  find  that  this  is  inherited,  just  as  brown 
eye  color  is  inherited,  that  whenever  a  parent  has  it,  half  the  chil- 
dren at  least  will  have  it.  and  any  normal  descendant  of  such  a  par- 
ent cannot  transmit  it  to  his  offspring.  The  method  of  inheritance 
is  as  definite  as  bro"UTi  eye  color.  There  is  nothing  that  can  be  done 
to  prevent  the  progress  of  this  dire  disease.  We  recall  one  incident 
found  in  our  state  which  shows  the  ignorance  or  blindness  of  the 
average  person  toward  the  fact  of  heredity :  A  girl  wanted  to  marry 
a  young  man  who  belonged  to  a  strain  such  that,  his  father  having 


454  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

been  affected,  it  was  probable  that  he  also  would  be  affected.  He 
already  showed  some  signs  of  nervousness.  Her  parents  realized 
the  danger  and  Avarned  her  against  such  a  inarringe.  but  in  the 
blindness  of  advanced  stages  of  love,  she  said:  "Though  John  were 
ill,  I  would  marry  him.  He  is  not  ill,  and  if  he  should  fall  ill,  I 
should  wish  to  marry  him  in  order  to  care  for  him."  She  did  care 
for  him,  and  also  for  four  of  her  seven  children,  all  of  whom  were 
affected  with  this  terrible  disease. 

Our  studies  have  also  led  us  to  the  consideration  of  degenerate 
communities.  TVe  have  found  them  in  almost  evein-  eoimty  where 
careful  studies  of  the  population  living  in  out-of-the-way  places 
have  been  made.  That  it  behooves  each  state  to  know  something 
about  its  population  is  our  conclusion,  because  from  such  degener- 
ate communities,  so  far  removed  from  social  influences  that  their 
existence  even  is  not  known  to  most  of  the  people  in  the  county, 
certainly  in  the  state — from  such  localities  where  the  degenerates 
are  bred,  go  forth  a  stream  of  people  who  constitute  ein-tainly 
a  large  proportion  of  the  paupers,  beggars,  the  thieves,  burglars  and 
prostitutes  who  flock  into  our  cities. 

But  we  are  not  interested  only  in  the  degenerate  part  of  the 
population.  We  seek  to  awaken  an  interest  in  heredity  among  our 
best  stock,  so  that  in  marrying,  the  old  ideals  of  marriage  into  good 
stock  may  be  restored.  For  this  purpose  we  have  issued  schedules 
upon  which  a  person  may  record  his  family  traits,  not  only  his  own, 
but  those  of  his  brothers,  sisters,  parents,  grandparents  and  other 
closer  relatives.  Many  a  person  who  has  taken  the  trouble  to  fill 
out  these  schedules  has  first  come  to  see  vividly  what  an  important 
part  heredity  has  played  in  the  production  of  the  mosaic,  which  he 
is.  of  the  traits  which  are  found  distributed  elsewhere  in  his  family. 
Over  twelve  hundred  of  these  records  filled  out,  many  of  them  with 
the  greatest  care,  have  been  deposited  in  our  institution.  Thou- 
sands of  others  are  now  distributed  in  the  general  population  and 
many  of  them,  no  doubt,  are  in  process  of  being  completed.  We 
believe  that  it  would  be  an  excellent  thing  were  students  who  ap- 
pear in  schools  able  to  present  to  the  teacher  such  a  record  of 
inherited  capacities  or  performances  of  close  relatives  in  order  that 
the  teacher  might  have,  when  the  pupil  appears,  something  more 
than  a  blank  face  and  a  suit  of  clothes,  some  idea  of  the  probable 
potentialities  in  that  child,  that  his  teachings  might  be  directed 
in  such  a  way  as  to  develop  them  and  that  he  should  not  have  to 
wait  for  a  year  in  order  to  find  out  what  the  capacities  of  the 
pupil  are. 

In  order  to  assist  young  people  who  believe  irf  the  importance  of 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  455 

inherited  traits  in  the  selection  of  mates,  we  have  issued  also  an- 
other schedule,  and  have  distributed  one  hundred  or  more  of  them. 
This  is  called  an  index  to  the  germ-plasm.  It  is  intended  as  a  pre- 
liminary record  for  young  men  and  young  women  who  are  think- 
ing of  getting  married.  We  doubted,  perhaps,  whether  there  would 
be  any  call  for  this  schedule,  but  there  has  been  a  considerable 
call.  A  fair  number  of  people  have  returned  these  schedules  filled 
out  for  the  two  with  inquiries  asking  whether  any  judgment  could  be 
rendered  of  the  desirability  or  undesirability  of  the  proposed  mar- 
riage. We  never  give  very  definite  advice,  but  we  are  in  a  posi- 
tion to  set  forth  the  facts  in  such  a  graphic  form  that  if  they  are  ob- 
vious they  can  be  made  so  to  the  people  themselves.  We  know  oi 
t^vo  cases  at  least  in  which,  as  the  result  of  our  findings,  persons 
themselves  concluded  that  the  marriage  would  not  be  desirable  and 
so  informed  us.  In  the  majority  of  cases,  however,  there  is  noth- 
ing on  the  face  of  the  returns  which  would  enable  one  to  decide 
in  any  respect  against  the  proposed  marriage. 

We  have  also  undertaken  the  study  of  America's  great  families, 
to  see  if  we  could  find  in  what  way  the  combinations  were  made 
which  resulted  in  those  who  have  done  the  great  work  of  this  coun- 
try. We  have  been  surprised  in  these  families  to  find  how  persons 
that  we  did  not  know  to  be  related  have  acquired  their  genius 
from  the  same  source^thus  for  example :  William  Evarts  and  Sam- 
uel F.  .Hoar,  one  of  our  great  Senators,  the  present  Governor  of 
Connecticut,  and  his  father,  Simeon  E.  Baldwin,  and  William  T. 
Sherman  and  John  Sherman  were  all  cousins  and  all  came  from 
the  same  grand  stock.  So  I  might  speak  of  the  Lowell  family,  the 
Lee  soldiers,  the  Hutchinson  family  of  singers,  and  the  Wilkinsons, 
as  well  as  of  manufacturers  and  inventors.  Thus  we  find,  after  all, 
a  rather  limited  number  of  strains  which  have  supplied  in  the  past.' 
and — insofar  as  they  are  fecund — will,  in  the  future,  still  supply  to 
this  country  her  great  stock  upon  which  she  must  depend  for  ser- 
vice in  emergencies. 

One  word  more.  In  this  very  matter  of  our  great  stock  must 
we  depend  upon  the  persistence  of  them.  How  we  regret  to  see 
the  testimony  that  the  best  of  that  grand  old  New  England  stock  is 
dying  out  through  failure  to  reproduce.  A  century  and  a  quarter  ago 
there  was  graduated  from  Harvard  College  John  Lowell,  who  be- 
came a  judge.  At  the  time  he  was  graduated  he  declared  that  he 
would  not  marry,  as  many  another  Harvard  graduate  has  declared, 
because  it  would  interfere  with  his  professional  success.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  he  did  marry.  He  married  tliuee  times.  One  of  his  sons, 
John  Lowell,  founded  the  Academv  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  one  of  the 


456  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE   BETTERMENT 

leading:  academies  in  the  country,  and  was  also  prominent  in  the 
establishment  of  the  Boston  Atheneum.  From  him  also  descended 
Lawrence  Lowell,  now  President  of  Harvard  University,  and  Per- 
cival  Lowell,  the  astronomer;  also  the  Lowell  Avho  founded  Lowell. 
Massachusetts,  and  the  cotton  industry  of  Massachusetts,  and  his 
son,  who  founded  the  Lowell  Institute  of  Boston,  which  has  for  a 
greneration  or  more  provided  lecturers  for  the  people  of  that  town ; 
also  from  him  descended  Charles  Lowell,  a  well-beloved  martyr  to 
his  country  in  the  Civil  War,  and  his  brother,  James  Kussell  Lowell, 
whom  we  all  know  as  a  poet,  professor  and  ambassador.  What  a 
terrible  loss  to  this  country  if  John  Lowell  had  carried  out  his 
plan  of  never  marrying. 

So  we  wish  to  bring  home  to  the  American  people  the  importance 
of  heredity,  but  above  all.  the  importance  of  marrying,  marrying  well 
and  having  healthy,  effective  children — and  plenty  of  them. 


RELATION  OF  EUGENICS  AND  EUTHENICS  TO  RACE  BETTERMENT 

Maynard  M.  Metcalf,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  Biology,  Oberlin  College,  Ober- 
lin,  Ohio. 

The  privilege  of  claiming  your  attention  for  a  few  minutes  is 
doubtless  given  to  me  as  a  biologist,  and  I  shall  speak  chiefly  of 
the  biological  aspects  of  the  sub.ject.  leaving  to  others  to  discuss 
its  sociological  aspects. 

There  are  three  phases  of  the  problem  of  human  betterment — 
culture,  eugenics,  and  evolution — and  these  need  to  be  carefully 
distinguished.  They  are  commonly  confused  in  the  minds  of  those 
who  have  given  little  thought  to  the  biological  aspects  of  the 
problem,  and  such  confusion  is  likely  to  lead  to  misdirected  effort. 
The  biologist  who  makes  no  claim  to  be  a  sociologist  may  make  a 
few  suggestions  to  which  the  student  of  social  problems  may  well 
give  heed. 

Human  betterment  may  be  secured  thru  work  for  the  relief  of 
distress,  thru  education  of  the  individual,  also  by  inspiring  him  to 
action  upon  a  higher  moral  plane.  By  the  cumulative  effects  of 
such  culture,  generation  after  generation,  great  social  advance 
may  be  made.  It  is  by  this  method  that  our  great  advance  in  civili- 
zation has  been  secured.  This  is,  of  course,  work  of  the  greatest 
value,  promoting  profoundly  human  happiness  and  social  progress. 
It  needs  no  defense.  It  makes  a  strong,  natural  appeal  to  every 
normal  man.     If  effort  for  the  comfort  of  domestic  animals  is  rec- 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  457 

ognized  by  us  all  as  of  worth,  how  much  more  must  we  approve  all 
intelligent  endeavor  to  advance  human  welfare.  In  nothing  that  I 
shall  say  would  I  wish  to  be  interpreted  as  lacking  in  appreciation 
of  and  enthusiasm  for  such  individual  and  social  culture.  Con- 
tributing to  the  happiness  of  one's  family  and  neighbors,  promo- 
tion of  normal  living  among  them,  is  a  life  motive  worthy  of  any 
man,  and  when  we  realize  that  the  betterment  thus  effected  need 
not  cease  with  the  present  generation,  but  may  improve  the  social 
conditions  under  which  all  following  generations  shall  live,  this 
ideal  becomes  glorified. 

But  in  all  the  centuries  of  known  human  history,  while  wonder- 
ful advance  in  individual  conduct  and  social  relations  has  been 
secured  thru  the  cumulative  effect  of  the  cultural  effort  that  has 
been  made,  there  has  been  little,  if  any,  advancement  in  innate 
human  character.  There  has  been  thru  all  the  centuries  little,  if 
any,  improved  inheritance  for  the  race  as  a  result  of  the  many 
generations  of  culture.  I  have  before  written:  "We  have  no  reason 
to  believe  that  the  progress  in  culture,  secured  by  education  in  one 
generation,  will  directly  improve  the  innate  character  of  the  chil- 
dren of  the  next  generation.  Were  the  effects  of  education  inherited, 
human  evolution  should  be  rapid,  but  it  has  been  slow;  how  slow 
perhaps  few  of  us  realize.  We  speak  with  pride  of  the  advance  of 
human  civilization,  of  our  progress  in  the  arts  and  in  useful  knowl- 
edge, of  the  improvement  in  morals  and  the  growth  of  altruism,  and 
this  all  makes  us  blind  to  the  fact  that  since  the  dawn  of  history 
there  has  been  no  clearly  recognizable  evolution  of  mankind.  We 
reach  larger  results  in  the  problem  of  life  than  did  our  progenitors 
five  thousand  years  ago,  but  we  are  able  to  do  so  because  we  build 
upon  their  experience  and  that  of  all  the  generations  between. 

"Have  we  much  greater  innate  powers!  Are  we  at  birth  en- 
dowed with  characters  having  much  higher  possibilities  and  much 
higher  tendencies,  physically,  intellectually,  and  morally?  Have  we 
today  men  of  much  greater  physical  prowess  than  the  ancient  con- 
querors of  the  world,  than  the  builders  who  constructed  the  monu- 
ments of  Egypt?  Have  we  more  adventurous  spirits  or  more  success- 
ful explorers  than  the  Phoenicians,  who,  vidthout  compass,  sailed  the 
ancient  seas,  reaching  the  whole  Atlantic  coast  of  Europe  and  the 
British  Isles,  also  passing  southward  even  around  the  tip  of  Africa  ? 
Are  there  among  us  today  men  of  keener  inventive  genius  than 
the  one  who  first  used  fire,  or  the  inventor  of  the  lever  or  of  the 
wheel,  or  than  the  man  who  first  made  bronze  or  smelted  ore? 
Our  modern  engines  have  been  invented,  screw  by  screw,  by  suc- 
cessive builders,  each  building  upon  the  others'  work.     Have  we 


458  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERiMKNT 

today  men  of  much  larjsier  legal  and  social  iinderstauding  than  the 
ancient  law-fjivers  who  forged  the  legal  systems  which  still  are 
the  basis  of  our  most  enlightened  governments?  Have  we  poets 
whose  genius  greatly  transcends  that  of  Homer,  or  of  the  authors 
of  the  books  of  Job  and  Ruth?  In  esthetic  appreciation,  and  in 
the  power  of  artistic  expression  in  sculpture  and  architecture,  we 
are  degenerate  compared  with  the  Greeks. 

"Even  in  innate  moral  character  have  we  greatly  advanced? 
We  are  learning  the  lesson  of  altruism,  but  are  we  horn  with  a 
sturdier  moral  sense?  If  we  could  take  a  hundred  thousand  infants 
from  London  or  Chicago  and,  turning  back  the  wheel  of  time,  place 
them  in  the  homes  of  ancient  Babylon,  w^ould  they  reach  a  higher 
standard  of  righteousness  or  of  altruism  than  their  neighbors? 
How  little  evidence  we  have  of  real  evolution  of  mankind  since  the 
first  emergence  of  the  race  from  the  darkness  of  prehistoric 
times!"*  ^^| 

But  tho  -we  accept  the  statement  that  innate  human  character 
cannot  be  improved  by  the  direct  inheritance  of  the  effects  of  cul- 
ture, there  still  remains  to  us  the  eugenic  method  of  procedure, 
which,  if  it  can  wisely  be  applied,  may  result  in  improvement  in 
the  stirp,  in  the  real  essential  innate  character.  This  is  an  ideal 
that  fires  the  imagination — the  breeding  of  a  race  that  shall  be 
strong  and  wholesome,  physically,  intellectually  and  morally;  men 
who  shall  be  decent  because  they  are  inherently  decent,  not  because 
by  training  they  restrain  their  evil  tendencies;  a  race  from  whose 
fundamental  character  the  evil  tendencies  are  actually  removed. 
This  is  a  social  ideal  higher  even  than  was  apparently  present  to 
the  mind  of  Jesus. 

Is  this  ideal — of  a  race  of  inherently  wholesome  men — utterly 
chimerical,  or  is  there  a  way  of  approaching  it?  No  positive,  in- 
dubitable answer  can  now  be  given  to  this  question,  for  scientific 
study  of  heredity  has  not  yet  given  us  extensive  knowledge  of  the 
biological,  especially  the  psychological,  phenomena  of  inheritance. 

This  second  part  of  the  problem  of  human  betterment,  real  race 
betterment,  is  a  problem  of  good  breeding,  not  one  of  culture. 
This  problem  of  good  breeding  has  two  somewhat  distinct  aspects 
that  are  seldom  clearly  distinguished.  There  is  first  the  problem 
of  bringing  the  race  ^yerage^nearer  Jto  its  present  best  by  eliminat- 
ing the  less  desirable  and  breeding  from  the  best.  This  is  the  prob- 
TemfoTlen^enics  as  ordinarily  considered.     But  there  is  the  added 


*  Metcalf.      "An    Outline    of   the    Theory    of    Organic    Evolution."      3d 
Edition. 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  459 

problem  of  securing  further  true  evolution  of  the  race,  raising  the 
present  best  to  a  better. 

We  see  thus  the  three  aspects  of  the  problem  of  human  better- 
ment: First,  human  culture,  whose  effects  are  cumulative  thru 
training  from  generation  to  generation,  the  not  inherited;  second, 
race  betterment  thru  breeding  from  the  best  and  eliminating  the 
more  undesirable,  thus  raising  the  general  average  toward  the  best 
type  of  manhood  as  we  know  it ;  third,  the  problem  of  securing  true 
evolution  beyond  the  point  of  the  best  yet  experienced  among  men. 

The  problem  of  human  culture  is  social,  not  biological.  The 
problem  of  eugenics  and  evolution  are  primarily  biological,  but  can 
be  approached  •  only  if  social  conditions  allow  the  application  of 
biological  method.  It  is  necessary  to  emphasize  cultural  effort,  for 
it  is  essential  that  the  good  breeding  of  the  future  human  race  be 
in  the  midst  of  a  controlling  atmosphere  of  highest  altruistic  ideal- 
ism. Let  us  note  for  a  moment  some  elements  of  the  biological 
problem. 

I  cannot  stop  to  describe  the  microscopical  structure  of  germ 
cells  and  their  nuclei;  the  fact  that  the  nuclei  contain  chromosomes 
in  definite  number  which  are  the  instigators  of  physiological  action 
and  the  controllers  in  heredity;  that  the  chromosomes  in  each  nu- 
cleus fall  into  diverse  categories  physiologically,  there  being  two 
chromosomes  of  each  physiological  type,  one  derived  from  the  male 
parent  and  one  from  the  female  parent;  that  the  different  regions 
of  a  single  chromosome  may  have  different  physiological  values, 
and  that  in  the  division  of  nuclei  the  chromosomes  split  in  such  a 
manner  that  each  daughter  cell  receives  half  of  each  specialized 
bit  of  each  chromosome;  that  before  fertilization  one  chromosome 
of  each  physiological  pair  is  thrown  away,  and  that  in  fertilization 
the  full  double  character  of  the  nucleus  is  restored.  Of  course, 
without  knowledge  of  these  structures  in  the  germ  cells  and  of  their 
behavior  in  reproduction,  one  is  not  ready  to  begin  to  think  of 
problems  of  inheritance.  Familiarity  with  these  fundamental  facts 
not  only  helps  one  to  escape  many  errors  into  which  so  many  of 
the  uninitiated  fall,  as,  for  example,  the  belief  in  the  inheritance  of 
the  effects  of  culture,  that  is  of  acquired  characters,  but  it  is  essen- 
tial as  a  guide  to  every  step  of  one's  thinking  in  this  field.  But 
I  must  assume  that  these  are  familiar  matters  to  you  all. 

Recent  studies  in  heredity  have  demonstrated  that  there  is  a 
sharp,  distinction  between  qualitieis  that  are  heritable  and  others 
that  are  not  heritable.  We  name  the  former  stable  characters,  the 
latter  unstable,  or  fluctuating  characters.  New  qualities  are  arising 
from   generation   to    generation   thru   variation.     These   variations 


4G0  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

may  similarly  be  classed  as  stable  variations,  or  mutations,  and 
fluctuating,  or  unstable,  variations.  No  result  can  be  reached  by 
breeding  with  reference  to  unstable  variations  or  qualities,  for 
they  are  not  inherited.  Qualities  belonging  to  the  unstable  type  can- 
not be  fixed  by  breeding.  They  are,  therefore,  vvdthout  significance 
in  the  problems  of  eugenics  and  evolution.  It  is  impossible,  how- 
ever, to  discern  whether  an  observed  quality  is  of  the  stable  or  un- 
stable type  until  one  follows  its  behavior  in  inheritance. 

Another  fact  of  the  greatest  importance  to  remember  is  that 
there  is  probably  no  such  thing  as  inheritance  of  vague  general 
resemblances,  but  that  inheritance  is  apparently  always  particular, 
definite  so-called  unit  qualities  being  the  things  inherited.  The 
character  of  any  individual  is  built  up  of  a  complex  multitude  of 
such  unit  qualities,  each  heritable  separately,  and  the  character  of 
an  individual  depends  up.on  the  combination  and  interaction  of  the 
unit  qualities  that  have  been  passed  down  to  him  from  his  parents, 
grandparents  and  other  progenitors. 

In  the  light  of  these  facts,  what  is  the  essential  problem,  first 
in  eugenics,  then  in  evolution  ?  The  eugenics  problem  is  to  determine 
accurately  the  desirable  unit  qualities,  M'hich  must  be  of  the 
stable  type,  and  to  combine  and  fix  them  in  the  race  by  breeding, 
eliminating  at  the  same  time  the  undesirable  unit  qualities.  It  is 
the  problem  of  finding  the  exact  units  of  inheritance,  and  of  so 
fixing  and  combining,  by  breeding,  these  valuable  units  in  the  indi- 
viduals of  the  coming  generations  that  we  shall  have  a  more  whole- 
some innate  character  in  mankind.  The  evolution  problem  is  to 
find  among  the  multitude  of  diverse  human  traits,  new  desirable 
unit  qualities  of  the  stable  type,  often  only  in  their  beginnings, 
and  to  perpetuate  these  by  breeding. 

The  Galton-Pearson  school  of  English  students  is  willing  to 
waive  accurate  analysis  of  inheritance  units,  but  the  real  problem 
will  not  be  solved  until  w^e  know  whether  the  human  qualities  with 
which  we  wish  to  deal,  the  intellectual  and  moral  as  well  as  the 
physical,  do  follow  the  Mendelian  principles  in  inheritance,  and 
until  we  have  analyzed  the  iMendelian  qualities  to  their  units.  We 
have  a  notable  example  of  failure  to  secure  permanent  valuable  re- 
sults in  attempting  to  breed  from  individuals  whose  valued  char- 
acter had  not  been  analyzed  to  its  unit  qualities.  At  the  Agricul- 
tural Experiment  station  in  Orono,  Me.,  many  years  of  efi'ort 
were  given  to  securing  a  strain  of  fowl  which  would  lay  an  un- 
usually large  number  of  eggs.  Mere  breeding  from  hens  which  laid 
many  eggs  was  not  found  to  be  einough.  The  quality  of  high  fecun- 
dity could  not  be  fixed  in  the  strain.    Selection  had  to  be  continue(J 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  461 

in  each  generation  or  reversion  to  the  general  average  would  oc- 
cur. It  was  only  after  Raymond  Pearl's  masterful  experimental 
analysis  of  fecundity  in  fowls  into  its  three  physiological  unit  char- 
acters, and  his  combining  of  the  three  units  into  one  individual,  that 
it  was  possible  to  secure  a  strain  in  which  high  fecundity  was  a 
fixed  character.  In  breeding  humankind,  the  manipulation  of  un- 
analyzed  qualities  might  prove  as  futile  as  the  earlier  experiments 
at  the  University  of  Maine.  On  the  other  hand,  Burbank,  in  his 
breeding  experiments,  has  reached  some  permanent  results,  tho  he 
has  never  scientifically  analyzed  into  their  units  the  desirable  quali- 
ties he  has  succeeded  in  combining  and  fixing.  But  in  each  case 
he  has  dealt  experimentally  with  many  thousands  of  individuals 
and  has  reached  success  in  but  a  small  proportion  of  his  attempts. 
His  methods  offer  little  chance  of  success  in  human  breeding. 

Even  one  wholly  unfamiliar  with  the  subject  can  see  at  once 
that  the  mere  outlining  of  the  biological  problems  of  eugenics  and 
evolution  is  wholly  impossible  in  a  limited  paper  such  as  this.  Yet 
this  very  fact  points  the  chief  moral  I  wish  to  urge. 

We  are  at  the  very  beginning  of  our  knowledge  of  heredity. 
Few  of  the  myriad  of  unit  qualities  in  mankind,  or  other  animals, 
have  been  identified  and  defined.  We  know  some,  perhaps  all,  the 
units  of  hair  color  and  eye  color,  we  know  some  of  the  units  of 
shape  of  hair,  and  a  few  other  such  comparatively  simple  qualities. 
But,  as  yet,  we  are  merely  entering  the  pass  that  opens  onto  the 
broad  fields  of  knowledge  of  inheritance.  We  have  analyzed  a 
mere  handful  of  the  simpler  physical  unit  qualities.  We  know 
nothing,  as  yet,  of  psychic  unit  qualities.  We  cannot  even  be  posi- 
tive that  the  inheritance  of  psychic  qualities  is  by  definite  units 
which  follow  the  so-called  Mendelian  laws  of  inheritance.  That 
intellectual  qualities,  and  moral  stamina,  are  heritable  seems  indi- 
cated, but  the  parallelism  between  their  mode  of  inheritance  and 
that  of  such  a  thing  as  hair  color,  however  probable,  is  as  yet  not 
definitely  demonstrated.  It  is  possible  that  most  psychic  qualities 
are  too  complex  ever  to  be  successfully  and  completely  resolved 
into  their  heritable  units. 

How  much  progress,  then,  may  we  hope  for?  We  don't  know, 
and  we  cannot  know,  until  we  have  had  decades,  perhaps  centuries, 
of  further  study  of  these  most  intricate  problems.  By  the  biologist, 
trained  thru  the  study  of  evolution  to  think  in  geologic  epochs 
rather  than  years,  the  dawn  of  a  new  day  for  mankind  is  foreseen. 
But  to  the  sociologist,  whose  chief  business  is  to  apply  our  knowl- 
edge to  present  conditions,  the  whole  subject  is  of  much  more  lim- 
ited interest.     Aside  from  a  few  very  limited  aspects  of  negative 


462  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

practice  of  eugenics,  the  whole  subject  is,  as  yet,  of  little  social  sig- 
nificance. The  prolonged  labor  of  hundreds  of  special  students  is 
needed  before  this  matter,  which  already  is  of  the  keenest  biological 
interest,  can  become  of  the  greatest  social  moment.  We  must  culti- 
vate a  little  of  the  patience  of  God.  It  is  perhaps  unfortunate  that 
so  much  attention  from  laymen  is  focused  upon  this  great  field  of 
research.  The  man  of  science  needs  to  work  quietly,  patiently, 
doggedly,  without  too  much  thought  of  so-called  practical  value  to 
follow  from  his  studies.  He  is  painting  the  thing  as  he  sees  it  for 
the  god  of  things  as  they  are,  and  he  is  fortunate,  in  a  way,  if  he 
can  find  a  separate  star  where  he  may  work  undisturbed  by  the 
too  eager  interest  of  the  crowd  who  clamor  to  know  the  significance 
of  each  brush-stroke. 

Shall  we  then  attempt  no  practical  application  in  eugenics  of 
the  little  knowledge  of  inheritance  which  we  have  already  attained  !^ 
For  myself.  I  am  in  doubt.  A  number  of  states  are  making  laws 
for  the  sterilization  of  certain  undesirable  classes,  and  are  making 
the  enforcement  of  these  laws  subject  to  the  "expert"  advice  of  a 
board  composed  generally  of  physicians.  As  a  matter  of  fact  there 
are  very  few  states  in  this  Union  w^hich  have  among  their  citizens 
men  capable  of  exercising  expert  judgment  in  these  matters,  and 
these  men  are  not  physicians,  but  biologists  engaged  in  studies  of 
heredity.  Furthermore,  in  but  few  individual  instances  are  there 
genealogical  inheritance  records  which  can  serve  as  the  basis  of 
such  expert  opinion. 

One  thing,  however,  of  the  greatest  practical  value  we  can  do. 
We  can  promote  in  every  possible  way  the  gathering  and  safe  filing 
of  human  inheritance  records,  which  in  the  future  will  serve  as  the 
foundation  of  such  practice  of  eugenics  as  shall  prove  wise  and 
practical.  I  can  in  imagination  see  the  day  when  the  compilation 
of  inheritance  data  for  each  citizen  will  be  compulsory,  and  when 
the  files  of  these  records  will  be  the  most  valued  of  all  state  docu- 
ments; when  no  marriage  license  will  be  issued  except  after  the 
most  careful  scrutiny  of  the  inheritance  records  of  each  contracting 
party  by  trained  students  of  inheritance,  and  when  the  state  will 
debar  from  marriage  those  whose  children  will  be  a  burden  to  the 
state.  The  bearing  of  children  is.  of  course,  not  an  individual 
right,  but  a  social  privilege,  and  in  time  it  must  come  to  be  so  rec- 
ognized. 

With  eugenics  as  our  goal,  with  a  hope  of  ultimately  greatly 
improving  the  fundamental  character  of  the  race,  let  us  Cultivate 
patience,  allowing  time  for  the  ^sure  grasp  of  the  phenomena  and 
I'elations  in  heredity,  before  attempting  by  law  any  but  the  most 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  463 

limited  applications  of  its  principles  to  human  marriage.  Let  us 
promote  the  view  that  social  welfare,  not  individual  comfort,  is 
the  ultimate  criterion  in  marriage,  and  meauAvhile  let  us  actively 
promote  the  gathering  and  preserving  of  inheritance  records  for 
all  persons,  thus  providing  data  for  intelligent  practice  of  eugenics 
in  coming  generations.  We  can  at  once  insist  upon  the  gathering" 
of  such  data  for  all  persons  in  our  state  penal  institutions,  alms- 
houses, hospitals,  asylums,  etc.  I  am  told  that  the  city  of  Rochester 
is  gathering  similar  data  as  to  its  public  school  children.  AVe  can 
urge  the  same  practice  in  privately  controlled  institutions  of  simi- 
lar purpose.  "We  can  urge  right-minded  individuals  everywhere 
to  supply  such  data  as  to  themselves  and  their  families.  But  this 
will  still  fall  far  short  of  our  need,  for  those  who  are  contributing 
the  most  children  to  the  coming  generation  will  be  the  last  volun- 
tarily to  supply  the  desired  data.  Nothing  short  of  a  state  system 
of  compulsory  gathering  of  data  for  all  individuals  can  serve  as 
an  adequate  basis  for  such  negative  eugenics  as  it  may  in  time  be 
wise  to  enforce  by  law.  But  such  compulsory  gathering  of  data 
cannot  now  be  had.  There  must  first  be  much  education  of  general 
sentiment,  and  there  must  be  trained  students  to  take  the  records. 

That  observant  naturalist,  Oliver  Herford,  speaking  in  the  sup- 
posed person  of  a  crab,  recently  said:  "Be  sure  you  are  rights 
then  go  sideways  for  all  you  are  worth."  I  am  asking  for  more  time 
for  the  man  of  science  to  do  his  work  before  we  insist  upon  applying 
too  widely  his  results,  lest  in  such  application  of  uncertain  scientific 
data  we  find  ourselves  making  crab-like  progress. 

But  I  cannot  close  with  such  a  negative  word.  There  are  posi- 
tive aspects  of  the  matter  which  deserve  the  chief  emphasis.  Let 
me  again  urge  that  among  the  great  needs  must  be  recognized  scien- 
tific study  of  the  principles  of  inheritance,  and  for  this  liberal  finan- 
cial support  should  be  had ;  and  the  cultivation  of  the  realization 
that  in  marriage  it  is  ignoble  to  seek  the  happiness  only  of  the  man 
and  wife  and  to  forget  the  character  of  the  children  and  thru  them 
the  welfare  of  society.  Our  poets  and  prophets,  as  well  as  our  men 
of  science,  must  open  men's  eyes  to  the  beauty  and  worth  of  the 
social  ideal  in  the  family.  Tho  we  have  advanced  so  short  a  way 
in  the  discovery  of  the  phenomena  and  principles  of  inheritance^ 
and  tho  we  have  accurate  inheritance  tables  for  so  few  individuals, 
we  can  still  clearly  discern  that  marriage  of  certain  individuals  is 
unsocial.  To  what  extent  the  state  can  now  intervene  to  prevent 
such  marriage  is  a  question  which  needs  careful  detailed  study,  and 
is  not  an  appropriate  question  for  discussion  in  this  brief  general 
paper.     But  aside  from  this  question  of  the  limits  of  state  action,^ 


4()4  KIRST    XATIOXAL    COXKEHENCK    OX    RACE    BETTERMENT 

we  must  emphasize  the  vital  need  of  cultivation  of  the  social  point 
of  view  in  this  most  vital  of  social  institutions,  the  family,  and  the 
need  now  to  gather  the  data  upon  which  eugenics  may  in  the  future 
be  based. 


THE   PSYCHOLOGICAL   LIMIT   OF   EUGENICS 

Herbert  Adolphus  Miller,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  Sociology,  Olivet  College, 
Olivet.  Michigan. 

There  has  been  a  good  deal  of  difference  in  opinion  at  this  Con- 
ference, but  nobody  has  yet  called  anybody  else  names.  This  is  a 
peculiar  form  of  sport,  however,  in  which  I  shall  indulge.  I  was 
asked  to  have  a  sociological  paper  for  this  Race  Betterment  Con- 
ference, and  though  I  Imew  nothing  about  it,  I  presumed  there  would 
be  something  of  eugenics  in  it,  so  I  started  with  criticism  of  the 
celebrated  eugenist  who  preceded  me.  When  I  found  that  he  came  on 
the  program  before  me,  it  embarrassed  me,  but  rather  stimulated  me, 
so  I  wdll  leave  out  nothing. 

The  rapidity  with  which  the  eugenic  idea  has  spread  is  little 
short  of  wonderful,  and  its  value  cannot  be  overestimated.  How- 
ever, this  value  has  been  not  only,  and  not  chiefly,  for  what  it  has 
claimed  for  heredity,  but  for  the  attention  it  has  turned  toward 
sanitation  and  hygiene. 

This  is  a  time  of  great  social  unrest,  and  any  panacea  which 
offers  to  solve  our  problems  is  eagerly  embraced.  Eugenics  has 
volunteered  for  the  service,  which  accounts  in  part  for  its  rapid 
spread. 

A  second  reason  is  its  simplicity.  Only  one  principle  is  required 
to  dispose  of  all  problems.  As  Dr.  C.  A.  L.  Reed  says:  "So  vigor- 
ous, aggressive  and  all-pervading  have  become  the  demands  upon 
the  'science  of  being  well  born.'  that  many  have  come  wrongly  to 
think  that  there  is  no  problem  other  than  heredity  in  the  great 
problem  of  race  culture. ' '  * 

It  is  the  object  of  this  paper  to  show  that  even  if  a  perfect 
eugenic  system  were  in  vogue,  practically  every  social  problem 
which  we  are  now  trying  to  solve  would  still  remain,  and  I  wish 
also  to  urge  that  in  spite  of  Avhat  good  it  may  have  done,  it  has  also 
done  a  very  great  harm  in  diverting  attention  from  the  really  fun- 
damental problems  which  underlie  the  question  of  race  improve- 
ment. 

The  cocksureness  of  the  eugenist  is  illustrated  by  the  following 


*  Lancet-Clinic,  Jan.  3,  1914. 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION   •  -165 

quotation  from  Alexander  Graham  Bell:  "The  individuals  have 
the  power  to  improve  the  race,  but  not  the  knowledge  what  to  do. 
We  students  of  genetics  possess  the  knowledge  but  not  the  power; 
and  the  great  hope  lies  in  the  dissemination  of  our  knowledge  among 
the  people  at  large. " '  In  similar  strain  but  more  comprehensive 
and  more  confident  we  find  Davenport  saying  in  a  magazine  article : 
"To  the  eugenist,  heredity  stands  as  the  one  great  hope  of  the 
human  race,  its  savior  from  imbecility,  poverty,  disease,  immor- 
ality."" Let  me  quote  further  from  Davenport's  book,  "Heredity  in 
Relation  to  Eugenics":  "Man  is  an  organism — an  animal:  and 
the  laws  of  improvement  of  corn  and  of  race  horses  hold  true  of 
him  also.  Unless  people  accept  this  simple  truth  and  let  it  influence 
marriage  selection,  human  progress  will  cease."*  Again:  "Per- 
haps the  best  definition  of  feeble-minded  would  be :  '  deficient  in 
some  socially  important  trait,'  and  then  the  class  would  include 
also  the  sexually  immoral,  the  criminalistic,  those  who  .cannot  con- 
trol their  use  of  narcotics,  those  who  habitually  tell  lies  by  prefer- 
ence, and  those  who  run  away  from  home  and  school."*  Again: 
"A  settlement  worker  in  New  York  City  inquired  into  the  meaning 
of  a  particularly  unruly  and  criminalistic  section  of  his  territory 
and  found  that  the  offenders  came  from  one  village  in  Calabria 
known  as  the  'home  of  brigands.'  "^  The  implication  here  is  that 
the  germ-plasm  in  Calabria  is  bad.  Finally  comparing  the  influ- 
ence of  the  criminals  who  were  sent  to  Virginia  from  England,  he 
says:  "Soon  better  blood  crowded  into  Virginia  to  redeem  the 
colony.  Upon  the  execution  of  Charles  I.  a  host  of  royalist  refugees 
sought  an  asylum  here  and  the  immigration  of  this  class  continued 
even  after  the  Restoration.  By  this  means  was  enriched  a  germ- 
plasm  which  easily  developed  such  traits  as  good  manners,  high 
culture,  and  the  ability  to  lead  in  all  social  affairs — traits  combined 
in  a  remarkable  degree  in  the  first  families  of  Virginia. ' ' ' 

Please  remember  that  I  am  not  denying  a  great  deal  of  good  in 
this  movement,  but  too  little  attention  has  been  given  to  either 
psychology  or  sociology,  and  unjustifiable  conclusions  have  been 
drawn.  The  vogue  of  these  conclusions  is  likely  to  delay  progress 
by  putting  our  thinking  back  twenty  years,  since  which  time  the 
sociologists  have  been  patiently  building  up  the  data  of  social 
psychology. 

After  the  theory  of  evolution  had  been  pretty  thoroughly  under- 
stood, the  Speneerian  idea  of  its  universal  application  was  eagerly 


^  Journal  of  Heredity,  January,  1914,  p.  1.        -  C.  B.  Davenijort,  Pop.  Sci. 
3Ion.  3  p_  1,  4"p_  9_  5  p_  3_g3_  « p^  207. 


4:66  FIR^T    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

appropriuteil.  It  was  simple  ami  eoniprehensive.  If  we  found  a 
condition  of  social  inferiority,  the  answer  was,  "a  lower  stage  of 
evolution."  A  race  was  less  enlightened  and  thus  proved  its  bio- 
logical inferiority.  It  was  a  fine  case  of  reasoning  posi  hoc,  ergo 
propter  hoc.  In  my  opinion  the  reasoning  in  the  quotations  I  have 
just  given  is  of  the  same  sort.  "A  band  of  brigands,  a  bad 
heredity."  No  one  would  be  more  glad  than  the  sociologist  to  find 
a  simple  explanation  of  social  phenomena,  but  there  is  none,  and 
to  the  minds  of  most  sociologists.  I  venture  to  say  that  instead  of 
being  the  one  hope,  eugenics  barely  touches  the  problem  of  funda- 
mental race  improvement,  although  it  has  a  definite  place. 

In  1893,  Huxley,  in  his  lecture  on  Evolution  and  Ethics,  sounded 
the  warning  against  making  too  close  connections  between  the 
physical  and  the  social  values.  He  said:  "There  is  a  fallacy  .  .  . 
in  the  notion  that  because,  on  the  whole,  plants  and  animals  have 
advanced  in  ^lerf ection  of  organization  by  means  of  the  struggle  for 
existence,  and  the  consequent  survival  of  the  fittest,  therefore  men 
in  society,  men  as  ethical  beings,  must  look  to  the  same  process  to 
help  them  towards  perfection.  .  .  .  Social  progress  means  a  check- 
ing of  the  cosmic  process  at  every  step  and  the  substitution  for  it 
of  another,  which  may  be  called  the  ethical  process;  the  end  of 
which  is  not  the  survival  of  those  who  may  happen  to  be  the  fittest 
(in  the  respect  of  the  whole  of  the  conditions  which  obtain),  but 
of  those  who  are  ethically  best. '  '* 

The  eugenist  would  say  that  he  is  in  full  agreement  with  that 
statement,  but  he  seems  to  think  that  the  inheritance  of  these  ethi- 
cal qualities  follows  the  same  laws  as  the  inheritance  of  biological 
qualities.  Man  may  be  bred  for  qualities  just  as  the  race  horse  is 
bred,  but  he  may  not  then  fit  social  conditions  any  better  than  a 
race  horse  fits  plowing.  It  is  of  interest  and  biological  value  to 
discover  the  verification  of  Mendel's  law  in  the  inheritance  of  eye 
color  and  stature,  but  it  has  no  more  social  significance  than  whether 
Mendel's  dwarf  or  giant  peas  tasted  the  better.  Much  of  the  other 
data  collected  belongs  in  the  same  class.  They  belong  to  the  world 
of  description,  while  good  and  bad  belong  to  the  world  of  appre- 
ciation and  value  and  are  subject  to  entirely  different  laws.  This 
is  the  idea  which  no  one  seemed  to  understand,  offered  by  Dr. 
Richard  C.  Cabot  last  fall  at  the  meeting  of  the  Society  of  Sanitary 
and  Moral  Prophylaxis,  when  he  insisted  that  there  is  no  necessary 
relation  betM^een  "the  rules  of  sanitation  and  the  commands  of 
morality. '  't 

*  D.  Appleton  and  Company,  pp.  80,  SL 
t  See  The  Survey,  Oct.  25,  1913. 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  467 

For  purposes  of  argument  I  am  willing  to  grant  that  imbecility 
and  some  diseases  are  sufficiently  pathological  to  justify  some 
eugenic  measures,  though  some  brief  could  be  made  for  even  the 
feeble-minded,  but  every  other  one  of  Doctor  Davenport's  catalogue 
I  will  .not  grant.  Consider  some  of  .them:  "poverty,  sexually  im- 
moral, criminalistic,  those  who  cannot  control  the  use  of  narcotics, 
liars,  and  those  who  run  away  from  home  and  school,  good  man- 
ners, high  culture."  A  few  of  these  may  be  related  to  imbeciles, 
but  so  far  as  they  constitute  social  problems,  only  a  very  small  per 
cent  of  them  are  abnormals,  and  yet  they  represent  conditions  that 
seriously  handicap  race  improvement. 

Please  keep  this  list  in  mind  while  we  turn  to  another  considera- 
tion. There  are  two  technical  terms  in  sociology  which  are  gain- 
ing increased  significance.  They  are  Social  Control  and  Mores. 
The  latter  is  one  of  the  methods  of  the  former.  Mores  was  the 
word  used  by  the  late  Professor  Sumner,  of  Yale,  to  indicate  the 
mental  and  moral  environment  into  which  a  child  i^  born  and  which 
he  accepts  as  ultimate  intellectual  and  moral  authority.  The  widest 
variety  of  racial  and  social  expressions  must  be  explained  by  means 
of  this  post-natal  psychological  inheritance.  Professor  Ames,  of 
Chicago,  indicates  something  of  the  process  of  its  acquirement: 
"Every  hiiman  being,  if  he  is  to  live  at  all,  is,  from  infancy,  sur- 
rounded and  cared  for  by  persons.  These  persons  fit  into  and  help 
constitute  a  social  group.  The  child  is  nourished,  sheltered,  guided, 
and  disciplined  by  this  human  environment.  All  objects  and  influ- 
ences are  mediated  by  the  persons  near  him.  His  very  sensations 
are  determined  and  modified  by  them."  *  The  old-time  evolutionist 
and  the  modern  eugenist  alike  make  little  of  social  control  in  their 
effort  to  make  clear  the  biological  control  of  social  processes. 

Now  we  will  return  briefly  to  the  list  of  characteristics. 

Poverty  is  a  serious  problem,  but  in  popular  terms  we  must 
change  the  "system,"  and  then  only  a  small  percentage  will  be 
in  poverty  for  biologically  pathological  reasons.  Syndicalism  and 
other  problems  of  class  consciousness  are  psychological  facts. 

Take  sexual  immorality:  according  to  their  o'v^ti  confessions,  we 
Avould  need  to  begin  with  the  elimination  of  the  greatest  moral 
teacher  of  the  early  church,  St,  Augustine,  and  the  greatest  stimu- 
lator of  modern  social  ideals.  Count  Tolstoy.  The  sex  mores  of 
Russia  today  are  very  different  from  those  of  America,  and  from 
those  of  Tolstoy's  youth,  and  from  what  they  will  be  a  generation 
hence — all  without  the  slightest  help  from  eugenics,  solely  by  the 
psychic  force  of  social  control. 

*  Psychological  Bulletin,  VIII.,  p.  407. 


468  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE   BETTERMENT 

To  be  sure,  a  part  of  the  prostitutes  are  feeble-minded,  but  even 
they  are  prostitutes  largely  as  a  result  of  the  mores  of  their  group 
and  the  commercial  demand  for  their  services. 

As  to  the  criminalistic,  Lombroso  with  great  pains  made  an 
anthropological  description  of  the  criminalistic  type,  but  scarcely 
a  criminologist  in  Europe  or  America  today  accepts  his  conclusions, 
and  the  modern  science  of  penology  is  based  on  the  system  of  social 
control. 

The  same  is  true  of  the  use  of  narcotics.  With  the  exception 
of  the  few  diseased  who  need  special  care,  drunkenness  is  the  prod- 
uct of  group  mores.  The  most  drunken  people  in  the  world  are  un- 
doubtedly the  husky  Russian  peasants  and  factory  workers. 

"When  it  comes  to  lying  by  preference,  I  fear  that  none  of  us 
would  escape,  though  most  of  us  have  painfully  learned  another 
way,  but  our  yellow  newspaper  reporters  still  remain. 

As  for  running  away  from  home  and  school,  we  might  say  that 
every  normal  boy  has  the  tendency,  and  there  are  excessive  cases, 
like  that  of  Mr.  S.  S.  McClure,  who  tells  us  in  his  autobiography 
that  he  barely  escaped  being  a  tramp,  in  spite  of  which  fact  he 
has  done  some  things  for  race  improvement. 

We  need  no  germ-plasm  to  explain  the  difference  between  ''the 
first  families  of  Virginia"  and  the  poor  white  trash.  That  is  ex- 
actly the  sort  of  thing  that  mores  explain. 

But  there  are  much  more  fundamental  obstacles  to  race  progress 
than  these,  and  I  can  see  no  way  in  which  eugenics  can  help  them. 
Such  forces  as  social  classes,  race  prejudice,  industrial  strife,  the 
social  and  economic  position  of  women,  are  psychological  problems 
of  fundamental  importance. 

Social  classes  are  not  born ;  they  are  made.  In  this  connection 
Lester  F.  Ward,  the  leading  American  sociologist,  said:  "A  certain 
kind  of  inferiority  of  the  lower  classes  to  the  upper  is  admitted. 
There  is  a  physical  inferiority  and  there  is  inferiority  in  intelli- 
gence. This  last  is  not  the  same  as  intellectual  inferiority.  Their 
physical  inferiority  is  due  entirely  to  the  conditions  of  existence.  As 
a  subject  race,  as  slaves,  as  overworked  laborers  or  artisans,  as  an 
indigent  and  underfed  class,  their  physical  development  has  been 
arrested  and  their  bodies  stunted.  .  .  .  Their  unequal  intelligence 
has  nothing  to  do  with  their  capacity  for  intelligence.  Intelli- 
gence consists  in  that  capacity,  together  with  the  supply  of  informa- 
tion for  it  to  expend  itself  upon.  We  see,  therefore,  that  both  kinds 
of  inferiority  of  the  lower  classes  are  extraneous  and  artificial^ 
not  inherent  and  natural."*     And  again  in  this  same  connection, 

*  Publications  of  the  American  Sociological  Society,  pp.  7,  8. 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  469 

showing  the  intimate  relation  of  classes  to  improvement,  he  says 
that  Avhat  we  need  is  not  more  ability,  but  more  opportunity,  and 
he  estimates  that  if  the  opportunity  could  be  made  for  existing 
ability  by  the  abolition  of  social  classes,  the  increase  in  the  effi- 
ciency of  mankind  would  be  at  least  a  hundredfold. 

It  is  hardly  conceivable  that  the  breeding  of  the  race-horse  type 
of  man  will  accomplish  such  a  multiplication. 

Race  prejudice  belongs  in  the  same  category  as  social  classes. 
The  existence  of  a  race  is  primarily  caused  b}"  accidental  signs 
which  serve  for  identification,  plus  the  prevailing  attitude  towards 
the  people  bearing  the  signs.  As  Professor  Ross  says:  "  'Race'  is 
the  cheap  explanation  tyros  offer  for  any  collective  trait  that  they 
are  too  stupid  or  too  lazy  to  trace  to  its  origin  in  the  physical  en- 
vironment, the  social  environment,  or  historical  conditions."^  In 
the  discussion  today  I  should  like  to  substitute  "heredity"  for 
"race"  and  let  the  quotation  read:  "  'Heredity'  is  the  cheap  ex- 
planation tyros  offer  for  any  collective  trait  that  they  are  too  stupid 
or  too  lazy  to  trace  to  its  origin  in  the  physical  environment,  the 
social  environment,  or  historical  conditions." 

When  in  a  Battle  Creek  restaurant  I  saw  the  sign,  "Colored 
Patronage  not  Desired,"  my  sympathy  for  the  Negro  enabled  me 
to  feel  something  as  he  feels,  and  I  can  assure  you  that  the  depress- 
ing force  of  a  public  opinion  that  approves  of  such  a  position  is 
more  influential  on  the  race  expression  than  a  very  large  variation 
in  the  germ-plasm.  A¥.  E.  B.  DuBois  has  described  this  from  the 
inside  in  his  ' '  Sonls  of  Black  Folk, ' '  where  he  says :  ' '  They  must  per- 
petually discuss  the  Negro  problem,  must  live,  move,  have  their 
being  in  it,  and  interpret  all  else  in  its  light  or  darkness.  From 
the  double  life  that  every  American  Negro  must  live  as  a  Negro 
and  as  an  American,  as  swept  on  by  the  current  of  the  tw^entieth 
century,  while  struggling  in  the  eddies  of  the  fifteenth — from  this 
must  arise  a  powerful  self-consciousness  and  a  moral  hesitancy 
which  is  almost  fatal  to  self-confidence.  .  .  .  Today  the  young 
Negro  of  the  South  who  would  succeed  cannot  be  frank  and  out- 
spoken, but  rather  he  is  daily  tempted  to  be  silent  and  wary,  politic 
and  sly.  .  .  .  His  real  thoughts,  his  real  aspirations,  must  be 
guarded  in  whispers ;  he  must  not  criticize,  he  must  not  complain. 
Patience  and  adroitness  must,  in  these  growing  black  youth,  re- 
place impulse,  manliness  and  courage.  ...  At  the  same  time, 
through  books  and  periodicals,  discussions  and  lectures,  he  is  in- 
tellectually  awakened.     In   the   conflict,   some   sink,   some   rise. ' '  * 


t  "Social  Psychology,"  p.  3. 

t  "Souls  of  Black  Folks,"  p.  203.    McClurg,  1903. 


470  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONPEKENCE    OX    RACE    BETTERMENT 

When,  we  remember  that  more  than  ten  per  cent  of  the  population 
of  the  United  States  belong  to  this  class,  we  can  feel  that  human 
progress  cannot  proceed  without  limit  until  we  have  modified  our 
race  mores.  The  sad  thing  about  it  is  the  popular  view  that  the  race 
question  is  to  be  explained  on  biological  grounds,  and  that  any 
race  except  that  to  which  we  have  been  born  is  on  a  lower  stage 
of  evolution.  We  condemn  them  without  trial.  AVherever  there  is 
white  contact  wdth  Indians,  the  whole  attitude  is  permeated  with 
the  idea  that  there  is  no  good  Indian  but  a  dead  one,  and  their 
efforts  to  change  their  conditions  always  come  face  to  face  with  this 
prejudice. 

Much  of  our  immigrant  problem  is  of  the  same  sort.  We  con- 
demn them  in  toto,  as  the  brigands  of  Calabria  were  condemned 
in  the  quotation  given.  Lord  Byron  expressed  the  force  of  other 
men's  opinion  when  he  said:  "I  made  men  think  I  was  what  I  was 
not,  and  I  became  what  they  thought  me."  We  cannot  escape  the 
great  and  unjustified  discouragement  that  will  come  to  those  we 
suspect  do  not  belong  to  the  race-horse  type.  The  door  of  hope 
is  closed  to  them,  while  the  race-horses  cannot  fail  to  get  a  self- 
satisfied  snobbishness  that  will  make  the  discouraged  plow  horse 
stop  in  the  middle  of  the  furrow.  In  the  same  way,  registered  hu- 
man pedigrees  will  inhibit  the  common  stock  from  making  its  con- 
tribution. 

The  eugenists  have  a  good  deal  to  say  about  immigrants.  Among 
the  Polish  immigrants  in  America  we  have  a  great  disproportion  of 
criminals.  In  the  Cook  County  jail  in  Chicago  they  are  altogether 
out  of  proportion  to  any  other  nationality,  and  the  same  thing  is 
true  in  the  Detroit  House  of  Correction.  The  Bohemians  who  be- 
long to  the  same  race  stock  and  live  in  adjoining  territory  in 
Europe,  have  very  few  criminals,  and  in  Austria  there  are  fourteen 
cases  of  litigation  among  Poles  to  one  among  Bohemians.  The 
Polish  immigrants  are  31.6  per  cent  illiterate,  and  the  Bohemians, 
3  per  cent.  The  Poles  are  probably  the  most  devoted  to  the  church 
and  the  Bohemians  the  most  rabid  freethinkers  of  all  our  immi- 
grants. The  social  problems  arising  from  these  facts  have  nothing 
whatever  to  do  with  biological  inheritance. 

Now  let  us  consider  the  classic  example  of  bad  heredity,  the 
Jukes  family.  Almost  everything  that  is  said  about  the  Negro  can 
also  be  said  about  them.  They  lived  in  New  York  in  the  nineteenth 
century,  but  they  were  not  a  part  of  it.  They  were  socially  ostra- 
cized, and  built  up  the  mores  among  themselves  that  had  no  part 
in  the  current  civilization.  It  is  barely  possible  that  they  averaged 
mentally  inferior  to  their  more  socialized  neighbors,  but  the  sociolo- 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  471 

gist  does  not  need  the  inheritance  of  base  characteristics  to  explain 
their  criminality,  prostitution  and  poverty. 

If  Eugenics  succeeds  in  establishing  in  the  popular  mind  the 
tremendous  social  value  of  heredity  that  it  is  trying  to  establish, 
it  will  overthrow  a  mass  of  valuable  work  of  the  last  decade  which 
has  been  pointing  the  way  to  a  fundamental  solution  of  many  of 
our  social  problems.  What  if  certain  people  do  stand  higher  on  the 
Binet  tests  than  others,  it  is  yet  to  be  proved  that  that  indicates  ele- 
mental social  value.  Psycho-ph.ysical  parallelism  may  prevail,  but 
that  does  not  necessarily  include  ps^'cho-physico-social  parallelism. 

The  position  of  women  has  been  created  in  much  the  same  way 
as  races  and  classes.  Alfred  R-ussell  Wallace  in  his  last  book,  ' '  Social 
Environment  and  Moral  Progress,"  puts  the  cart  in  this  eugenic 
matter  where  it  belongs.  He  says  that  when  social  justice  shall  have 
been  established  and  women  are  free  to  choose  their  mates  with- 
out the  artificial  conditions  that  now  prevail,  then  natural  selec- 
tion will  take  care  of  itself.  I  myself  am  convinced  that  as  a  move 
for  race  improvement,  the  equal  suffrage  of  women,  with  the  even- 
tual consequent  assumption  of  intellectual  and  moral  responsibility 
and  economic  independence,  would  be  infinitely  more  valuable  than 
all  the  eugenic  laboratories  in  the  world. 

We  should  use  all  the  forces  of  science  in  dealing  with  patholog- 
ical conditions,  but  an  attempt  at  artificial  selection  of  mental  and 
moral  characteristics  is  aiming  in  the  wrong  direction. 

Discussion. 

Relative  Effects  of  Heredity  and  Environment 

Dr.  Charles  B.  Davexport. 

One  rejoices  to  see  the  progress  which  the  sociologist  is  making. 
I  think  three  or  four  years  ago  he  would  not  have  admitted  the 
possibility  of  the  origin  of  feeble-mindedness  from  any  hereditary 
defects,  but  now  that  is  admitted.  HoAvever,  there  are  some  other 
things  still  unproved  about  which  we  have  dealt.  In  regard  to  the 
mores,  one  feels  like  asking,  first  of  all.  What  determines  the  mores? 
The  relative  influence  of  mores  and  heredity  is  an  important  matter, 
and  we  do  seek  to  get  light  upon  it.  In  my  OAvn  study  I  have  tried 
to  get  some  criterion  by  which  we  could  differentiate  the  relative 
effects  of  hereditary  and  of  environmental  conditions,  including 
the  mores. 

I  have  been  interested  to  see  how  frequently,  in  studying  these 
families  in  which  these  prostitutes  arose,  one  gets  this  condition: 
One  sister  a  prostitute ;  another  sister,  born  within  two  years,  reared 
under  the  same  bad  conditions,  becoming  secretary  of  an  educa- 


472  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

tioiial  institution  in  Boston.  There  are  two  cases  of  that  sort  in  the 
city  of  Boston.  Such  a  condition  is  found  very  commonly.  Why 
is  it  that  one  sister  goes  wrong  and  the  other  has  all  the  inhibi- 
tions of  a  normal  person,  though  brought  up  under  exactly  the 
same  conditions,  by  the  same  parents? 

We  have  another  test  for  this.  That  is,  the  result  of  the  mar- 
riage of  one  man  with  two  wives  in  succession.  This  is  illustrated 
in  the  Kallikak  family.  I  have  been  very  much  interested  to  com- 
pare the  sets  of  children  that  arose  from  these  two  marriages.  In 
both  circumstances  the  environmental  conditions  are  very  apt  to 
be  the  same,  perhaps  more  so  when  the  husband  is  common  and 
the  wives  are  different,  and  one  sees  that  just  as  the  one  variable 
factor,  the  other  consort,  varies,  so  does  the  fraternity  vary. 

We  have  been  also  interested  to  see  the  consequences  of  remov- 
ing a  child  from  bad  conditions  under  which  he  is  reared  in  his 
home  at  a  very  early  age,  two  years,  three  years  or  even  earlier, 
to  a  good  home  or  to  an  institution.  We  find,  in  the  majority  of 
cases,  that  the  child  goes  through  fundamentally  much  the  same 
course  of  development  and  shows  eventually  the  same  traits  as  his 
brothers  and  sisters  who  remain  behind. 

Finally,  we  have  been  interested  to  see  the  consequences  of  the 
removal  of  persons  from  a  locality  like  that  in  which  the  Jukes 
or  the  Nam  family  was  raised  to  another  part  of  the  country,  to 
the  Middle  West.  We  found  that  certain  members  of  the  Nam 
family  in  New  York  State  removed  to  Minnesota  forty  years  ago 
as  pioneers,  farmers.  We  wrote  to  a  field  worker  in  Minnesota 
and  inquired,  "Do  you  know  of  any  people  of  this  name  in  the 
state?"  The  answer  came  back  from  the  field  worker,  "Yes,  this 
family  is  well  known  to  all  the  social  workers  in  this  state.  It  is 
one  of  the  great  problems  of  our  state." 


THE  IMPORTANCE   OF  HYGIENE  FOR  EUGENICS 

Irving  Fisher,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  Political  Economy,   Yale  University, 
New  Haven,  Conn. 

There  are  two  factors  which  cooperate  to  produce  vitality; 
namely,  heredity  and  hygiene;  and  there  are  two  corresponding 
methods  of  improving  vitality;  namely,  by  utilizing  the  science  of 
eugenics  on  the  one  hand,  and  by  utilizing  the  science  of  hygiene 
on  the  other.  The  question  arises:  Are  these  two  methods  in  con- 
flict with  each  other?  It  is  charged  that  hygiene  prolongs  the 
lives  of  unfit  and  defective  classes.     It  is  reported  that  in  Indiana 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  473 

institutional  care  of  the  insane  has  prolonged  the  average  insane 
lifetime  by  some  eight  years.  Referring  to  the  insane.  Dr.  Charles 
Dana  says : 

"For  twenty-live  years  the  explanation  of  this  increase  in  sta- 
tistics of  insanity  has  been  that  more  cases  were  observed  and 
more  victims  kept  in,  institutions  than  formerly;  and  this  is  still 
the  explanation.  It  is  my  opinion,  however,  that  the  increase  is  a 
real  one,  and  it  is  one  to  be  expected  not  only  from  the  strenuous- 
ness  of  modern  life  and  increase  of  city  population,  but  also,  be- 
cause more  feeble  children  are  nursed  to  maturity  and  more  in- 
valid adolescents  are  kept  alive  to  propagate  weakly  constitutions 
or  to  fall  victims  themselves  to  alienation :  the  period  of  life  sus- 
ceptible to  insanity  is  longer." 

It  is  true  that  we  prolong  the  lives  of  the  insane  and  defective 
classes,  and  that  they  thus  make  a  greater  burden  on  society.  We 
should  see  to  it  that  certain  of  these  classes  are  not  permitted  to 
propagate  their  kind. 

It  is  further  claimed  that  infant  mortality  is  but  the  operation 
of  natural  selection  and  would  not  be  interfered  with  if  we  are 
to  keep  up  the  vital  power  of  the  race.  Preventive  medicine  has 
certainly  prolonged  the  lives  of  infants  or,  at  any  rate,  of  children 
in  general.  But  has  this  weakened  the  race?  It  is  pointed  out 
that  the  mortality  later  in  life  has  not  decreased,  and  that  in  some 
cases  it  has  even  tended  to  increase.  But  this  fact  can  be  explained 
in  either  of  two  ways.  One  is  on  the  hypothesis  of  the  extension 
of  the  lives  of  weak  infants.  The  other  is  on  the  hypothesis  of 
the  comparative  neglect  of  hygiene  among  adults.  It  is  surpris- 
ing that  this  latter  alternative  has  not  been  given  due  considera- 
tion. 

Every  detail  of  infant  life  has  latterly  been  made  the  subject  of 
special  study,  and  every  mother  of  common  intelligence  has  tried  to 
learn  to  apply  the  results  of  that  study.  The  times  of  the  baby's 
meals,  the  quantity  of  its  feeding,  the  modification  and  sterilization 
of  cow's  milk,  the  hours  of  sleep,  the  ventilation  of  sleeping  rooms, 
and  other  innumerable  details  are  now  attended  to  with  scrupulous 
care.  The  change  in  these  respects,  even  within  the  memory  of 
most  persons  now  living,  is  striking.  The  children  have  reaped  the 
reward.  But  no  corresponding  change  has  taken  place  in  the 
habits  of  the  adult  population.  Many  families  buy  one  grade  of 
milk  for  the  babies  and  another  cheaper  grade  for  the  rest  of  the 
family.  This  they  regard  as  "economy."  Parents  require  their 
children  to  keep  regular  and  suitable  hours  for  sleep,  but  "owl  it" 
themselves.      They    will    keep    their    children    out    of    doors,    and 


474  FIRST   NATIONAI.    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

send  theiM  into  the  country,  but  subject  themselves  to  the  dust,  smoke 
and  close  air  of  the  workroom  and  i)laces  of  business.  They  will 
not  allow  their  children  to  use  alcohol  or  tobacco,  or  even  tea  or 
coiTee.  much  less  opium,  chloral,  or  other  habit-forminj?  drugs,  but 
they  take  these  themselves  as  a  matter  of  course.  They  insist  on 
playgrounds  for  children,  but  their  own  amusements  are  sought 
in  the  unhygienic  theatre,  or  maybe  in  the  saloon  or  immoral  re- 
sort. The  child  is  protected  on  all  sides,  with  the  result  that  he 
sometimes  lives  almost  an  ideal  animal  life,  with  its  due  proportion 
of  amusement,  exercise,  rest,  and  sleep.  The  parents  themselves  are 
tied  down  to  drudgery,  overwork,  worry,  and  long  hours.  The 
ditference.  when  we  reflect  upon  it,  is  startling.  We  make  hygiene 
paramount  for  our  children ;  for  ourselves  we  neglect  it  totally, 
partly  from  the  idea  of  sacrificing  ourselves  for  the  sake  of  our 
children,  partly  from  necessity,  real  or  imagined,  and  partly  from 
the  thraldom  of  habit  already  formed.  With  such  a  contrast  be- 
tw^een  the  recent  improvement  of  hygiene  in  childhood  and  the 
lack  of  improvement  in  middle  life,  one  need  not  wonder  that  the 
mortality  of  one  period  has  improved  and  that  of  the  other  has 
not.  We  do  not  need  to  invoke  the  aid  of  the  theory  that  weak 
lives  have  been  more  prolonged  than  strong  lives.  The  moral  is 
that  hygiene  should  not  stop  in  childhood.  It  is  natural  and  proper, 
however,  that  the  first  attempt  to  apply  hygienic  knowledge  should 
begin  with  children.  It  is  through  children  that  new  ideas  usually 
make  their  w^ay  into  custom.  "You  can't  teach  an  old  dog  new 
tricks."  Grown  persons  have  habits  already  formed,  and  when 
once  a  habit  is  formed,  it  is  difficult  to  change  it. 

Habits  of  living  among  adults  have  even  grown  worse  in  some 
respects.  Observing  practitioners  comment  on  the  increasing 
nervous  tension  in  modern  life.  The  rush  of  the  railway  train,  the 
telephone,  the  elevator,  are  at  once  an  outgi-owth  and  an  excitant 
of  this  increased  tension.  They  are  life's  pace-makers,  and  the 
pace  is  ever  quickened.  The  health  officer  of  New  York  City  at- 
tributes to  this  severe  strain  the  increase. of  heart  and  nervous  dis- 
eases. It  would  be  interesting  to  know  the  relative  prevalence  of 
adult  diseases  under  conditions  of  reposeful  and  exciting  surround- 
ings and  occupations,  but  I  know  of  no  investigation  on  this  phase 
of  the  subject. 

Recent  figures  for  New  York  City  show  a  decided  reduction  in 
the  expectation  of  life  of  the  middle  aged.  In  Sweden,  on  the 
other  hand,  where  personal  hygiene  is  more  fulh^  practiced  than  in 
any  other  country,  the  expectation  has  increased  for  persons  of  all 
ages.     This  is  especially  interesting  in  view  of  the  fact  that  S^veden 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  475 

has  fought  infant  mortality  longer  and  more  successfully  than 
any  other  nation  and  has  reduced  that  mortality  for  three  or  four 
generations.  If  the  mere  reduction  of  infant  mortality  were  the 
cause  of  an  increase  of  the  adult  mortality  of  the  next  generation, 
we  should  expect  to  see  some  trace  of  this  effect  in  Sweden.  But 
we  find,  instead,  a  reduction  of  mortality  for  all  ages  even  of  none- 
genarians.  Eecent  figures  from  Great  Britain  show  that  the  ten- 
dency of  the  death  rates  among  the  latter  ages  to,  increase  seems 
to  have  given,  place  to  a  slightly  opposite  tendency.  The  expecta- 
tion of  life  at  ages  40,  60,  and  80  during  the  decade  of  1891-1900 
has  a  little  more  than  held  its  own  as  compared  with  the  previous 
decade. 

Another  point  needs  emphasis.  When  it  is  said  that  the  lives 
of  weak  infants  are  prolonged,  it  is  commonly  overlooked  that  the 
same  causes  also  prolong  the  lives  of  the  strong,  and,  reversely, 
that  unhygienic  conditions  which  tend  to  exterminate  the  weak 
tend  also  to  shorten  the  lives  of  the  strong.  Bad  hygiene  is  merely 
a  common  handicap  for  all  classes.  The  burden  of  proof  is  upon 
those  who  claim  that  it  has  a  differential  effect  and  increases  the 
process  of  weeding  out  the  unfit.  This  weeding-out  process  goes 
on  whether  there  is  a  great  or  a  small  obstruction  to  overcome. 
Bad  air  and  children's  epidemics  are  the  common  environment  of 
all.  While  this  must  produce  a  greater  mortality,  it  remains  to 
be  shown  that  it  would  be  more  selective. 

That  a  high  infant  mortality  does  not  tend  to  lengthen  life,  but 
rather  to  stunt  all  life,  would  seem  to  be  indicated  by  the  evidence, 
so  far  as  it  can  be  interpreted.  Russia,  for  instance,  has  a  high  in- 
fant mortality.  If  the  statistics  are  to  be  trusted,  it  is  70  per  cent 
greater  than  in  the  United  States;  yet  Moscow  and  St.  Petersburg 
have  a  general  mortality  rate  which  greatly  exceeds  that  of  similar 
cities  in  this  country. 

It  may  be  that  the  more  unfavorable  the  struggle  for  existence, 
the  more  rapidly  will  natural  selection  result  in  improved  vitality. 
But  even  if  this  were  true,  it  would  not  imply  that  in  a  more  fa- 
vorable environment  selection  would  cease.  And  it  may  not  be  true. 
It  may  be  that  adversity,  if  too  severe,  will  crush  and  injure  the 
survivor  as  well  as  eliminate  the  unfit.  We  do  not  look  for  the  best 
trees  on  the  bleak  mountain  top,  but  in  the  genial  valley.  As  we 
go  up,  the  struggle  for  existence  increases,  until  even  the  sturdiest 
fail  to  thrive  above  the  "timber  line." 

Whether  or  not  degeneration  is  actually  going  on  is  a  question 
for  which  the  data  are  insufficient  for  us  to  form  certain  conclusions. 
Personally  I  imagine  that  some  actual  race  degeneration   is  going 


476  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

ou,  though  I  do  not  attribute  this  to  hygiene.  There  are  certainly 
very  strong  forces  working  in  the  direction  of  degeneration,  but 
there  a^'e  also  verj^  strong  forces  working  in  the  opposite  direc- 
tion, and  presumably,  the  net  influence  of  hygiene  is  opposed  to 
degeneration.  In  discussing  degeneration,  one  point  must  be  borne 
in  mind  which  has  often  been  forgotten  by  writers  on  the  sub- 
ject. Man's  fitness  to  live  is  relative  to  the  environment  in  which 
he  is  to  live.  If  muscular  strength  decreases,  it  is  not  a  sign  of 
degeneration,  provided  muscular  strength  is  no  longer  needed. 
One  does  not  speak  of  hothouse  grapes  as  degenerates.  They 
doubtless  lack  the  hardy  characteristics  of  wild  grapes,  but  these 
characteristics  are  not  needed  in  a  hothouse. 

If  it  should  prove  true  that  in  some  directions  humanitarian 
impulses  betray  us  into  favoring  the  survival  of  the  unfit  and  their 
perpetuation  in  the  next  generation,  such  shortsighted  kindness 
must  be  checked.  But  all  the  dangers  of  perpetuating  vital  weak- 
nesses can  be  avoided  if  proper  health  ideals  are  maintained.  For 
when  such  health  ideals  become  a  national  possession,  fewer  weak 
infants  will  be  born  into  the  world.  This  will  come  about  in  three 
ways:  First,  segregation,  marriage  and  "sterilization"  laws  will 
reduce  the  number  of  marriages  of  degenerates.  Secondly,  parents 
will  be  more  careful  of  transmitting  disease  or  weakness  to  their 
offspring.  Immorality,  which  practically  means  lack  of  sex  hy- 
giene, never  strengthened  a  race;  on  the  contrary,  it  has  been  the 
most  potent  cause  of  race  extinction  (of  the  Hawaiians,  Indians, 
Negroes  and  others).  Thirdly,  the  influence  of  higher  ideals  of 
health  and  vitality  will  tend  both  to  restore  the  attraction  of  a 
strong  and  beautiful  physique  to  its  rightful  place  among  the  vari- 
ous attractions  which  lead  to  marriage,  and  to  lessen  the  allure- 
ment of  such  extraneous  attractions  as  wealth.  In  short,  psychologi- 
cally it  is  true  that  hygiene  of  our  children  and  ourselves  will  lead 
us  to  eugenics,  which  is  the  hygiene  of  the  next  generation. 


THE  METHODS  OF  RACE  REGENERATION  (in  outline) 

C.  W.  Saleebt,  F.R.S.E.,  M.D.,  Author  of  "Parenthood  and  Race  Culture," 

1909. 

A  complete  program  of  Race  Regeneration  or  Eugenics  requires 
the  following,  in  my  judgment,  and  according  to  my  terminology: 

A.    Primary  or  Natural  Eugenics 

1.  Positive  Eugenics — the  encouragement  of  worthy  parenthood. 

2.  Negative  Eugenics — the  discouragement  of  unw^orthy  parent- 
hood. 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  477 

3.  Preventive  Eugenics — the  protection  of  parenthood  from  the 
racial  poisons. 

B.    Secondary  or  Nurtural  Eugenics 

Involving  due  nurture  of  the  individual  from  conception  (not 
n  ""''^^  birth)  till  the  end  of  the  reproductive  period.  For  these 
ena^  ,e  may  provisionally  no'  certain  methods,  here  arranged,  for 
discussion,  under  three  tentative  heads. 

A.    Primary  Eugenics 

1.  Positive  Eugenics. 

(a)  Rejected.      The    institution    of    compulsory    mating    and 
anything  else  that  involves  the  destruction  of  marriage. 

(b)  Questioned. 

1.  Marriage  certificates  or  marriage  permits. 

2.  Bonuses  for  children. 

(c)  Accepted. 

1.  "Maternity  benefit'' — much  extended  to  protect  last 
three  months  of  pregnancy. 

2.  Education  for  parenthood. 

3.  Eugenie  marriage — including  eugenic  laws  of  divorce. 

2.  Negative  Eugenics. 

(a)  Rejected. 

1.  The  lethal  chamber,  the  permission  of  infant  mortality, 
interference  with  ante-natal  life,  and  all  other  syn- 
onyms for  murder. 

2.  Mutilative  surgery. 

(b)  Questioned.    Non-mutilative  sterilization. 
Accepted.     Segregation. 

3.  Preventive  Eugenics. 

(a)  Rejected.     The  state  regulation  of  vice. 

(b)  Questioned.     The   various   legislative   proposals  for   the 
control  of  dangerous  trades,  plumbism,  etc. 

(c)  Accepted. 

1.  The  notification  of  venereal  disease  and  provision  of 

treatment.     (At  least — notification  of  ophthalmia,  lieo- 
natorum,  and  of  congenital  syphilis.) 

2.  The  expert  instruction  of  adolescence. 

3.  The  protection  of  parenthood  from  alcohol. 

B.    Secondary  Eugenics 

From  the  care  of  expectant  motherhood,  infancy,  the  home  child 
(as  I  wish  to  call  it),  the  school  child,  and  adolescence  onward. 


478  FIRST    XATIOXAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

CALCULATIONS  ON  THE  WOBKING  OUT  OF  A  PROPOSED  PROGRAM 
OF  STERILIZATION 

H.    H.    TjAUGhlix,    Supeiintendent    Eugenics    Record    Olfiee.    fold    Spi-ini; 
Ilavlxn-,  Lf)nfi-  Island,  NeAv  York. 

There  are  two  phases  of  the  praetieal  application  of  the  Eugenics 
progi-am.  O^he  first  is  concerned  in  fit  and  fertile  matings  among  th*^ 
upper  levels.  The  second  is  concerned  in  cutting  off  the  supply  of  de- 
fectives.J  For  bringing  about  this  latter  end  many  agencies  have  been 
proposed.  Among  these  agencies,  however,  only  four  appear  to  give 
great  promise  as  practical  remedies.  These  four  agencies— education, 
legal  restriction,  segregation  and  sterilization — complement  one  an- 
other in  the  order  named.  They  are  a  primary  remedial  value ;  if  the 
first  fails,  apply  the  second ;  if  it  also  fails,  apply  the  third ;  if  segre- 
gation ceases  and  the  two  factors  do  not  deter  from  parenthood  the 
potential  parent  of  inadequates,  apply  the  fourth.  vTo  purify  the 
breeding  stock  of  the  race  at  all  costs  is  the  slogan  of  eugenics!]  The 
compulsory  sterilization  of  certain  degenerates  is  therefore  designed  as 
a  eugenical  agency  complementary  to  the  segregation  of  the  socially 
unfit  classes  and  to  the  control  of  the  immigration  of  those  who  carry 
defective  germ-plasm.  It  is  at  once  evident  that,  unless  this  comple- 
mentarA'  agency  is  made  nation-wide  in  its  application,  and  is  con- 
sistently followed  by  most  of  the  states,  it  cannot  greatly  reduce,  with 
the  ultimate  end  of  practically  cutting  off,  the  great  mass  of  defective- 
ness now  endangering  the  conservation  of  our  best  human  stock,  and 
consequently  menacing  our  national  efficiency  and  happiness. 

In  order  to  determine  wath  as  much  precision  as  possible  the  ex- 
tent of  the  problem  and  the  possibility  of  its  practical  solution  the 
following  calculations  have  been  made.  They  are  a  fair  measure  of  the 
number  and  extent  of  sterilizing  operations  necessary  for  ar-complish- 
ing  the  desired  end.  (See  chart:  Rate  of  Efficiency  of  the  proposed 
Segi-egation  and  Sterilization  Program.) 

E:^PLA NATION  AND  SUBSTANTIATION  OF 
CALCULATIONS 

From  the  accompanying  chart  it  is  seen  that  the  rate  of  effi- 
ciency of  the  proposed  program  is  dependent  primarily  upon  the 
length  of  time  required  to  send  to  state  institutions,  regardless 
of  length  of  commitment  periods,  the  potential  parents  of  the 
varieties  i  sought  to  eliminate.  The  following  factors  determine 
this  period  of  time : 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION 


479 


lis^  If 


-ieii 


lllll  ft 


'  lis*!!" 

b 

a. 


ITrl 


^:r 


:Sill.: 


|3 


;5^5 


480  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

a.    TIk   Porfioii  of  the  Vojmlat'um   W/iich  It  is  Soug/il  fa  ChI  Off. 

The  extirpation  of  hereditar.y  defectiveness  under  the  proposed 
program  is  dependent  npon  the  groAvth,  development,  and  nse  of 
our  institutions  for  the  socially  inadequate.  Qln  these  calculations 
it  is  assumed  that  the  lowest  ten  per  cent  of  the  human  stock  are 
so  meagerly  endowed  by  Nature  that  their  perpetuation  would  con- 
stitute a  social  menacel  The  manner  of  arriving  at  this  estimate 
is  as  follows : 

In  1910  .91-4  per  cent  of  our  total  population  were  inmates  of 
the  institutions  for  the  socially  inadequate.  Their  average  period 
of  custody  or  commitment  was  less  than  five  years  (see  Table  VI)  ; 
then,  after  allowing  for  the  cases  of  multiple  commitments  (see 
Table  VIII),  the  total  number  of  living  persons  who  have  been 
legally  committed  to  institutions  must  be  represented  by  several 
times  this  per  cent.  Besides  this  portion  of  the  total  population, 
there  is  another  portion  who  are  equipped  with  equally  meager 
natural  endowments,  but  who  have  never  been  committed  to  insti- 
tutions. In  addition  to  this  body  of  persons,  there  is  another  group 
of  persons  who,  though  themselves  normal,  constitute  a  breeding 
stock  which  continually  produces  defectives ;  they  are  so  interwoven 
in  kinship  with  the  lower  levels  that  they  are  totally  unfitted  for 
parenthood.  The  assumed  ten  per  cent,  or,  to  use  a  current  expres- 
sion, "the  submerged  tenth,"  appears  for  the  purpose  of  this  study 
to  be  a  fair  estimate  of  the  extent  of  the  body  of  degeneracy  which 
the  American  people  can  now.  in  the  interest  of  social  betterment, 
well  seek  to  cut  off.  The  primary  or  basal  factor,  namely,  the  com- 
mitment of  all  of  the  members  of  the  socially  inadequate  strains 
to  institutions,  is,  in  turn,  dependent  upon  several  component  factors, 
the  first  of  which  is  the  differential  birth  rate  of  the  submerged 
tenth,  compared  with  that  of  the  normal  and  supernormal  nine- 
tenths. 

/).    Differential  Birth  Rate. 

In  these  calculations  the  lowest  tenth  are  given  a  birth  rate 
greater  by  five  per  cent  each  half  decade  than  that  of  the  general 
population.  This  factor  is  included  in  these  calculations  in  defer- 
ence to  prevailing  opinion,  that,  generally,(^efective  and  inferior 
human  stock  reproduce  more  rapidly  than  our  better  strains!)  The 
following  table  shoAvs  the  result  of  a  preliminary  study  of  this 
field : 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION 


481 


Fkcunditv  and  Ixfaxt  Mobtality  Differential 
Subnormal  Families 

BETWEEN   Normal  and 

NORMAL 
FAMILIES 

SUBNORMAL 

Families 

Number    oi    Matings     

Total  Number  of  Children 

701 

3227 
4.6 

131 
109 
27 

1,054 

4,640 

4.4 

Infant  Mortalitj' — 

Male     

463 

237 

106 

Total    

267 

806 

8.3 

17.4 

The  normal  families  recorded  on  this  table  are  those  of  Ameri- 
can professional  and  bnsiness  men ;  the  subnormal  families  are  each 
represented  by  one  or  more  members  in  one  or  more  institutions 
for  the  insane,  epileptic,  feeble-minded,  or  criminalistic  classes.  Al- 
though the  numbers  are  small,  the  families  were  selected  in  serial 
order,  without  regard  to  fecundity.  "While  not  conclusive,  this 
special  study  points  toward  a  small  differential  fecundity  in  favor 
of  the  normal  families  over  defectives,  rather  than  the  reverse,  as 
is  generally  held.  Incidentally,  there  is  a  more  definite  differential 
infant  mortality,  working  by  natural  process  to  reduce  the  defective 
population.  The  estimate,  then,  of  the  differential  fecundity  of  5 
per  cent,  each  half  decade,  for  the  "submerged  tenth"  seems  cer- 
tainly to  cover  the  actual  rate  of  increase  of  this  class.  It  is  clear 
that  such  an  estimate  tends,  in  these  calculations,  to  delay  the  con- 
summation sought  by  the  program ;  the  object  of  estimating  so  great 
a  fecundity  of  defectives  is  to  insure  conservatism  in  the  calcula- 
tions. However,  further  investigation,  based  upon  first-hand  ma- 
terials, is  needed  to  determine  the  facts  of  differential  fecundity. 


c.    Future  Growth  of  Institutions  for  the  Socially  Inadequate. 

These  calculations  provide  that  there  shall  be  an  increase  in  the 
capacity  of  stat6  institutions  for  the  anti-social  classes,  not  only 
absolutely,  but  also  in  relation  to  the  increasing  total  population. 
The  rate  of  increase  used  in  the  calculations  is  equal  to  that  of  the 
total  population  plus  5  per  cent  each  half  decade.  This  is  approxi- 
mately one-third  the  rate  of  increase  for  the  decade  1890-1900,  and 
three-fourths  the  increase  for  the  decade  1900-1910.  This  propor- 
tion is  based  upon  the  fact  that  in  1890,  .  590  per  cent ;  in  1900,  .  807 
per  cent,  and  in  1910,  .914  per  cent  of  our  total  population  were 
in  institutions.  This  is  an  increase  of  37  per  cent  per  100,000  popu- 
lation for  the  decade  1890-1900  and  13  per  cent  for  the  decade  1900- 
1910. 

(17) 


482  KIKST    NATIOXAI;    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

That  there  is  clearly  a  movement  toward  increasing,  both  abso- 
lutely and  relative  to  the  total  population,  the  facilities  for  earing 
for  such  classes,  is  seeu  by  the  data  just  given.  The  increase  for 
the  last  decade  is  not  so  great  relatively  as  that  of  the  preceding; 
decade ;  but  the  increase  is  still  differential  in  respect  to  the  grov^th 
of  population.  Accompanying  this  numerical  groM^th  there  is  a 
refinement  of  social  ideals,  and  legal  processes  governing  the  com- 
mitment of  the  anti-social  to  state  institutions ;  as  well  as  a  better 
understanding  of  the  cause  and  nature  of  their  shortcomings. 

d.    S^x  and  Age  of  Persons  Committed  to  State  Custody. 

Another  determining  factor  in  these  calculations  is  the  sex  and 
average  age  of  persons  committed  to  state  custody.  The  correct- 
ness of  these  calculations  in  measuring  the  possibility  of  achieving 
the  desired  end  is  dependent  upon  the  selection  of  individuals  for 
commitment  to  institutions,  from  all  ages  and  from  both  sexes,  in 
proportion  to  the  total  numbers  of  each  age  and  sex  in  the  general 
population.  Should  the  commitment  to  institutions  be  deferred  until 
after  the  reproductive  period,  then  the  segregation  and  sterilization 
program  would  be  useless  as  an  agency  for  reducing  the  anti-social 
strains.  If,  however,  the  commitment  is  made  early  in  or  before 
the  reproductive  period,  then  the  recommended  program  will  func- 
tion as  intended. 

The  report  of  the  State  Commission  of  Prisons  for  New  York 
for  1912  shows  that  for  the  year  ending  Sept.  30,  1912,  the  maximum 
number  of  commitments  to  the  state  prisons  was  reached  in  the 
age  group  of  24  years.  For  the  year  ending  Sept.  30,  1911,  the  re- 
port of  the  New  York  State  Commission  in  Lunacy  shows  that  for 
the  insane  the  maximum  number  of  commitments  of  native-born 
persons  to  the  State  Hospitals  was  reached  at  the  age  group  35-39 
years.  This  group  represented  11.7  per  cent  of  the  total  native- 
born  first  admissions,  while  at  ages  younger  than'  this,  were  repre- 
sented by  39.6  per  cent  of  the  total  of  such  admissions.  For  the 
foreign-born  the  same  maximum  was  reached  in  the  age  group  25-29 
years,  with  15.2  per  cent  of  the  total  of  such  admissions  during 
earlier  years. 

In  response  to  a  special  inquiry  sent  out  by  the  committee  in 
the  spring  of  1913,  data  were  secured  from  which  the  following 
table  has  been  compiled: 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION 


483 


Type   of   Institution 


Number 

of 

Institutions 

Reporting 


Average 
Age    of 
Persons 
Committed 
in   1912 


Average 
Age    of 
Persons 
Discharged 
in    1912 


Average 
Length   of 
Commitment- 
of  Persons 
Discharged 
in    1912      . 


Hospitals  for  the  Insane 

Reformatories     and     Industrial 

Homes     

Prisons  and  Penitentiaries  .  .  . 
Institutions   for  the   Blind    .... 

Institutions  for  the  Deaf 

Institutions  for  Epileptics  .... 
Institutions      for      the      Peeble- 

Minded    

Institutions      for  '  the      Feeble- 

Minded  and  Epileptic    .... 


34.70  years 

16.88  years 
32.21  years 
11.40  years 
8.87  years 
24.85  years 

17.98  years 

16.92  years 


38.30  years 

19.32  years 
32.28  years 
18.17  years 
17.02  years 
29.23  years 

20.54  years 

20.27  years 


5.33  years 

2.39  years. 
2.64  years 
9.00  years' 
9.20  years : 
2.19  years 

4.74  years 

5.  13  ye.irs 


In  the  report  of  the  State  Commission  in  Lunacy  for  California, 
June  30,  1912,  Dr.  F.  W.  Hatch,  the  General  Superintendent  of 
State  Hospitals,  reports  the  ages  of  persons  operated  upon,  as  fol- 
lows : 

TABLE  VII.  ■' 

Pp;rsons   Sterilized  under  the   Califorxi.\   St.\tute 


Ages   of   Those   Operated   Upon 

Male 

Female 

Total  ' 

1  to  10  years 

1 

24 

33 

33 

17 

22 

9 

3 

1 

1 

0 

15 

25 

28 

28 

12 

3 

1 

0 

0 

1. 
39 

58, 

25  to  29  years 

30  to   34  years 

61 
45, 
34 

40  to  44  vears 

12 

45  to  49  vears               .                                                        

4 

50  to  54  vears                                                 

1   . 

55  to  60  vears                             .              

1 

144 
6 

112 
6 

250 
12- 

150 

118 

268 

Civil  Condition 

Male 

Female 

Total  . 

Single   

105 

21 

5 

19 

150 

46 

61 

6 

5 

151 

82 

Divorced  or  widowed 

11 

Unknown   

24 

Totals    

118 

268 

From  Table  VI  it  is  apparent  that  at  present  the  socially  inade- 
quate are  being  committed  to  institutions  at  an  age  early  in  their 
reproductive  periods :  early  enough,  it  is  clear,  to  forestall  the  birth 


484  FIRST    NATION ATj    CONFERENCF:    ON    RACK    HKTTKRMENT 

of  a  large  percentage  of  the  ofi"sprin<i'  wlio  would  normally  be  horn 
to  these  persons,  and  from  Table  VII  it  is  equally  clear  that  in  prac- 
tice the  California  operations  have,  as  a  rule,  been  had  early 
enough  to  be  in  a  large  measure  eugenically  effective,  if  the  persons 
operated  upon  carried  defective  qualities;  but,  even  here  it  is  evi- 
dent that  the  age  limit  must  be  lowered,  if  the  greatest  eugenical 
good  is  to  accrue  from  such  measures.  The  civil  condition  is  not 
so  important,  for  among  the  anti-social  classes  illegitimacy  runs 
high.  If  the  future  tendency  should  be  toward  earlier  commit- 
ments— and  it  is  apparent  that  such  is  the  ease — then  the  cutting- 
off  process  would  be  hastened. 

The  sex  of  the  persons  sterilized  is  an  important  eugenical  fac- 
tor, for  it  is  evident  that  with  the  lower  strains  of  humanity,  among 
whom  illegitimacy  is  high,  it  will  be  necessary  to  sterilize  degenerate 
women  in  numbers  in  fair  proportion  to  the  number  of  males  ster- 
ilized.   This  fact  has  its  biological  analogy  as  follows : 

In  the  breeding  of  the  higher  and  more  valuable  types  of  do- 
mestic animals,  such  as  horses  and  cattle,  sterilization  of  surplus 
males  is  one  custom  universally  practiced.  The  females  of  these 
animals  are  well  cared  for  and  protected  from  free  union  with  the 
males ;  here  selected  matings  are  the  rule.  However,  in  the  case  of 
domestic  animals  of  less  value,  having  mongrel  and  homeless  strains, 
such  as  the  dog  and  the  cat,  the  cutting  off  of  their  supply  is 
largely  effected  through  the  destruction  or  the  unsexing  of  the 
females.  As  a  rule  the  tax  on  a  female  dog  is  two  or  three 
times  greater  than  that  on  a  male  dog.  Such  difference  in  taxation 
is  not  made  because  of  a  difference  in  individual  menace,  but  rather 
.because  of  a  more  direct  responsibility  for  reproduction.  The  fe- 
males of  such  homeless  strains  are  not  protected,  and  consequently 
they  increase  very  rapidly.  Consorting  freely  Avith  equally  worthless 
mates,  their  progeny  are  often  excessive  in  numbers,  and  of  a  worth- 
less, mongrel  sort.  The  castration  of  one-half  of  the  mongrel  male 
dogs  would  not  effect  a  substantial  reduction  in  the  number  of  mon- 
grel pups  born. 

The  unprotected  females  of  the  socially  unfit  classes  bear,  in 
human  society,  a  place  comparable  to  that  of  the  females  of  mongrel 
strains  of  domestic  animals.  As  a  case  in  point,  the  accompanying 
pedigree,  from  "A  First  Study  of  Inheritance  in  Epilepsy"  by  Dav- 
enport and  Weeks,  illustrates  the  manner  of  the  increase  of  defective 
children  by  defective  women.  This  actual  family  record  is  an  ex- 
ample of  the  type  of  pedigree  w^hich  was  so  common  in  the  family 
histories   studied   by    Davenport    and    Weel<*s   that   they    gave    it    a 


EUGENICS  AXD  IMMIGRATION 


485 


name — -"the   almshouse   type" — a   sad   commentary   on   the   general 
inefficiency  of  such  institutions. 

POORHOUSE  TYPE  OF  SOURCE  OF  DEFECTIVES. 


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RCTURL   PIDIGRLE  OF  FRMILY  RLPRLSLNTLD  IN  THE 
SKIUMnNflu)  STBTE   VILLR&E  FOR  EP/LEPT/CS. 


■"^6-1 


s 


^  A  i  A  i  A  i 


FIRST  STUDY  OF  INHLRITRNCL 
IN  EPILZPSY.-  iw^v't -""»'./" 


The  central  figure  is  a  feeble-minded  woman  subject  to  epileptic  fits,  de- 
scended from  a  feeble-minded  mother  and  shiftless,  worthless  father.  She  has 
spent  most  of  her  life  in  the  almshouse,  and  all  of  her  children  have  been  in- 
mates. One  is  by  a  negro,  whom  she  met  in  the  almshouse.  Two  of  the  chil- 
dren died  in  infancy ;  one,  of  whom  little  is  known,  died  at  the  age  of  eighteen. 
Of  the  remainder,  two  are  feeble-minded,  and  one,  from  a  sire  of  criminal 
tendencies,  is  an  epileptic  imbecile. 

On  Sept.  30.  1912.  New  York  State  Prisons  held  in  custody 
14,791  persons.  Of  this  number,  1.887  were  women  and  12,904  were 
men.  With  the  criminalistic  the  method  of  reaching  the  women  of 
such  strains  becomes  very  difficult.  With  the  insane,  however,  the 
problem  is  much  more  evenly  balanced.  On  Sept.  30,  1911,  the 
New  York  State  Hospitals  for  the  Insane  held  in  custody  a  total  of 
33,311  persons— 16,010  men  and  17,301  women. 

There  is  another  type  of  pedigree  by  Davenport  and  Weeks  which 
the  same  study  brought  to  light — ' '  the  hovel  type. ' '  In  such  families 
incest  is  rife.  The  accompanying  pedigree  of  this  type  shows  a  condi- 
tion wherein  the  sterilization  of  both  the  male  and  the  female  would 
have  been  desirable,  for,  with  an  equal  lack  of  sex  control  in  both  of 
them,  it  is  likely  that,  if  the  unions  specified  in  the  pedigree  had  not 


486 


FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 


been  made,  both  male  and  female  would  have  found  consorts  elsewhere 
and  would  thus  have  perpetuated  their  unworthy  stock. 

HOVEL  TYPE  OF  SOURCE  OF 
DEFECTIVES. 


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n    7ya/e  g    re,6k  Vf,„rit<t 

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It  is  thus  clear  that  in  the  application  of  the  program  of  eugeni- 
cal  sterilization,  no  diiference  should  be  made  between  the  male  and 
female — hereditary  unfitness  alone  should  be  the  criterion. 

e.    Average  Period  of  Commitment. 

The  average  period  of  commitment  is  assumed,  in  these  esti- 
mates, to  be  five  years.  From  the  examination  of  Table  VI,  one  is 
convinced  that  it  is  certainly  not  greater  than  this  term  of  years. 
The  long  estimate  used  in  these  calculations  will  doubtless  cover 
the  cases  wherein  sterilized  persons  would  be  returned  to  the  state's 
custody.  From  the  report  of  the  New  York  State  Commission  of 
Prisons  for  1912,  the  following  table  is  secured: 

From  this  table  it  is  apparent  that  the ,  reformatories  have  at 
some  time  in  the  previous  career  of  the  inmates  of  the  prisons  had 
custody  of  a  large  percentage  of  them.  This  is  a  eugenical  ad- 
vantage, for  their  inborn  qualities  would,  under  the  policy  outlined, 
have  been  determined  before  their  reproductive  periods  began. 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION 


487 


TABLE    Till. 

Four    Men's    Peisoxs.      Number    of    Times    Peisoxers    Admitted    During    the    Year 
Enbing  Sept.  30,  1912,  Have  Been  Committed  to  Prison 


A 

B 

To    PrisoDs    Now    (1912)    Detaining 
Them 

Number  of  Times  Confined  in 
Other  Penal  Institutions 

First  Time 

3,075 

237 

55 

23 

Prisons 

737 

887 

Third  Time  .'. '. 

Fourth  Time  and  Over 

1,002 
269 
566 

Refuges    

Total    

3,390 

Miscellaneous   Institutions    

212 

3,673 

For  the  year  ending  Sept.  30,  1911,  of  the  total  of  7,867  ad- 
missions to  the  hospitals  for  the  insane  of  New  York  State,  1,639 
were  readmissions. 

Under  the  program,  the  shorter  the  periods  of  commitment,  the 
more  rapidly  will  the  whole  body  of  individuals  possessing  heredi- 
tary potentialities  for  defective  parenthood  be  sent  through  insti- 
tutions; and  if  the  program  were  carried  out  as  contemplated,  their 
blood  lines  would  be  cut  off  the  more  rapidly.  There  are,  however, 
many  reformatory  and  other  social  considerations  which  must,  of 
course,  determine  the  length  of  commitment.  Sterilization  is  simply  an 
insurance  when  segregation  ceases. 

/.    Cmitrol  of  Immigration. 

As  a  final  factor,  the  federal  government  must  cooperate  with 
the  states  to  the  extent  of  excluding  from  America  immigrants  who 
are  potential  parents  and  who  are  by  nature  endowed  with  traits  of 
less  value  than  the  better  ninety  per  cent  of  our  existing  breeding 
stock.  According  to  the  census  of  1910  the  native-born  population 
of  New  York  constituted  70.1  per  cent  and  the  foreign-born  consti- 
tuted 29.9  per  cent  of  the  total  population  of  the  state.  To  the  state 
hospital  for  the  insane  the  native-born  element  contributed  51.28  per 
cent  and  the  foreign -born  48.02  per  cent  (.70  per  cent  unascer- 
tained) of  the  total  admissions  for  the  year  ending  Sept.  30,  1911. 
The  foreign-born  element  thus  contributed  to  the  New  York  hos- 
pitals for  th«  insane  at  the  rate  of  2.019  times  that  of  the  native- 
born  population.  To  the  state  prisons  of  New  York  the  native- 
born  element  contributed  65.8  per  cent  and  the  foreign-born  34.2 
per  cent  of  the  total  admissions  in  the  year  ending  Sept.  30,  1912. 
For  the  state  prisons,  therefore,  the  foreign-born  element  contributed 
admissions  at  a  rate  1.21  times  greater  than  did  the  native-born 
population. 
iThe  federal  government,  which  has  control  of  immigration,  owes 


488  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

it  not  only  to  New  York  State  on  social  and  economic  grounds,  but 
to  the  American  people  on  biological  giionnds  to  exclude  from  the 
country  this  degenerate  breeding  stoek^ 

Adequate  data,  upon  which  such  differential  exclusion  could  b'e 
based,  can  be  secured  only  by  investigating  the  traits  of  immigrant 
families  in  their  native  towns  and  villages,  by  sending  trained  field 
workers  to  such  places.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  germ-plasm  of 
a  nation  is  always  its  greatest  asset,  and  that  the  expense  of  such 
measures  would  be  paying  investments — not  only  in  dollars  and 
cents,  but  in  the  inborn  qualities  of  future  generations — the  task 
should  be  undertaken.  At  a  cost  not  at  all  prohibitive,  a  large  ma- 
jority of  this  degeneracy  could  be  detected.  Every  nation  has  its 
own  eugenical  problems,  and  in  the  absence  of  a  world-wide  eugeni- 
cal  policy,  every  nation  must  protect  its  own  innate  capacities. 
From  the  viewpoint  of  eugenics,  differential  immigration  is  not 
directly  a  matter  of  nationality  nor  of  race,  but  is  rather  one  of 
family  traits  compatible  with  good  citizenship. 

g.    General  Consideratio)^;  ProhaMe  Number  of  Operations  Required. 

These  calculations  are  based  upon  the  sterilization  of  one-half 
of  the  socially  inadequate  persons  legally  committed  to  the  custody 
of  the  state,  relying  upon  the  other  half  being  (a)  past  the  re- 
productive age,  or  (b)  congenitally  or  pathogenically  sterile,  or  (c) 
sterilized  upon  release  from  some  previous  commitment,  or  (d)  sus- 
ceptible to  educational  influences  deterring  them  from  reproduc- 
ing, or  (e)  not  carriers  of  a  defective  germ-plasm,  or  (f)  dying 
while  still  in  custody  of  the  state.  There  are  therefore  excluded 
from  liability  to  sterilization  the  inmates  and  patients  of  hospitals 
and  institutions  for  such  classes  as  the  tubercular,  the  crippled,  the 
blind,  and  the  deaf,  in  cases  wherein  such  persons  are  not  also  men- 
tally defective  or  anti-social  as  well  as  simply  inadequate  personally 
as  useful  members  of  society. 

For  such  classes  eugenical  education,  humanitarian  aid,  restric- 
tive marriage  laws  and  customs,  and  possibly,  in  certain  cases,  vol- 
untary rather  than  enforced  sterilization  appear  to  be  the  proper 
eugenical  remedies. 

During  the  year  ending  Sept.  30,  1912,  there  were  discharged 
from  the  state  hospitals  for  the  insane  of  New  York  3,796  persons, 
while  2,886  died  while  still  in  the  custody  of  the  state. 

Of  all  the  defective  classes  subject  to  this  program,  the  feeble- 
minded strains  would,  by  the  consistent  application  of  such  a  pro- 
gram, die  out  most  rapidly,  since  their  defects  are  either  congenital 
or  appear  relatively  early  in  life.     The  decimation  of  the  cacaes- 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION 


489 


thetic,  the  deformed,  the  epileptic,  the  criminalistic  and  the  insane 
strains  would  follow  probably  in  order  named. 

Dr.  F.  W.  Hatch,  who  supplied  the  data  for  Table  VII,  reports 
also  the  data  for  the  following  table : 


TABLE   IX. 
Legalized  Stekilizing  Opeeations  in  California 


Types  of  Persons  Sterilized 

Male 

34 

45 
22 
12 
20 
10 
3 
4 

Female 

Total 

Dementia  Priecox    

Manic  Depressive    

18 

61 

1 

10 

12 

6 

0 

10 

52 
106 
23 

22 

Imbecilitv                                                               

32 

Confusional  and  Other  Forms 

16 
3 

14 

Total  Xumber  of  Persons   Sterilized  up  to  June  30,   1912. 

150 

118 

268 

From  the  table  it  is  seen  that  20  per  cent  of  the  operations 
were  performed  on  imbeciles  or  epileptics,  and  practically  all  of  the 
remainder  on  insane  persons.  The  ratio  of  the  number  of  feeble- 
minded to  the  number  of  insane  in  institutions  is  approximately  1 
to  10.  The  California  ratio  is  in  keeping  with  expectation,  and 
therefore  appears  to  form  a  fair  basis  for  estimating  the  future 
ration  of  aments  and  dements,  who  would  be  sterilized  under  a  eugen- 
ical  sterilization  law. 

Regardless  of  the  time  when  such  a  policy  is  put  into  effect, 
if  the  program  outlined  works  out  as  calculated;  namely,  cuts  off 
the  lowest  one-tenth  of  the  total  population,  it  would  require  initial 
sterilization  at  the  rate  of  80  persons  per  year  per  100,000  total  popu- 
lation, increasing  to  approximately  150  per  year  per  100,000  total 
population  at  the  end  of  two  generations.  If  the  work  should  be  be- 
gun during  the  present  decade,  it  would,  in  accordance  with  con- 
servative estimates  of  future  population,  require  the  sterilization  of 
approximately  fifteen  million  (15,000,000)  persons  during  this  inter- 
val. At  the  end  of  the  time  we  would  have  cut  off  the  inheritance 
of  the  present  "submerged  tenth,"  and  would  begin  the  second 
period  of  still  more  eugenically  effective  decimal  elimination.  The 
infinite  tangle  of  germ-plasm  continually  making  new  combinations 
will  make  such  a  policy  of  decimal  elimination  perpetually  of  value. 
Although  the  present  lowest  levels,  as  we  know  them,  may  have  dis- 
appeared, still  it  will  always  be  desirable  to  purge  the  existing  stock 
of  its  loM^est  strains.    According  to  Darwin, 

"When  in  any  nation  the  standard  of  intellect  and  the  number  of 
intellectual  men  have  increased,  we  may  expect  from  the  law  of 


490  FIRST    NATIONAL    COXFKHENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

the  deviation  from  tlu^  avevajie  that  prodigies  of  genius  will  appear 
somewhat  more  frequently  than  before." 

As  a  logical  corollary  to  this,  we  should  expect  the  fortune  of 
recombination  of  ancestral  elements  to  produce  fewer  human 
"plls." 

V^rhe  conservative  sterilization  program,  beginning  with  only  a 
few  operations,  applying  only  to  those  most  patently  degenerate, 
will  allow  in  time  for  the  segregation,  in  the  complex  network  of 
national  heredity,  of  a  larger  portion  of  the  good  from  the  bad 
traits,  making  possible  the  salvage  of  a  great  portion  of  good  that 
is  now  associated  in  the  same  individual  with  the  most  unworthy 
qualities'T} It  is  even  urged  against  eugenics  that,  if  sterilization  or 
other  eugenical  elimination  had  been  the  rule,  so  and  so  would  not 
have  been  born.  Perhaps  so,  but  would  not  other  personalities — 
one  or  perhaps  many — of  equal  or  better  natural  endowment  have 
appeared  in  his  or  her  place  1 

The  present  experimental  sterilization  laws  have  been  pioneers — 
pointing  the  way — and  as  such  they  are  to  be  commended,  but  as 
remedies  for  social  deterioration  they  have  not  thus  far,  in  a  na- 
tional way,  functioned.  Indeed  less  than  1,000  sterilizing  operations 
have  been  performed  under  the  immediate  provisions  or  even  under 
the  shadow  of  the  twelve  statutes.  With  this  in  view,  the  rate  of 
sterilization  required  seems  high,  but,  unless  the  people  of  the  sev- 
eral states  are  willing  to  attack  the  problem  in  its  entirety,  they  can- 
not hope  to  find  in  sterilization,  as  complementing  segregation,  any- 
thing more  than  a  slight  palliative  for  the  present  condition  from 
which  we  are  seeking  relief.  A  halfway  measure  will  never  strike 
deeply  at  the  roots  of  the  evil.  In  animal  breeding,  when  any  great 
results  are  wrought,  or  when  new  and  superior  breeds  are  made 
wdthin  a  few  generations,  it  is  the  selected  one  per  cent  or  at  most 
the  tenth  part  that  are  selected  for  reproduction  rather  than  the 
upper  ninety-odd  per  cent  which  this  conservative  program  calls 
for.  But  since  segregation  and  sterilization  seek  not  to  make  over 
the  upper  levels  of  the  race,  nor  to  establish  ncAV  and  better  human 
strains  (these  arc  the  tasks  for  constructive  eugenics  during  the 
long  indefinite  future),  but(^imply  to  cut  off  the  most  worthless 
one-tenth,]  the  rate  of  sterilization  required  seems  sufficient. 

The  recommended  program  would  give  ample  opportunity  for 
beginning  on  a  very  conservative  scale.  No  mistakes  need  be  made  ; 
for  at  first  only  the  very  lowest  would  be  selected  for  sterilization, 
and  their  selection  would  be  based  upon  the  study  of  their  personal 
and  family  histories,  and  the  individual  so  selected  must  first  be 
proved  to  be  the  carrier  of  hereditary  traits  of  a  low  and  menacing 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  491 

order.  As  time  passes,  and  the  science  of  eugenics  becomes  more 
exact,  and  a  corps  of  experts,  competent  to  judge  hereditary  quali- 
ties, are  developed,  and  public  opinion  rallies  to  the  support  of  the 
measures,  a  large  percentage  could,  with  equal  safety,  be  cut  off 
each  year.  While  the  cutting  off  of  personalities  of  as  little  worth 
as  our  present  lowest  one-tenth  will  take  two  generations,  still  some 
benefits  would  begin  to  accrue-  almost  immediately  after  the  in- 
auguration of  the  policy.  It  would,  of  course,  be  possible  to  cut  off 
a  large  portion  of  our  lowest  levels  at  one  fell  swoop,  but  the 
dangers,  the  difficulties — both  practical  and  scientific — and  the  in- 
justice involved  would  be  insuperable.  No  one  advocates  such  a 
plan,  but  a  policy  of  small  beginnings  and  conservative  development 
seems  wise. 

Unless  all  of  the  states  cooperate  in  the  purging  of  the  blood 
of  the  American  people  of  its  bad  strains,  and  their  cooperation  is 
supported  by  the  federal  government  in  respect  to  immigration,  as 
indicated  in  the  calculations,  we  should  not  expect  the  program  to 
work  out  as  calculated.  The  federal  government  must,  at  some 
future  time,  undertake  an  inquiry  in  the  home  countries  of  pro- 
spective immigrants,  concerning  their  hereditary  traits.  Such  a  pro- 
gram, nation-wide  in  extent,  is  possible  only  when  the  public  becomes 
convinced  that  it  is  possible  to  judge  of  the  hereditary  potentialities  of 
a  given  individual  and  that  in  enforcing  the  experimental  laws  already 
on  the  statute  books,  scientific  truths  were  being  applied  in  an  un- 
erring and  humane  manner. 

There  is  in  this  program  nothing  from  a  financial  point  of  view 
to  hinder  its  immediate  inauguration,  as  outlined,  by  all  of  the 
states.  Indeed,  the  expense  per  capita  to  the  people  of  the  state  for 
the  care  of  the  socially  inadequate  of  the  present  lowest  levels 
would  decline  "rapidly.  By  painstaking  analysis  of  state  reports 
the  table  on  the  following  page  has  been  worked  out. 

This  table,  which  the  committee  hopes  to  be  able*  to  extend  so 
as  to  include  data  for  all  of  the  states,  shows  the  movement  in  state 
expenditures  for  institutions  for  the  socially  unfit.  In  order  to  keep 
this  growth  of  expenditure  from  overwhelming  and  bankrupting 
our  state  governments,  it  behooves  the  several  states  to  provide 
more  ample  opportunity  for  the  managers  of  their  institutions  to 
work  out  the  industrial  and  farming  systems,  whereby  the  inhabi- 
tants of  their  institutions  may  not  only  be  happier,  healthier,  and 
better  trained  than  at  present,  but  will  also  contribute  more  largely 
to  their  own  welfare  and  maintenance.  Our  institutions  for  the 
socially  dependent  are  more  nearly  approaching  hospitals  and  vo- 
cational schools  in  their  equipment  and  management,  and  less  and 


492 


FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 


less  have  the  appearance  and  real  character  of  jails  and  dun<>eons. 
Any  money,  moreover,  that  the  state  invests  in  such  modern  plants 
will  not  be  wasted;  for,  when  the  anti-social  classes,  as  we  now  know 
them,  diminish  in  number,  the  lower  tenth  will  always  need  voca- 
tional training  such  as  these  changed  institutions  could  so  well  pro- 
vide, and  the  cost  of  such  training,  like  all  expenditure  for  fitting 
education,  would  be  a  national  investment  rather  than  a  dead  ex- 
pense or  a  tribute  to  degeneracy. 


State  Expenditures  foe  the   Socially  Inadequate:    Pee  Cent  of  Total   Statk 
ExPEXDiTURps  Devoted  to  Institutions  for  the  Socially  Inadequate 


,  Date 

Connecticut 

Massachusetts 

West   Virginia 

Virginia 

1891              

Per  Cent 
21.5 

19!  7 
25.5 
24.4 
24.7 
25.3 
25.5 
23.5 
38.1 

Per  Cent 
23.9 
25.7 
26.9 
26.9 
23.9 
23.8 
22.7 
23.9 
21.2 
21.0 

Per  Cent 
23.6 
27.6 
22.6 
24.8 
26.6 
27.2 
27.9 
27.0 
28.4 
27.6 

Per  Cent 
27.4 

25.3 

1893     

22.6 
24.4 

1895     

1896    

25.2 
25.3 

1897    

1898    

1899  .  .     . 

25.0 
23.8 
22.3 

1900    

22.7 

Total  for  Decade    

Cost  to  the  People   Per   Capita 

24.7 

$23.28 

23.7 
$23 . 84 

26.4 
$16.06 

24.3 
$17.76 

1901    

1902    

24.7 

2019 
23.4 
20.6 
29.6 
23.2 
23.4 
16.2 
18.9 

30.3 
28.7 
27.3 
37.2 
36.1 
37.6 
36.4 
34.9 
38.3 
37.1 

25.3 
24.8 
27.4 
26.1 
21.2 
18.4 
14.7 
13.1 
11.6 
15.0 

21.8 

1903                                 

22.4 

1904    

1905     

21.2 
19.6 
18.4 

19.3 

19.6 

1909    

1910                        

19.1 
19   4 

Total  for  Decade    

Cost  to   the  People  Per  Capita 
for  the  Decade 

22  .  0 
$34.68 

35.0 
$29.54 

17.7 
$26.95 

20.1 
$23.27 

^Moreover,  the  increasing  fitness  to  their  purposes  should  ac- 
tually, and  does  appear  to  so  govern  the  evolution  of  our  state  in- 
stitutions for  the  socially  inadequate.  It  is  not,  therefore,  to  be 
presumed  that  a  state  would  develop  its  institutions  and  its  sterili- 
zation policy  at  a  constantly  increasing  rate,  all  for  the  purpose  of 
bringing  the  program  of  decimal  elimination  and  consequently  the 
usefulness  of  most  of  the  costly  institutions  to  a  sudden  end,  the 
former  result  as  indicated  by  Tlables  I.  IT,  III  and  IV  of  the  in- 
serted chart.  These  calculations  demonstrate  simply  the  possibility 
of  achieving  such  a  program  of  elimination,  but  the  program  itself 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  493 

is  subject  to  change  and  betterment.  For  instance,  long  before  the 
end  of  two  generations,  the  eugenics  commissions  of  the  several 
states  should,  and  doubtless  will,  be  authorized  and  directed  by  law 
to  extend  their  investigations  and  their  selections  for  sterilization 
to  the  population  at  large.  The  end  sought,  namely,  the  cutting  off 
of  the  lines  of  descent  of  the  present  lowest  one-tenth  of  our  exist- 
ing population,  could,  by  such  an  extension,  be  accomplished  with- 
out the  accompanying  institutional  growth  which  the  indefinite  con- 
tinuation of  the  present  initial  policy  calls  for ;  not  only  is  this  true, 
but  in  addition  the  contemplated  end  would  be  brought  about  more 
rapidly.  Such  an  extension  of  application  to  the  whole  population 
should,  however,  in  the  interests  of  safety,  be  postponed  for  a 
term  of  years,  ten  possibly,  thereby  permitting  the  growth  of  eugeni- 
cal  knowledge  and  sentiment  among  the  people,  the  education  of  a 
corps  of  experts  in  human  heredity,  and  the  building  up  of  an  in- 
A'entory  by  the  state  of  its  cacogenic  human  stock. 

There  is  one  contingency  by  which  the  authority  of  the  eugenics 
commission  would  have  to  be  extended  to  the  whole  population  at 
an  earlier  date.  This  contingency  consists  in  the  possibility  that  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  might,  in  case  the  constitu- 
tionality of  one  of  the  existing  sterilization  laws  is  tested  before  that 
body,  decide  that  the  application  of  sterilization  only  to  inmates  of 
the  institutions  constitutes  a  breach  of  the  Fourteenth  Amendment 
to  the  Federal  Constitution,  which  provides  that  none  of  the  states 
shall  "deny  to  any  person  within  its  jurisdiction  the  equal  protec- 
tion of  the  laws."  In  the  light  of  the  legal  opinions  presented  in 
this  report,  it  is  not  believed  that  the  Supreme  Court  would  hand 
down  such  a  decision,  and  in  the  interest  of  sound  eugenical  prog- 
ress it  is  hoped  that  it  will  not  be  necessary  to  extend  the  authority 
of  the  eugenics  commission  to  the  whole  population  immediately,, 
howsoever  desirable  such  an  extension  would  be  in  the  future.  The 
immediate  limitation  of  the  law  to  the  inmates  of  institutions  is 
solely  in  the  interests  of  justice  and  unerring  application,  and  should 
not  therefore  be  deemed  discriminatory. 

Attention  is  directed  toward  an  interesting  phenomenon  of 
Tables  I,  II,  III,  and  IV  of  the  Rate  of  Efficiency  chart  of  this 
paper.  The  striking  feature  in  the  working  out  of  the  suggested 
policy  consists  in  the  fact  that  absolutely  the  numbers  within  the 
socially  inadequate  classes  would  increase  for  a  few  years,  after 
which,  by  the  constant  application  of  the  same  policy,  the  decline 
would  come  very  rapidly.  Such  phenomena  are  common  with  prac- 
tically all  things  that  change  by  the  application  of  persevering 
forces — business  ventures,  institutional  growth,  the  working  out  of 


■494  FIRST    NATION-AL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE   BETTERMENT 

govoriiinental  policy,  the  trajectories  of  missiles,  military  campaigns, 
the  ravages  of  a  plague,  the  ontogenesis  of  an  individual,  and  the 
rise  and  decline  of  plant  and  animal  species — all  experience  strenu- 
ous struggle  in  overcoming  initial  inertia  or  resistance;  finally 
the  movement  is  accelerated,  and,  gathering  momentum,  the  passing 
by  a  given  point,  a  culmination  or  fruition,  or  an  extinction,  as  the 
case  may  be,  is  achieved  at  a  relatively  great  speed. 

h.     Conclusion. 

The  data  for  these  calculations  have  been  carefully  compiled, 
and  the  estimate  for  each  of  the  factors  is  made  on  the  conserva- 
tive side — in  each  case  tending  to  delay  the  culmination.  The  arith- 
metic is  correct;  if  one  accepts  the  conditions,  he  must  accept  the 
conclusion  also.  If  it  is  held  that  the  bases  for  the  calculations  are 
too  optimistically  chosen,  then  it  is  necessary  only  to  extend  the  time 
of  culmination;  the  essential  thing  is  that  such  an  end  is  possible 
in  consonance  with  modern  humanitarian  ideals  and  reasonable 
social  endeavor.  However,  for  the  reasons  herein  enumerated  it  is 
believed  that  the  time  allotted;  namely,  two  generations,  is  ample  for 
cutting  otf  the  inheritance  lines  of  the  major  portion  of  the  most  worth- 
less one-tenth  of  our  present  population,  if  the  recommended  program 
be  consistently  followed.  It  is  clearly  within  the  power  of  the  Ameri- 
can people  and  at  not  too  great  a  cost  in  money  and  effort  to  forestall 
the  continuation  of  the  great  mass  of  defectiveness  from  which  we  now 
suffer.  It  appears  also  that  this  end  can  be  accomplished  conserva- 
tively, beginning  on  a  small  scale  and  keeping  pace  with  institutional 
growth  and  scientific  study:  and  above  all,  that  it  can  be  accom- 
I)lished  in  a  lawful,  just  and  humane  manner  without  detriment  to, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  to  the  great  advancement  of,  national  welfare. 


THE    RELATION    OF    PHILANTHROPY    AND    MEDICINE    TO    RACE 
BETTERMENT 

Professor   Leox   J.    Cole,   ITniversity   of   Wisconsin.    Madison,   Wisconsin. 

In  accepting  the  invitation  to  speak  before  this.  Conference  on 
the  subject  of  The  Kelation  of  Philanthropy  and  Medicine  to  Race 
Betterment,  I  wish  to  makje  it  clear  that  I  do  so  with  no  special 
knowledge  of  medicine  or  of  sociology.  But  if  by  Race  Betterment 
is  meant  in  this  instance  the  production  of  an  inherently  better 
race  rather  than  simply  the  bettering  of  conditions— if  it  means 
biological    improvement    rather    than    social    improvement — then    I 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  4D'5 

may  perhaps  avoid  the  charge  of  presumption,  since  neither  medi- 
cal science  nor  sociology  have  as  yet  amassed  sufficient  data  for  a 
very  clear  understanding  of  what  their  biological  effects  upon  the 
race  may  be.  Consequently  the  subject  may  be  regarded  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  in  the  light  of  biological  analogy,  and  if  such  facts 
as  are  known  fit  in  with  biological  theory  and  deductions  in  other 
lines,  we  may  from  this  gather  some  assurance  that  we  may  apply 
the  reasohing  of  biology,  in  its  narrower  sense,  to  the  destiny  of 
mankind,  which  is,  of  course,  a  cognate  field  of  biology  in  its 
broader  meaning.  For  we  must  not  forget  that  man  is  still  an 
animal,  however  much  he  may  specialize  socially ;  and  although  he 
may  by  his  superior  knowledge  abrogate  many  of  the  laws  which 
bind  his  more  lowly  kin,  the  bird,  the  fish,  the  maggot,  or  ameba, 
he  cannot  hope  to  escape  from  the  operation  of  certain  of  Nature's 
methods,  and  one  of  the  most  fundamental  and  tyrannical  of  these 
is  that  of  reproduction.  The  heritage  of  society  is  passed  in  an  un- 
interrupted flow  from  one  generation  to  the  next;  but  not  so  the 
biological  inheritance,  for  between  the  individual  of  one  genera- 
tion and  that  of  the  next  tliere  is  a  rearrangement,  a  shuffling  of 
the  cards  face  down,  leading  to  an  indefiniteness  of  results  which 
has  long  made  this  problem  one  of  the  most  difficult  of  biological 
questions. 

So  it  is  as  a  biologist  that  I  propose  to  discuss  the  question  be- 
fore us,  and  I  believe  you  will  agree  that  until  we  have  enough 
facts  to  enable  us  to  see  definitely  what  medicine  and  philanthropy 
are  actually  doing  for  the  race,  we  shall  have  to  predict  as  best 
we  can  what  they  will  probably  do  from  our  knowledge  of  general 
biological  laAvs;  and  our  predictions  will  have  value  directly  in 
relation  to  the  correctness  and  extent  of  our  knowledge  of  these 
laws.  This  becomes  at  once  apparent  when  we  consider'  the  dia- 
metrically opposed  attitudes  of  certain  biologists,  sociologists,  and 
social  reformers.  One  believes  that  the  human  race  already 
possesses  the  potential  factors  for  a  richer  and  fuller  life,  that  this 
more  or  less  latent  potentiality  is  rather  universally  distributed,  at 
least  within  certain  group  limits,*  and  all  that  is  needed  is  a  better 
environment  to  bring  it  out.  Such  maintain  that  biological  evolu- 
tion has  largely  stopped  in  the  case  of  civilized  man,  and  that  social 
evolution,  the  evolution  of  the  environment,  has  completely  taken 
its  place.  Thus  Smith,  in  his  "Social  Pathology,"  asserts  that  while 
"Charles  Darwin  may  learn  important  lessons  from  pigeons  and 
pigs,  and  a  brood  of  lesser  men  may  talk  about  human  marriage  in 

*  See  for  example  Smith,  S.  G.',  "Social  Pathology,"  New  York.  1911, 
section  on  Eugenics,  especially  pp.  308  and  309. 


496  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

the  terms  of  the  stock  fanu,  .  .  .  the  men  of  our  generation  who 
are  studying  the  problems  at  close  range  will  more  and  more  dis- 
cuss them  in  terms  of  social  psychology.*  Another  holds  that  evolu- 
tion and  selection,  or  evolution  by  selection,  is  in  effect  as  always, 
that  the  potentialities  of  individuals  differ,  and  that  they  develop 
dift'erentially  according  to  this  inherited  potentiality  and  to  the 
limiting  influence  of  the  environment.  Furthermore,  that  such  in- 
dividuals as  are  able  to  survive  the  environment  and  to  produce 
offspring,  bequeath  to  their  successors  only  that  which  they  them- 
selves inherently  possess.  Or  still  others,  while  believing  that 
natural  selection  is  biologically  operative,  attribute  to  the  en- 
vironment an  ameliorating  effect  upon  the  germ-plasm,  which 
means  the  "inheritance  of  acquired  characters."  When  men  differ 
to  this  extent  in  their  interpretation  of  natural  laws,  is  it  surpris- 
ing that  they  fail  to  agree  on  specific  means  for  race  betterment  ? 

At  first  thought  it  might  seem  odd  that  philanthropy  and  medi- 
cine should  be  classed  together  in  a  discussion  of  this  nature.  The 
former  draws  upon  the  resources  of  the  individual,  or  of  the  state, 
if  we  use  the  somewhat  broader  word  charities,  while  the  latter 
is  ordinarily  a  source  of  income  and  livelihood  to  the  individual 
practicing  it.  In  this  sense  the  same  might  be  said  of  agriculture 
or  manufacture.  But  medicine  and  philanthropy  have  this  in  com- 
mon— the  one  tends  to  relieve  the  want,  the  oither  the  suffering — 
and  both  often  to  prolong  the  life  of  the  recipient. t  And  for  this 
last  reason  they  are  both  of  the  same  immediate  eugenic  importance. 
I  shall  therefore  treat  of  them  together  in  general,  discussing  spe- 
cific instances  from  one  or  the  other,  as  the  case  may  be. 

Almsgiving  and  charity  are  as  old  as  history,  and  it  is  generally 
conceded  that  these  give  advantages  to  the  biologically  and  socio- 
logically unfit  Avhich  enable  them  to  live  longer  and  to  propagate 
more  than  they  normally  would.  But  with  one  or  two  exceptions, 
until  recently  no  thought  was  given,  so  far  as  we  know,  to  the  pos- 
sible influence  upon  the  race.  Nevertheless,  to  quote  Warner,-!' 
"Plato,  more  than  two  thousand  years  ago,  "warned  his  countrymen 
of  the  degradation  in  store  for  any  nation  which  perpetuated  the 
nnfit  by  allowing  its  citizens  to  breed  from  enervated  stock;  and 


*  1.  c,  p.  304. 

t  "The  most  obvious  result  of  charity  as  a  selective  force  has  been  to 
lengthen  the  lives  of  the  individuals  cared  for."  Warner,  A.  G.,  "American 
Charities,"  New  York,  1908,  p.  23. 

t  "American  Charities,"  1908.  p.  20.  See  also.  Pearson,  K.."The  Scope 
and  Importance  to  the  State  of  the  Science  of  National  Eugenics,"  Eugenics 
Lab.  Lect.  Series,  I,  1909,  pp.  23,  24. 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  497 

he  sketched  for  them  an  imaginary  republic  in  which  no  considera- 
tion of  inheritance,  of  family  ties,  or  of  pity  was  permitted  to 
stand  in  the  way  of  the  elimination  of  the  weak  and  the  perfection 
of  the  race."  With  the  rise  of  the  study  of  economics  these  ques- 
tions often  came  to  the  fore,  and  then  the  whole  matter  was  given 
a  new  turn  by  the  revolutionary  ideas  of  Natural  Selection  which 
permeated  so  many  fields  after  Darwin's  publication  of  the  "Origin 
of  Species."  Biologists  and  others  were  not  slow  to  apply  the 
new  ideas  to  man's  racial  development,  and  from  this  time  really 
dates  the  period  of  active  discussion,  and  often  violent  disagree- 
ment, on  the  relation  of  social  advance  to  race  improvement  or 
degradation.  As  social  reformers  were  concerned  with  bettering 
the  environment,  a  work  which  could  often  be  seen  to  produce  im- 
mediate and  marked  results  in  adding  to  the  health  and  material 
comfort  of  the  populace  as  a  whole,  the  gradual,  almost  complete 
acceptance  by  biologists  of  "Weismann's  doctrines  as  to  the  non- 
inheritabilitj'  of  environmentally  produced  modifications  naturally 
led  to  a  widening  of  the  breach  between  those  who  placed  their 
faith  in  social  measures  and  those  who  foresaw  the  direful  effects 
of  what  they  believed  to  be  the  increasingly  disproportionate  ratio 
of  defective  racial  germ-plasm.  The  social  reformer  was  accused 
of  being  short-sighted,  like  a  mariner  driving  his  ship  ahead  be- 
cause the  wind  is  fair  and  the  weather  looks  pleasant,  but  utterly 
regardless  of  hidden  shoals.  Or  he  might  be  likened  to  the  un- 
scientific farmer  who,  because  a  particular  crop  is  profitable,  grows 
it  year  after  year  in  the  same  ground  without  rotation  until  the 
land  is  depleted  or  "sick"  and  will  no  longer  produce.  Or  again, 
like  the  capitalist  who  razes  the  forests  or  despoils  the  earth  of 
minerals  with  all  thought  to  his  present  gain,  and  none  for  future 
generations. 

On  the  other  hand,  those  who  called  attention  to  the  biological 
consequences  of  the  withdrawal  of  selection  were  called  "dismal 
scientists"  and  alarmists;  it  was  maintained  that  "the  mutilation 
or  destruction  of  the  unfit  would  make  society  as  a  whole  increas- 
ingly cruel.  It  would  produce  a  despotism  of  pseudo-science  that 
would  be  more  crushing  to  all  the  gentler  virtues  of  men  than  any 
political  despotism  ever  known."* 

I  trust  you  will  bear  with  me  while  I  make  two  or  three  more 
quotations  illustrating  the  opposing  views  set  forth  above,  for  I 
hope  later  to  point  out  what  I  consider  some  of  the  fallacies  of  each. 
The  first  excerpts  are  taken  from  the  same  author  mentioned  several 
times  before,  and  from  the  same  work,  "Social  Pathology." 

*  Smith,  ''Social  Pathology,"  1911,  p.  294. 


4i)S  vm^T    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

"Trained  in  uoiTcct  habits  of  life  and  taught  the  practice  of 
obedience  with  proper  moral  inspirations,  there  is  a  reasonable  ex- 
pectation that  children  will  reach  the  standard  of  character  and 
conduct  maintained  l)y  their  homes,  but  this  is  very  far  from  assum- 
ing that  moral  qualities  are  directly  inherited  at  birth.  There  does 
not  seem  to  be  the  slightest  proof  of  such  a  statement.  A  study  of 
children  of  the  same  families  reveals  that  'black  shieep'  may  come 
from  any  home.  It  was  not  because  of  difference  in  moral  strain  of 
parentage  that  John  became  a  saint  and  Judas  went  out  and  hanged 
himself.  It  is  time  to  cease  digging  up  excuses  for  bad  conduct 
from  graveyards,  though  it  still  remains  true  that  every  living 
rascal  would  be  quite  willing  to  lay  his  sins  upon  some  dead 
rascal."* 

Xow  again,  on  the  other  side,  Mudget  first  quotes  from  the 
Bible,  "There  is  a  way  that  seemeth  right  unto  a  man,  but  the  ends 
thereof  are  the  ways  of  death,"  and  then  applies  it  to  "the  social 
sentiment  that  lies  at  the  base  of  so-called  'social  reform'  "  in  the 
following  words: 

"No  doubt  it  seemeth  right  to  alleviate  misery,  to  feed  the  hun- 
gry, to  clothe  the  naked,  to  pamper  the  useless,  to  preserve  the 
criminal,  to  propagate  the  congenitally  tuberculous  and  imbecile. 
But  is  it?  When  we  have  cast  aside  the  garment  of  make-believe, 
by  which  the  well-intentioned,  the  sentimental,  the  languidly 
pathetic,  the  short-sighted  man  of  medicine,  the  socialistic  place- 
seeker  and  others  have  woven  around  the  stern  facts  of  life,  thereby 
masking  the  implacable  laws  of  Nature,  and  when  we  honestly  ask 
ourselves  whether  this  road,  which  seems  right  to  us,  is  in  reality 
a  path  that  leads  to  national  destruction,  then  I  do  not  think  we 
shall  proceed  at  the  reckless  pace  which  marks  the  present." 

"For  so  long  as  we  do  not  hold  fast  to  that  immutable  truth 
[of  heredity],  we  shall  recognize  that  from  the  race  of  civic  cripples 
there  is  begotten  a  race  likened  unto  them.  Helpless,  useless,  dan- 
gerous, burdensome,  and  loathsome  that, they  are,  I  say  advisedly, 
carefully  weighing  my  responsibility,  that  it  is  a  social  crime  to  do 
anything  which  shall  encourage  and  facilitate  their  propagation. 
Every  day  that  by  the  aid  of  medical  science  the  lives  of  such  are 
lengthened,  and  the  procreation  of  their  race  thus  far  favored  and 
increased,  there  is  added  a  burden  to  the  present  and  a  curse  to  the 
future.  It  is  faeinorous  to  an  extreme  degree.  It  is  sapping  at  the 
vigor,  the  health,  the  happiness,  the  social  morality,  and  the  civic 

*  Smith,  1.  c,  p.  310. 

t  Mudge,  G.  P..  "Biology,  Theology  and  Medicine  in  Relation  to  the  State." 
London  Hospital  Gazette,  Vol.  17,  No.  8,  May,  1911,  pp.  189-193. 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  499 

cleanliness  of  the  nation.  A  nation  of  cripples  cannot  endure.  If 
it  sinks  not  beneath  the  weight  of  its  own  helplessness  and  misery, 
it  cannot  escape  destruction  at  the  hands  of  a  more  virile  people. 
Every  medical  enactment  or  sentiment  which  tends  to  the  preserva- 
tion of  such  people,  also  contributes  to  the  undoing  of  the  nation. ' ' 

' '  The  medical  inspection  and  treatment  of  school  children ;  their 
free-feeding  and  free-clothing;  their  dental  inspection  and  treat- 
ment; the  recent  puerile  suggestion  of  a  medical  officer  of  health 
to  compel  certain  people  in  a  London  borough  to  open  their  win- 
dows for  two  hours  a  day,  and  to  wash  their  floors  once  a  week, 
under  a  penalty  of  five  pounds,  are  all  delusions.  In  not  one  single 
tooth,  nor  in  a  muscle  twitch,  nor  in  the  ionic  equilibration  of  one 
twig  of  a  single  dendron  shall  we  add  soundness,  or  vigor  or  mental 
capacity  to  our  national  stock  by  such  means."  "Medically  in- 
spect the  earthworms  in  our  gardens  if  we  like,  but  earthworms 
they  will  be  to  the  end  of  time." 

It  has  been  my  purpose  in  giving  these  rather  lengthy  quota- 
tions to  indicate  the  extreme  positions  taken  by  advocates  on  the 
two  sides  of  the  question  we  have  under  discussion.  And  I  assure 
you  that  the  rhetorical  extravagances  of  the  one  are  certainly  no 
more  extreme  than  the  bizarre  ideas  of  heredity  presented  by  the 
other.  The  author  quoted  first  appears  furthermore  to  have  an  in- 
born antithesis  to  methods  which  offer  easy  correction.  Thus  he 
rejects  both  eugenics  and  socialism  on  the  ground  that  the  remedies 
they  propose  ' '  seem  too  cheap  and  too  easy. '  '* 

Between  the  views  elaborated  above  we  find  intermediate  posi- 
tions taken  by  a  large  group  both  of  social  workers  and  of  biologists. 
A  few  examples  may  serve  to  illustrate.  Warner,  who  during  his 
short  life  was  one  of  the  foremost  social  workers  in  America,  far- 
sighted  and  discriminating,  though  primarily  interested  in  practical 
charities,  clearly  recognized  the  importance  of  heredity  in  racial 
progress.  He  nevertheless  emphasized  the  value  to  the  race  of  al- 
truistic sentiments,  though  he  recognized  the  necessity  of  preven- 
tion of  multiplication  of  the  unfit.  Thus  he  says:t  "Could  we 
cheaply  rid  ourselves  of  incapables  and  close  our  hearts  to  the  ap- 
peals of  distress,  we  might  never  have  the  compulsion  put  upon 
us  of  seeking  out  the  wiser  plans,  which  may  eventually  give  us  a 
more  uniformly  healthy  race.  Extermination  might  be  an  easy  cure 
for  pauperism,  but  it  would  be  a  costly  remedy  biologically;  and 
if  we  allow  our  instincts  to  compel  us  to  forego  the  use  of  it,  we 
may  ultimately  be  driven  to  preventive  measures."     He  is  doubt- 


*  Smith,  "Social  Pathology,"  1911,  pp.  290  and  299. 
t  Loc.  cit.,  p.  25. 


500  FIRST  1^JAT10NAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

fill,  however,  as  to  the  efficacy  of  sterilization,  and  is  inclined  to 
the  view  which  is  now  gaining  wide  acceptance  that  the  most  effi- 
cacious remedy  is  going  to  be  segregation.  He  points  out  that  in 
many  of  our  almshouses  there  are  sometimes  inadequate  means  of 
separating  the  sexes,  and  "the  breeding  of  paupers  goes  on  upon 
the  premises,"  and  even  that  "formal  marriages  between  almshouse 
paupers  have  very  frequently  received  the  sanction  of  both  church 
and  state.''  He  concludes  his  chapter  with  the  following  very  sane 
statement:*  "Certain  it  is.  that  while  charity  may  not  cease  to 
shield  the  children  of  misfortune,  it  must,  to  an  ever-increasing  ex- 
tent, reckon  with  the  laws  of  heredity,  and  do  what  it  can  to  check 
the  spreading  curse  of  race  deterioration.  The  desire  to  prevent  suf- 
fering must  extend  to  the  desire  to  prevent  the  suffering  of  unborn 
generations." 

Among  those  who  have  in  their  treatment  of  this  subject  em- 
phasized the  importance  of  the  natural  selection  viewpoint  may  be 
mentioned  especially  Herbert  Spencer,  Francis  Galton,  and  Karl 
Pearson,  the  director  of  the  Galton  Laboratory  for  National  Eu- 
genics, though  many  other  names  might  be  mentioned  as  well.  The  last 
named  has  turned  the  energies  of  his  laboratory  to  studying  by 
means  of  highly  developed  statistical  methods  the  inheritance  of 
various  diatheses,  traits  and  defects,  as  well  as  the  effects  of  ame- 
liorative measures.  In  his  Cavendish  Lecture  for  1912,  entitled 
"Darwinism,  Medical  Progress,  and  Eugenics, "t  we  find  his  posi- 
tion well  set  forth.  After  marshaling  the  data  of  his  laboratory  to 
prove  that  "general  health  is  inherited  and  that  the  infantile  death- 
rate  is  selective,  he  makes  the  following  statement  (p.  16)  : 

"But,  because  I  state  that  the  infantile  death  rate  is  selective, 
and  assert  that  it  by  no  means  follows  that  a  low  infantile  death 
rate  will  compensate  racially  for  a  falling  birth  rate,  why  should 
I  be  described  as  a  Herod,  and  those  who  hold  the  same  views  as 
supporters  of  the  better-dead  doctrine?  I  feel  sure  that  many  of 
you  who  have,  by  your  skill,  helped  into  the  world  the  cripple,  or  the 
child  of  diseased  or  deformed  parents,  must  have  said  to  yourselves, 
when  you  found  it  viable,  better  it  had  not  been  born.  Many  of 
you,  I  take  it,  hold  with  me  the  'better-not-born'  doctrine,  but  the 
recognition  of  the  fact  that  the  infantile  death  rate  is  selective  can- 
not of  itself  justify  the  charge  that  we  wish  the  weakling  killed 
off." 

After  then  giving  a  number  of  examples  showing  conclusively 
the  inheritance  of  achondroplasia,  congenital  cataract,  deaf-mutism. 


*  Loc.  cit.^  p.  31. 

t  Eugenics  Lab.  Lect.  Series,  IX,  1912. 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  501 

general  degeneracy,  and  the  like,  he  sums  up  so  well  that  I  cannot 
refrain  from  again  quoting.  He  says:*  "...  These  are  individual 
illustrations  of  what  is  happening,  because  the  intensive  selection 
of  the  old  days  has  been  suspended.  That  suspension  is  partly  due 
to  medical  progress ;  you  are  enabling  the  deformed  to  live,  the  blind 
to  see,  the  weakling  to  survive — and  it  is  partly  due  to  the  social 
provision  made  for  these  weaklings  that  the  feeble-minded  woman  goes 
to  the  workhouse  as  a  matter  of  course  for  her  fourth  or  fifth  ille- 
gitimate child,  while  the  insane  man,  overcome  by  the  strain  of  mod- 
em life,  is  fed  up  and  restored,  for  a  time,  to  his  family  and  pa- 
ternit5^  In  our  institutions  we  provide  for  the  deaf-mute,  the  blind, 
the  cripple,  and  render  it  relatively  easy  for  the  degenerate  to  mate 
and  leave  their  like.  In  the  old  days,  without  these  medical  bene- 
fits and  without  these  social  provisions  the  hand  of  Nature  fell  heav- 
ily on  the  unfit.  Such  were  numbered,  as  they  are  largely  num- 
bered now,  among  the  unemployables ;  but  there  were  no  doctors 
to  enable  them  to  limp  through  life ;  no  charities  to  take  their  off- 
spring or  provide  for  their  own  necessities.  A  petty  theft  meant  the 
gallows,  unemployment  meant  starvation,  feeble-mindedness  meant 
persecution  and  social  expulsion ;  insanity  meant  confinement  with 
no  attempt  at  treatment.  To  the  honor  of  the  medical  profession, 
to  the  credit  of  our  social  instincts,  be  it  said,  we  have  largely 
stopped  all  this.  We  have  held  out  a  helping  hand  to  the  weak, 
but  at  the  same  time  we  have  to  a  large  extent  suspended  the  auto- 
matic action   whereby  a  race   progressed   mentally   and  physically. 

"Surely  here  is  an  antinomy — a  fundamental  opposition  be- 
tween medical  progress  and  the  science  of  national  eugenics,  or  race 
efficiency.  Gentlemen,  I  venture  to  think  it  is  an  antinomy,  and 
will  remain  one  until  the  nation  at  large  recognizes  as  a  funda- 
mental doctrine  the  principle  that  everyone,  being  born,  has  the 
right  to  live,  but  the  right  to  live  does  not  in  itself  convey  the  right 
to  everyone  to  reproduce  his  kind. 

"Our  social  instincts,  our  common  humanity,  enforce  upon  us 
the  conception  that  each  person  born  has  the  right  to  live,  yet  this 
right  essentially  connotes  a  suspension  of  the  full  intensity  of  nat- 
ural selection.  Darwinism  and  medical  progress  are  opposed  forces, 
and  we  shall  gain  nothing  by  screening  that  fact,  or,  in  opposition 
to  ample  evidence,  asserting  that  Darwinism  has  no  application 
to  civilized  man." 

I  have  made  these  quotations  frankly  and  at  length  because 
I  believe  they  will  show  you  more  faithfully  than  I  could  perhaps 
have  done  it  in  my  own  words  the  positions  held  by  various  stu- 

*  hoc.  cit.,  pp.  25-27. 


502  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERIMENT 

dents  of  race  progress  and  betterment.  I  believe  that  any  reason- 
able person  must  agree  with  Pearson  that  in  spite  of  the  masking 
influence  of  the  increasingly  complex  social  heritage  which  is  passed 
on  from  generation  to  generation  in  our  customs,  beliefs,  books, 
laws — in  fact,  in  all  our  increasing  knowledge  of  science  and  arts — 
nevertheless,  biological  inheritance  is  operating  in  man  now  on  the 
same  principles  that  it  did  when  he  swung  the  stone  axe,  or  scuttled 
through  the  trees  with  his  simian  congeners.  The  detailed  studies  of 
individual  lines  of  inheritance  Avhich  have  in  recent  years  been 
made  along  Mendelian  lines*  leave  no  doubt  of  this.  Further- 
more, this  being  true,  it  must  be  conceded  by  all  thinking  persons 
at  all  conversant  with  biological  principles  that  selection  plays 
the  same  role  in  directing  the  course  of  heredity,  that  is,  the  sur- 
viving line  of  germ-plasm,  that  it  always  has.  Note  that  I  say 
selection  here  rather  than  natural  selection,  for  the  latter  term 
is  associated  in  many  minds  with  the  crude  methods  of  Nature  un- 
influenced by  sentient  forces.  Will  anyone  deny  that  the  animal 
or  plant  breeder  utilizes  the  same  principles  of  selection  in  breed- 
ing his  cattle  or  his  corn  that  have  in  Nature  brought  about  the 
evolution  of  one  form  from  another?  The  difference  is  that  instead 
of  being  nat^iral  selection  it  is  now  conscious  selection  on  the  part 
of  the  breeder,  and  he  directs  the  processes  of  change,  in  so  far 
as  his  art  enables  him,  along  the  lines  which  his  needs  or  his  fancy 
direct. 

Now  as  man's  mental  capacities  began  to  develop,  the  course 
of  selection  shifted  increasingly  on  to  these,  and  they  became  more 
and  more  important  as  his  social  relations  and  capacities  grew.  I 
am  not  prepared  to  assert  that  the  minds  of  the  highly  civilized 
ancient  peoples,  such  as  the  Greeks,  the  Egyptians,  or  even  more 
remote  cultures,  might  not  be  capable  of  assimilating  and  utilizing 
to  the  full  the  complexities  of  our  present  social  and  political  condi- 
tions, our  inventions  and  our  scientific  knowledge — indeed  recent 
Japanese  history  would  be  an  argument  in  favor  of  such  a  view; 
but  certainly  this  cannot  be  said  of  the  more  primitive  races,  and 
therefore  some  mental  evolution  must  be  postulated  from  such  a 
condition.  To  my  mind  the  course  of  evolution  presents  a  picture 
somewhat  like  that  of  a  small  stream  of  water  making  its  way 
down  an  almost  level  but  slightly  irregular  surface.  Tongues  are 
sent  out  this  way  and  that  as  slight  depressions  lead  here  and  there, 
and  at  times  a  considerable  course  may  be  made  more  or  less  con- 
sistently ;  but  then  a  higher  obstruction  is  reached  and  a  new  course 

*  For  a  summary  treatment  of  these  see  DavenpoT-t.  C.  B..  '"'Heredity  in 
Kelation  to  Eugenics,"  New  York,  1911. 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  503 

started,  determined  by  the  point  of  the  lowest  level.  No  matter 
how  well  one  branch  has  progressed,  if  another  finds  a  lower  spot, 
it  diverts  the  stream.  Just  so  races  and  civilizations  have  arisen 
and  prospered  and  flourished  until  others  superior  in  brute  strength, 
in  organization,  or  in  equipment  in  arms,  have  come  in  and  super- 
seded them. 

Until  social  customs  became  comparatively  highly  developed, 
individual  physical  prowess  w-as  as  necessary  to  existence  as  among- 
the  lower  animals.  This  was  in  the  stage  of  individualism.  With 
specialization,  as  particular  classes  in  a  community  took  up  cer- 
tain special  tasks,  and  especially  as  armies  were  formed  not  in- 
cluding the  total  population,  physical  selection  became  relaxed  for 
some  of  the  individuals.  These  conditions  have  become  more  pro- 
nounced until  modern  philanthropy  and  medical  science  are  bring- 
ing them  to  a  point  where  they  can  no  longer  be  ignored.  Neither 
the  greater  diligence  in  seeking  them  out  nor  the  fact  that  they 
remain  in  institutions  for  longer  periods  will  account  for  the  dis- 
proportionately increasing  number  of  defectives  and  criminals  in 
our  population.  This  fact  seems  demonstrated  and  one  does  not 
merit  the  epithet  of  alarmist  for  pointing  it  out.  And  if  true,  must 
v^'e  not  give  thought  to  its  remedy?  Chatterton-Hill,*  in  a  striking 
simile,  has  likened  the  condition  of  the  social  organism  under  these 
circumstances  to  that  of  a  biological  organism  in  which  eatabolism 
is  exceeding  anabolism,  resulting  in  autointoxication,  the  gradual 
poisoning  of  the  civic  body.  Death  is  the  normal  process  of  elimina- 
tion in  the  social  organism,  and  we  might  carry  the  figure  a  step 
further  and  say  that  in  prolonging  the  lives  of  defectives  we  are 
tampering  with  the  functioning  of  the  social  kidneys! 

Just  as  artful  means  of  preservation  superseded  purely  physical, 
when  the  human  race  developed  from  the  savage,  and  as  the 
breeder  has  replaced  fortuitous  natural  selection  by  conscious  selec- 
tion, so  I  believe  the  time  is  at  hand  when  mankind  will  find  it 
necessary  to  substitute  some  form  of  rational  selection  for  the 
hit-or-miss,  happy-go-lucky  way  they  have  drifted  along  in  the 
past.  Exactly  what  this  method  shall  be  I  do  not  think  we  are  in 
a  position  at  the  present  time  to  say.  Two  chief  lines  seem  open; 
restrictive  and  constructive — sometimes  called  negative  and  positive 
eugenics.  The  quotations  which  have  been  made  in  the  earlier  part 
of  this  discourse  show  clearly,  it  seems  to  me,  that  the  former 
measures  may  be  adopted  under  certain  conditions  without  doing 
violence  to  the  finer  instincts  of  the  race,  without  in  any  way  de- 

*  Chatterton-Hill,  G.,  "Heredity  and  Selection  in  Sooioloav."  London, 
1007,  p.  260. 


504  FIRST    NATIOXAI.    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

stroyin^'  or  lesstniiiiii-  altruism  or  hiiiiiauitai'iaiiisiii.  In  oui-  nation- 
wide agitation  for  conservation  we  are  just  beginning  to  realize 
onr  duty  to  future  generations.  The  ease  is  a  close  parallel;  for 
we  are  saying  that  the  material  benefits  of  our  forests,  our  minerals, 
and  our  Avater  power  must  be  conserved  for  the  benefit  of  all  the 
people,  and  not  reaped  now  to  enrich  a  few  individuals  and  to  be 
passed  on  only  to  their  families.  Shall  we  have  less  foresight  in 
the  heritage  of  defectives  and  cripples  that  we  pass  on  to  the  next 
and  future  generations?  Is  not  the  social  reformer  who  does  not 
take  this  into  consideration  spending  all  his  thought  on  bettering  the 
present  generation,  just  as  exhausting  our  national  resources  might 
enrich  this  generation  but  pauperize  the  next? 

Now,  if  it  is  going  to  be  necessary  for  us  to  practice  some  de- 
gree of  rational  selection,  we  must  be  sure  that  it  is  rational — ^it 
must  be  based  upon  positive  knowledge.  What  has  modern  bio- 
logical research  to  offer  in  the  way  of  contribution  to  such  knowl- 
edge? In  the  first  place,  we  can  readily  see  that  a  large  part  of 
the  disagreement  which  has  been  mentioned  is  due  to  difference 
in  opinion  as  to  the  influence  which  the  environment  may  have  on 
the  individual  and  on  the  offspring.  It  is  the  old  question  of  Na- 
ture and  Nurture.  While  I  am  free  to  admit  that  in  its  abstruse 
aspects  this  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  questions  confronting  the 
biologist,  I  believe  that  much  unnecessary  confusion  and  needless 
discussion  has  resulted  from  the  tendency  of  writers  to  exaggerate 
their  views  either  on  the  one  side  or  the  other,  and  not  to  accord 
the  question  fair  treatment.  When  I  am  asked,  as  often  happens, 
which  I  consider  of  greater  importance,  heredity  or  environment, 
I  commonly  give  a  Yankee  reply  by  asking  in  return,  Which  is  of 
more  importance  for  sustaining  life — food  or  air? 

Although  we  may  concede  what  is  the  almost  universal  biological 
opinion  of  today,  that  the  effects  of  environment  are  not  in  the  crude 
sense  heritable,  we  must  not,  nevertheless,  lose  sight  of  the  fact 
that  the  environment  is  a  most  important  determining  factor  in 
evolution  and  in  selection.  This  may  perhaps  best  be  illustrated 
by  an  example.  Let  us  suppose  two  cows,  one  of  which  is  inherently 
a  low  producer,  and  is  incapable  of  producing  any  considerable 
quantity  of  milk  beyond  that  necessary  to  raise  her  calf,  the  other, 
on  the  other  hand,  has  inherited  the  capacity  to  produce  a  large 
quantity  of  milk  under  certain  conditions,  namely,  proper  feeding, 
care,  and  handling.  Now  let  us  first  consider  these  animals  under, 
say,  range  conditions,  where  they  receive'  no  special  care  and  where 
they  have  to  hustle  for  their  maintenance.  So  far  as  milk  produc- 
tion is  concerned,  they  will  measure  up  about  the  same — each  will 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  505 

produce  enough  to  raise  her  calf  and  no  more — and  very  likely 
the  inherently  low  producer  will  be  at  an  advantage  under  these 
more  severe  conditions.  But  now  take  the  tM^o  animals  and  place 
them  in  a  modern  dairj^  with  scientifically  prepared  rations  and 
the  best  treatment  that  modern  dairy  practice  can  provide.  What 
is  the  result?  The  animal  which  inherited  the  capacity  to  respond 
to  such  treatment  does  respond  at  once  by  a  sustained  increase  in 
the  flow  of  milk ;  but  the  other  does  not.  The  former  was  ham- 
pered by  conditions  in  the  first  place,  but  the  latter  is  now  abso- 
lutely prevented  by  her  nature  from  the  possibility  of  a  response 
to  the  improved  conditions.  We  see  therefore  that  these  conditions 
were  necessary  to  make  apparent  the  differences  which  existed  in 
the  heredity  make-up  of  the  two  animals.  Is  not  the  same  true  of 
the  human  race?  It  is  only  by  giving  opportunity  to  all  that  we 
may  know  which  are  capable  of  profiting  by  that  opportunity.  The 
good  environment,  then,  is  necessary  for  differentiation,  and  with- 
out differentiation  how  may  we  hope  to  make  selection? 

Two  other  biological  concepts  are  of  importance.  These  have 
grown  out  of  recent  Mendelian  investigations.  The  first  is  the  idea 
of  hypothetical  factors,  which  are  definite  heritable  units,  and  upon 
the  presence  of  one  or  more  of  which  all  the  characters  of  an  or- 
ganism depend.  Since  the  factors  behave  for  the  most  part  inde- 
pendently in  inheritance,  the  problem  of  handling  them  in  selec- 
tion becomes  an  extremely  complex  one.  Where  only  two  factors 
are  concerned,  any  desired  combination  as  to  their  presence  or 
absence  may  be  expected  in  at  least  one  of  sixteen  individuals 
in  the  second  generation.  But  as  the  number  of  factors  to  be  dealt 
with  increases,  the  number  of  individuals  necessary  to  give  all  the 
combinations  increases  at  a  most  disproportionate  rate,  as  is  indi- 
cated in  the  following  table,  which  shows  the  number  of  individuals 
that  according  to  expectation  would  be  necessary  to  produce  at 
least  one  individual  with  each  of  the  possible  combinations  under 
the  conditions  most  favorable  for  bringing  them  about: 

1  factor 4  iiulividnals 

2  factors 16 

3  '•'      fi4 

4  "      256 

10     "      1,048.576 

Certain  conditions,  such,  for  example,  as  certain  striking  defects 
or  abnormalities,  may  depend  upon  the  presence  or  absence  of  a 
single  factor,  and  it  might  be  comparatively  simple  to  deal  with 
such  cases  singly.  But  the  difficulty  of  dealing  with  any  consider- 
able number,  especially  in  the  case  of  man,  where  conditions  are 


506  FIRST    NATIOXAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

very  different  from  those  of  animal  or  plant  experimentation,  may- 
be readily  appreciated.  It  might  be  possible,  by  prohibiting  by  law 
certain  marriages  and  encouraging  others,  to  breed  a  race  of  man- 
kind free  from  the  diathesis  toward  a  particular  disease,  let  us 
say;  but  think  of  the  number  of  diseases  alone  with  which  man 
has  to  contend  and  consider  again  the  foregoing  table.  And  then  tell 
me  how  soon  eugenics  is  going  to  produce  an  "ideal  race,"  made 
to  order,  as  the  newspapers  would  have  us  believe  is  its  aim. 

Such  speculations  may  do  for  the  visionary  who  likes  to  specu- 
late what  the  world  may  be  like  a  century  or  twenty  centuries 
hence:  but  the  practical  eugenist  is  merely  trying  to  determine 
how  what  knowledge  we  have  gained  to  the  present  may  be  turned 
to  the  best  advantage  for  race  improvement  as  distinguished  from 
individual  amelioration.  At  the  present  time  it  would  seem  that 
we  are  in  a  position  to  apply  certain  phases  of  restrictive  eugenics 
with  comparative  certainty  of  results,  such,  for  example,  as  the 
cutting  off  of  those  definitely  defective  lines  of  germinal  protoplasm 
which  are  beyond  hope  of  hereditary  improvement.  x\s  to  the 
methods  which  shall  be  employed,  it  is  coming,  I  think,  to  be  gen- 
erally conceded  that  permanent  segregation,  at  least  during  the 
period  of  reproductive  capacity,  is  going  to  prove  the  most  feasible, 
if  not  the  most  effective  of  restrictive  eugenic  measures.  But  we 
must  be  certain  of  whom  it  is  necessary  to  segregate.  The  recent 
advance  of  knowledge  in  this  line  has  been  considerable,  but  it  is 
only  a  beginning,  and  I  must  say  that  it  is  due  more  to  the  work 
of  biologists  than  of  physicians.  Experimental  breeding  of  plants 
and  animals  has  supplied  the  keys  which  have  unlocked  some  of 
the  puzzles  of  human  inheritance,  but  what  we  need  now  are  more 
facts,  the  facts  which  can  be  gathered  from  the  hospitals  and  asy- 
lums, from  vital  statistics  and  from  the  case  records  of  practitioners. 
But  these  facts  must  be  gathered  with  a  fulness  and  an  accuracy,  and 
with  a  view  to  the  purpose  they  are  to  serve  which  has  not  been 
customary  in  the  past.  It  is  a  deplorable  fact  that  comparatively 
few  medical  men  have  very  clear  ideas  of  heredity,  nor  indeed 
evince  much  interest  in  the  subject,  and  few  realize  its  importance. 
It  is  easy  to  see  that  the  surgeon  or  the  physician,  engrossed  in  his 
daily  duties  and  in  the  outcome  of  his  individual  cases,  has  little 
time  to  give  thought  to  the  result  of  his  operation  or  his  cure  on 
the  next  generation  or  the  future  of  the  race.  This  attitude  was 
brought  forcibly  to  my  mind  when  reading  recently  an  account  and 
discussion    of    ovarian    transplantation.      The    article    states*    that 


*  Morris,   R.    T.,   "Lectures   on   Appendicitis   and   Notes   on    Other   Sub- 
jects," Third  Edition,  New  York,  1899,  p.  ISO. 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  507 

"some  patients  object  to  the  idea  of  carrying  a  piece  of  ovary  from 
another  woman,  as  a  child  from  such  a  case  would  have  a  treble 
parentage,  but  there  are  many  women  whose  uterine  adnexa  have 
been  removed  who  grasp  at  an  opportunity  for  bearing  children, 
and  whose  minds  are  much  relieved  at  the  thought  of  the  possi- 
bility of  such  a  prospect."  I  am  not  necessarily  condemning  the 
operation,  but  I  wish  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  apparently 
the  only  thought  given  to  heredity  was  that  "there  may  be  legal 
difficulties  involved  in  inheritance." 

Reverting  again  to  the  matter  of  collecting  facts,  it  is  a  sad 
commentary  on  either  the  civic  mind  or  our  political  institutions 
that  it  is  usually  far  easier  to  arouse  public  opinion  and  obtain 
from  our  legislatures  what  are  often  ill-considered  and  premature 
laws  having  eugenic  bearing,  such  as  those  for  sterilization,  and 
the  like,  than  it  is  to  induce  these  bodies  to  appropriate  funds  for 
the  adequate  investigation  of  the  facts  on  which  such  laws  should 
be  founded. 

I  have  not  had  time  in  this  discourse  to  touch  upon  specific  dis- 
eases, operations,  and  charitable  procedures,  and  to  discuss  their 
relation  to  the  question  in  hand  as  I  should  like  to  have  done.  It 
has  no  doubt  occurred  to  many  of  you  to  ask,  however,  Suppose  we 
grant  the  necessity  of  restricting  the  reproduction  of  the  obviously 
unfit,  what  about  operations  in  other  cases,  the  treatment  of  endemic 
and  epidemic  diseases,  and  the  like?  Is  removing  the  appendix  or 
the  tonsils  or  the  turbinal  bones  going  to  be  to  the  race  like  tho 
drug  habit  to  the  individual — once  begun,  having  to  be  continued 
in  ever-increasing  doses?  It  may  be.  It  is  possible  that  the  popu- 
lar idea  of  the  predicted  "hairless,  toothless  race"  may  not  be  so 
far  from  the  mark,  or  at  least  that  this  type  shall  increase  in  num- 
bers unless  sentiment  against  it  becomes  so  strong  as  to  become  a 
selective  factor.  I  wish  merely  to  point  out  that  the  filling  and 
crowning  of  our  teeth  is  not  going  to  insure  better  teeth  for  the 
next  generation  any  more  than  wearing  a  set  of  false  ones  would; 
if  selection  is  eliminated,  the  individuals  of  the  next  generation  will 
have  to  take  their  chance  of  inheriting  a  better  or  a  worse  dental 
battery  than  their  parents.  My  point  is  simply  that  if  the  inheri- 
tance of  the  factors  concerned  were  understood,  by  selection  of  the 
parents  good  teeth  could  undoubtedly  be  insured  to  the  next  genera- 
tion. But  the  question  would  have  to  be  asked.  Would  it  be  worth 
while  ?  The  breeder  knows  how  hard  it  is  to  fix  a  number  of  char- 
acters at  one  time,  and  the  student  of  genetics  understands  why; 
and  while  effort  was  being  concentrated  on  the  teeth,  other  char- 
acters would  run  riot.     The  difficulties  are  further  magnified  bv 


508  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

the  fact,  greatly  emphasized  in  recent  studies,  that  the  way  in 
which  a  character  will  be  inherited  often  cannot  be  determined  by 
its  appearance  in  the  individual.  This  is  a  fact  which  has  almost 
completely  been  overlooked  or  ignored  in  the  discussions  of  sociol- 
ogists. So  the  conservatively  inclined  need  not  be  alarmed  that 
practical  eugenics  will  do  much  more  than  to  eliminate  the  more 
obviously  unfit  for  some  time  to  come. 

If  time  permitted,  I  should  like  to  discuss  the  question  of 
w^hether,  in  the  case  of  certain  specific  diseases,  such,  for  instance, 
as  tuberculosis,  the  greater  promise  for  the  race  lay  in  selective 
heredity,  or  in  environmental  adjustments,  such  as  prophylactic 
measures,  antitoxins,  treatment,  and  the  like.  My  feeling  is  that 
in  most  of  these  specific  cases  the  race  will  find  it  most  expedient 
to  do  as  now,  except  in  such  diseases  as  denote  general  physical 
or  mental  defect  or  Aveakness.  Take  the  case  of  cancer,  for  ex- 
ample. Suppose  it  were  found  to  be  definitely  inherited,  but  that 
medical  science  could  find  an  easy  and  early  diagnosis  and  cer- 
tain cure.  Would  it  not  be  simpler  and  easier  to  cure  it  as  it  ap- 
peared, even  though  its  incidence  should  be  even  larger  than  now, 
than  to  cut  off  all  affected  lines  of  germ-plasm?  For  certainly  the 
stock  that  would  be  eliminated  by  such  measures  would  be  an  in- 
estimable loss  to  the  world. 

The  very  specificity  of  disease,  coupled  with  the  difficulty  of 
selecting  for  a  large  number  of  characters  at  once,  and  taken  in 
connection  wdtli  man's  present  cosmopolitanism,  by  which  all  dis- 
eases are  becoming  distributed  all  over  the  world  within  their  pos- 
sible ranges — all  these  factors  make  the  breeding  of  a  race  of  man- 
kind immune  to  all,  or  even  to  a  large  number  of  diseases,  a  prac- 
tical impossibility. 

Eugenic  selection  must,  I  believe,  for  a  long  time  be  confined 
to  cases  of  marked  defect  and  weakness.  In  addition,  more  study  must 
be  given  to  those  influences  which  may  weaken  the  germ-plasm  directly, 
such  as  alcohol.  And  medical  science,  raither  than  desisting,  must  push 
on,  especially  in  the  field  of  general  prophylaxis,  but  with  more  thought 
to  succeeding  generations  and  the  future  of  the  race  than  it  has  given 
in  the  past.  Philanthropy  and  charities  cannot  stop,  but  they  must 
take  more  counsel  of  other  sciences,  and,  like  medicine,  give  more 
thought  to  the  future. 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  509 

THE    HEALTH    CERTIFICATE — A    SAFEGUARD   AGAINST   VICIOUS 
SELECTION   IN   MARRIAGE 

The  Very  Reverend  Walter  Taylor  Sumner,  D.D.,  Dean  of  the  Episcopal 
Cathedral  of  Saints  Peter  and  Paul,  Chicago,  Illinois. 

We  guard  our  business  with  a  great  deal  of  care.  If  a  group  of 
men  desire  to  form  a  corporation,  they  must  secure  permission  of 
the  legislature.  If  a  man  or  a  group  of  men  desire  to  carry  a  munic- 
ipal burden,  they  must  secure  a  municipal  license.  If  a  man  in  the 
city  of  Chicago  and  elsewhere  in  this  country  desires  to  carry  on 
only  some  insignificant  street  trade,  such  as  the  selling  of  shoe-strings 
or  the  pushing  of  a  banana  cart,  such  a  man  must  take  a  responsible 
citizen  to  the  city  hall  to  vouch  for  his  responsibility.  Now.  on 
the  other  hand,  if  this  same  man  desires  to  get  married — -and  we 
must  a^ree  that  this  is  a  very  much  more  serious  undertaking — 
he  goes  down  to  the  city  hall  alone  and  unknown.  He  may  be  a 
degenerate,  an  epileptic,  or  the  cursed  diseases  of  the  social  evil 
may  be  coursing  through  his  veins.  He  passes  his  name  through 
the  wicker  window  with  the  name  of  a  similar  unknown  female  and 
they  are  ready  to  marry  and  to  propagate  their  kind  and  to  pass 
on  to  succeeding  generations,  in  an  increasing  geometric  ratio, 
the  physical,  mental,  and  moral  deficriencies  which  they  may  possess. 

We  are  giving  much  time  and  attention  to  the  question  of  en- 
vironment. We  should  give  much  attention  to  culture.  But,  after 
all,  is  it  any  wonder,  in  face  of  the  fact  that  we  safeguard  mar- 
riage or  the  selection  in  marriage  by  no  laws  and  by  no  public  at- 
tention, that  we  have  in  our  public  institutions  in  these  United 
States  today  three  million  abnormal  people,  costing  this  nation  two 
hundred  million  dollars  a  year  for  their  upkeep  and  care,  and  that 
they  are  increasing  far  and  beyond  in  proportion  to  the  increase 
of  the  population  of  this  country,  large  as  that  increase  is?  It 
does  not  matter  very,  much,  with  reference  to  the  philosophy  of  the 
movement,  whether  a  health  certificate  before  marriage  is  possible, 
or  desirable,  or  not.  Let  us  not  lose  sight  of  the  logic  of  tthe  need 
of  some  safeguard  against  vicious  selection  in  marriage.  When 
people  come  to  understand  existing  conditions,  there  will  be  no 
danger  but  that  we  shall  have  legislation.  When  people  come  to 
understand  the  true  state  of  things,  there  will  be  no  question  about 
a  health  certificate  being  demanded  by  parents. 

Now  there  are  three  avenues  through  which  we  may  approach 
this  subject  of  a  health  certificate : 

First,  through  the  avenue  of  those  who  perform  marriage  cere- 
monies— clergymen,   justices   of   the   peace,   members   of   the   bench, 


510  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

even  our  public  officials,  ns  the  Mayor  of  Cleveland  said  yesterday 
that  he  officiated  even  in  a  marriage  ceremony.  It  does  not  matter, 
so  far  as  the  philosophical  question  is  concerned,  ^\•hethor  we  have 
had  one  Avedding  or  fifty  weddings,  or  no  weddings,  at  the  Cathedral 
in  Chicago,  since  Easter  of  1912  when  we  took  the  stand  that  there- 
after we  would  marry  no  persons  unless  they  presented  a  certificate, 
signed  by  a  reputable  physician,  that  they  had  not  an  incurable 
or  communicable  disease.  What  is  of  importance  is  this:  That  since 
that  time  over  fifty  ministerial  associations  representing  nearly 
every  religious  body  from  Maine  to  California  in  their  membership, 
about  thirty-five  hundred  of  the  clergy,  have  agreed  at  least  to 
urge,  if  not  downright  demand,  a  health  certificate  before  they  will 
perform  a  marriage  ceremony.  National  conventions,  the  Jewish 
rabbis,  have  agreed  to  the  same."  Various  churches  and  justices  of 
the  peace  throughout  the  country  have  also  agreed  to  the  same,  so 
that  now  the  movement  is  apace  among  those  people  who  officiate 
at  holy  marriage. 

The  next  avenue  is  through  legislation.  Legislation  is  just  so 
effective  as  it  is  backed  up  by  public  opinion.  Public  opinion  today 
is  not  well  informed  with  regard  to  the  conditions  and  the  needs 
of  safeguarding  marriage  selection.  Therefore,  we  should  not  be 
discouraged  because  various  states  have  not  preventive  measures, 
as  in  this  state  of  Michigan,  and  the  enactments  have  not  been 
forthcoming.  The  measures  have  been  defeated.  But,  even  then, 
sixteen  states  today  have  legislation  pending  and  five  states  have 
passed  legislation  since  Easter  of  1912.  There  are  objections.  There 
is,  of  course,  the  question  of  whether  the  law  is  constitutional  or 
not.  That  is  for  the  lawyers  to  decide.  But  public  opinion,  once 
informed,  wall  call  for  legislation  which  is  constitutional,  because 
any  legislation  is  constitutional  that  is  based  upon  justice  and  good 
common  sense. 

The  third  avenue  is  through  education.  T  believe  that  is  the 
great  hope.  The  greatest  agent  in  education  in  this  country  today, 
with  refefence  to  health  certificates  (and  I  am  not  handing  a  bou- 
quet) is  the  press,  largely  the  metropolitan  press  of  this  country. 
I  have  thousands  and  thousands  of  clippings,  filling  five  great  scrap 
books,  of  th'C  articles  that  have  appeared  in  the  public  press  through- 
out the  country  in  these  last  eighteen  or  tw^enty  months.  It  is 
most  marvelous  that  this  great  instrument  to  inform  and  build  up 
public  opinion  has  approached  the  subject  so  intelligently  and  so 
sympathetically.  Fathers  and  mothers  are  now  giving  their  atten- 
tion to  the  subject;  for  they  realize,  as  knowledge  takes  the  place 
of  ignorance,  that  if  they  are  to  safeguard  the  integrity  of  their 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  511 

family,  they  must  have  some  assurance  from  the  man  who  comes 
to  ask  for  the  daughter's  hand  that  he  has  not  an  incurable  or  a 
communicable  disease.  Mothers  are  learning  that  they  are  largely 
the  sufferers  from  these  conditions — conditions  in  connection  with 
commercialized  vice  and  the  social  evil ;  conditions  more  to  be 
feared  than  a  leprous  plague,  scattering  broadcast  insanity,  paraly- 
sis, sterility,  locomotor  ataxia,  the  blinded  eyes  of  little  babies,  the 
twisted  limbs  of  deformed  children — physical  rot  and  mental  de- 
cay— afflicting  not  only  the  guilty  one,  but  the  innocent  wife  and 
child  in  the  home  with  a  sickening  subtlety.  And  the  young  women 
who  are  coming  to  the  marriage  state  are  realizing  that  the  lowest 
conservative  estimate  of  men  in  this  country  between  the  ages  of 
eighteen  and  twenty-five  who  have  or  have  had  a  social-evil  dis- 
ease, is  sixty  per  cent  and  that  eighty  per  cent  of  all  operations 
upon  womanhood,  peculiar  to  women,  are  due  to  the  guilty  infection 
of  a  husband  and  the  wife  has  never  known  it.  And  best  of  all, 
boys  are  learning,  as  never  before,  that  there  is  a  calling  just  as 
high,  just  as  noble,  just  as  holy  as  the  call  to  motherhood,  and  that  is 
the  call  to  fatherhood ;  and  that  if  they  are  to  reach,  if  they  are  to 
qualify  when  that  great  duty  and  privilege  and  responsibility  shall 
come  to  them,  they  must  lead  such  lives  in  their  adolesscence  and 
young  manhood  that  there  can  be  absolutely  no  question  with  ref- 
erence to  that  qualification.  The  boy  can  be  taught  and  should  be 
taught,  as  well  as  the  girl,  in  the  home.  The  fathers'  or  mothers, 
or  both,  who  neglect  this  education  are  taking  upon  themselves 
responsibilities  nothing  short  of  criminal.  The  child  does  not 
know  these  things.  Ask  any  social  worker,  any  physician.  Ig- 
norance plays  the  largest  part  in  the  initial  delinquency  of  the 
child.  We  raise  the  question,  Shall  we  teach  personal  purity  in 
the  high  schools,  to  segregate  classes?  I  say,  we  can.  In  the  last 
few  weeks  we  have  in  the  city  of  Chicago  overthrown  the  proposi- 
tion which  was.  adopted  last  summer  to  teach  sex  hygiene.  Per- 
haps it  is  just  as  well  for  the  reason  that  there  is  now  in  the  minds 
of  the  citizens  of  Chicago  such  an  uncertainty  with  regard  to  the 
success  of  the  movement  that  it  may  be  better  to  give  the  teaching 
of  sex  hygiene  or  personal  purity  a  short  vacation.  Then  by  the 
end  of  that  time  we  may  have  teachers,  better  trained,  to  teach 
the  subject.  In  the  meantime  the  parents  of  the  children  will  be 
better  informed,  and  when  once  knowledge  does  take  the  place  of 
ignoranoe,  then  there  will  not  be  the  opposition  that  today  exists. 
We  can  afford  to  wait. 

Whether  we  approach  this  subject  from  the  standpoint  of  com- 
mercialized  vice,   or  whether  we   approach   the   subject  from   the 


512  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

stand j)oint  of  race  betterinent,  we  shall  never  reach  a  solution  to 
the  conditions  which  are  giving  ns  the  broken  body  and  the  de- 
generate mind  that  we  find  in  the  child  until  we  are  ready  to  de- 
mand that  which  women  have  never  demanded  and  men  have  never 
been  just  enough  to  concede — the  single  standard  of  morality  for 
men  and  women  alike.  And  in  the  instance  of  this,  you  can  take 
the  boy  and  say  to  him,  "Will  you  not  make  this  resolution: 
Some  day  I  expect  to  marry.  I  am  determined  to  bring  to  my  wife 
as  pure  a  life  as  I  expect  of  her.  Somewhere,  some  girl  is  keeping 
herself  pure  and  sweet  and  clean  for  me.  Cannot  I  do  as  much 
for  her?" 

I  appeal  for  a  greater  intelligence  with  reference  to  safeguard- 
ing the  selection  in  marriage.  I  appeal  for  justice  to  the  unborn 
child.  We  may  nurture,  but  the  physiologist,  the  physician,  the 
criminologist,  the  penologist,  and  the  teacher  of  the  young  find  the 
great  failures  today  in  the  fact  that  the  child  has  not  been  well 
born.  A  desire  for  righteousness  shall  take  the  place  of  unright- 
eousness only  when  boys  and  men  have  a  finer  instinct  of  chivalry 
and  a  more  splendid  honor  for  womanhood,  and  have  the  convic- 
tion that  to  fight  for  a  woman's  honor  is  indeed  the  occasion  for 
a  valiant  fight.  Perhaps  you  read  in  the  March  number  of  the 
Cosmopolitan  a  poem  entitled,  "The  Price  He  Paid."  It  is  the  cry 
that  is  going  up  from  tens  of  thousands  of  boys  and  men  today. 

THE  PRICE  HE  PAID 

I  said  I  would  have  my  fling:. 

And  do  what  a  young  man  may :   • 
And  I  didn't  believe  a  thing 

That  the  parson.s  have  to  say. 
I  didn't  believe  in  a  God 

That  gives  us  blood  like  fire, 
Then  flings  us  into  hell  because 

We  answer  the  call  of  desire. 

And  I  said :    "Religion  is  rot. 

And  the  laws  of  the  world  are  nil; 
For  the  bad  man  is  he  who  is  caught 

And  cannot  foot  his  bill. 
And  there  is  no  place  called  hell ; 

And  heaven  is  only  a  truth, 
When  a  man  has  his  way  with  a  maid, 

In  the  fresh  keen  hour  of  youth. 

"And  money  can  buy  us  grace. 

If  it  rings  on  the  plate  of  the  church : 

And  money  can  neatly  erase 

Each  sign  of  a  sinful  smirch." 


Discussion. 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  513 

For  I  saw  men  everywhere, 

Hot-footiBg  the  I'oad  of  vice; 
And  women  and  preachers  smiled  on  them 

As  long-  as  they  paid  the  price. 

So  I  had  my  joy  of  life : 

And  I  went  the  pace  of  the  town ; 
And  then  I  took  me  a  wife, 

And  started  to  settle  down. 
I  had  gold  enough  and  to  spare 

For  all  of  the  simple  joys 
That  belong  with  a  house  and  a  home 

And  a  brood  of  girls  and  boys. 

I  married  a  girl  with  health     ^ 

And  virtue  and  spotless  fame. 
I  gave  in  exchange  my  wealth 

And  a  proud  old  family  name. 
And  I  gave  her  the  love  of  a  heart 

Grown  sated  and  sick  of  sin ! 
My  deal  with  the  devil  cleaned  up, 

And  the  last  bill  handed  in. 

She  was  going  to  bring  me  a  child, 

And  when  in  labor  she  cried. 
With  love  and  fear  I  was  wild— 

But  now  I  wish  she  had  died. 
For  the  son  she  bore  me  was  blind 

And  crippled  and  weak  and  sore! 
And  his  mother  was  left  a  wreck. 

Aye,  it  was  so,  she  settled  my  score. 

I  said  I  mi;st  have  my  fling. 

And  they  knew  the  path  I  Avonld  go ; 
Yet  no  one  told  me  a  thing 

Of  what  I  needed  to  know. 
Folks  talk  too  much  of  a  soul 

From  heavenly  joys  debarred  — 
And  not  enough  of  the  babes  unborn, 

By  the  sins  of  their  fathers  scarred. 
—  Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox. 


Health  Certificates  in  Michigan 

Mrs.  Maud  Glassxer,  J\lichigan  Federation   of  Women's  Clubs.  Nashville, 

Michigan. 

I  wish  to  say  just  a  -word  here  in  addition  to  some  of  the  things 
Dean  Sumner  has  said  about  health  certificates  before  marriage. 
My  husband  stood  in  the  State  Legislature  of  Michigan  fighting 
for  this  protection  for  womanhood  for  three  straight  years,  day  in 

(18) 


534  i>MRsr  N.vnoMAi;  coxkerencr  on  uack  i?F.TTi;rniF,N'T 

and  clay  out.  Wc  feel  that  cci'taiiily  if  a  healtli  certificate  will  . 
jiot  protect  us,  yon  men  must  invent  something  else  that  will.  The 
moral  and  educational  effect  of  such  a  law  upon  our  young  people 
is  one  of  the  great  things  that  led  us  to  advocate  this  measure.  We 
hope  to  say  to  our  young  people,  "You  shall  not  marry  if  you  do  not 
live  pure  lives."  But  one  Senator  in  the  state  of  Michigan  said, 
"No."  so  we  could  not  do  it.  I  have  sat  in  this  Convention  all 
the  way  through,  and  T  have  heard  my  sister  women  blamed  for 
race  suicide.  T  have  heard  the  women  blamed  for  their  husband's 
doings  when  the  husbands  won't  do  a  thing  they  want  them  to.  I 
have  heard  women  blamed  for  this,  that  and  the  other  by  the  men 
and  by  the  other  women,  and  I  want  to  stand  up  and  say  for 
my  sister  Avomen  in  the  United  States  that  there  never  was  a  cleaner, 
brighter  body  of  women  in  the  world  than  there  is  in  North  America 
today.  The  opposition  to  this  health  certificate  law  did  not  come 
from  the  women.  Not  a  woman  in  the  state  of  Michigan  ever  wrote 
and  asked  not  to  have  that  law.  Women  are  demanding  all  over 
the  country  for  the  protection  of  themselves  and  for  the  protection 
of  their  children  from  these  diseases  that  are  devastating  the  popu- 
lation. What  chance,  I  want  to  ask  you,  has  a  girl  to  marry  health- 
fully under  the  conditions  that  we  have  heard  pictured  of  Ameri- 
can civilization  today  Avithout  a  health  certificate?  What  chance 
has  she?  What  chance  has  any  girl  when  she  is  brought  up  to  con- 
sider marriage  as  a  sacrament,  as  a  holy  institution,  and  then  al- 
loAved  to  marry  some  man,  corrupt  in  mind  and  body,  AA^ho  has  had 
his  fling. 

I  Avant  just  a  chance  to  tell  this  Convention  about  Betty.  We 
have  heard  so  much  about  AA^omen  not  being  good  mothers.  Betty 
Avas  the  finest  daughter.  She  Avas  one  of  the  strongest,  brightest, 
freest  girls  I  ever  kncAV.  Today,  at  forty  years  of  age.  Betty  stands 
old,  AA^rinkled,  bent  and  Aveak  and  sick.  At  sixteen  years  of  age.  a 
man  came  courting  Betty  aa^io  had  soAved  a  plentiful  crop  of  wild 
oats.  Sixteen  years  after  she  married,  this  felloAV  having  run  aAvay, 
I  saAV  her  again.  She  stood  on  the  hillside  in  the  country  cemetery. 
We  had  taken  my  mother  back  there  for  burial  and  Avhen  I  turned 
from  my  mother's  graA^e,  this  figure  of  an  old  Avoman  stood  in  the 
path  before  me  holding  out  her  hands  to  me  and  I  said,  "Why!" 
She  said,  "Maud."  and  I  said,  "0  Betty,  AA-hat  has  life  done  for  you 
to  make  you  like  this?"  She  Avas  a  deathless  old  hag  at  thirty-tAvo 
years  of  age.  Turning  to  the  hillside  beside  her,  she  pointed  to  a 
roAV  of  sticks,  and  e\'ery  one  marked  a  tiny  grave.  There  AA^ere  one. 
tAvo,  three,  four,  five,  six,  seven,  eight  little  sticks  stuck  in  the 
ground.     She  said,  "Here  are  all  my  children.    Eight  times  I  have 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  515 

gone  down  to  the  gates  of  death  for  a  little  child  and  I  have  never 
held  in  my  arms  a  living  form."  What  are  you  going  to  do 
about  it? 


MARRIAGE   SELECTION 

Professor  Roswell  H.  Johnson,  University  of  Pittsburg,  Pittsburg,  Pa. 

The  great  principle  of  natural  selection  still  furnishes  the  chief 
motive  power  of  evolution,  even  though  nowadays  we  believe  the 
lines  are  largely  determined  by  the  nature  of  the  variations  which 
appear.  Now,  in  the  study  of  human  evolution  at  least,  it  becomes 
necessary  to  distinguish  three  distinct  kinds  of  natural  selection, 
for  our  social  agencies  affect  these  three  kinds  differently.  These 
are  lethal  selection — that  whicli  operates  by  differential  mortality ; 
sexual  selection — that  Avhicli  operates  by  differential  success  in 
mating;  and  fecundal  selection — that  which  operates  by  differential 
fecundity.  Today  it  is  sexual  selection,  differential  success  in  mat- 
ing, that  I  am  to  discuss  under  this  title  of  Marriage  Selection. 
We  may-  call  it  marriage  selection,  inasmuch  as  the  extra-marital 
relations  are  largely  sterile,  for  one  reason  or  another  which  we 
need  not  here  analyze. 

Sexual  selection  in  man  has  one  sharp  distinction  from  that  in 
the  inferior  species.  In  the  latter,  because  of  the  larger  role  of 
instinct  and  the  lesser  role  of  social  regulation  and  judgment,  nearly 
all  the  individuals  mate.  There  are  very  few  unmated  females  and 
very  few  unmated  males,  except  in  species  having  severe  male 
combat,  when  matelessness  is  the  result  of  defeat.  Where  combat 
prevails,  the  main  result  of  sexual  selection  is  to  cause  a  disparity 
of  size  and  strength  between  the  sexes  and  to  accentuate  bodily 
weapons,  such  as  horns,  canine  teeth,  spurs,  and  the  like. 

Since  the  disparity  of  size  and  strength  between  the  sexes  in 
man  is  no  greater  than  that  in  the  anthropoid  apes,  there  is  no 
evidence  that  male  combat  played  a  large  role  in  the  da\An-man. 
Indeed,  the  great  reduction  in  the  canine  teeth  indicates,  that  com- 
bat has  played  a  smaller  role  as  time  has  passed,  and  fortunately  so. 

Sexual  selection  in  primitive  man,  as  soon  as  individual  combat 
was  reduced,  operated  very  slightly  if  unaided.  Its  effectiveness 
depended  largely  upon  the  cooperation  of  lethal  and  fecundal  selec- 
tion. Thus,  in  warfare,  the  males  of  the  defeated  tribes  were  fre- 
quently killed,  and  the  females  taken  as  additional  wives.  Or, 
even  when  all  eventually  mated,  some,  who  possessed  a  specially 
desirable   characteristic   to   a   higher   degree,   were    chosen    earlier 


51(i  FIRST    NATIONAI.    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

and  thereby  liad  more  progeuy,  or  tliey  were  chosen  by  the  superior, 
whose  progeny  would  in  some  cases  inherit  a  greater  viability. 

It  is  very  probable  that  many  of  our  esthetic  attributes,  sucli 
as  musical  and  artistic  ability,  which  are  difficult  to  account  for  by 
lethal  selection,  have  been  produced  by  sexual  selection. 

In  modern  man  we  have  the  contrast  of  an  unprecedented  num- 
ber of  unmated  individuals.  This  condition  has  developed  with 
the  growth  of  romantic  love,  which  is  the  exclusive  preference  for 
a  very  long  period  for  one  mate  over  all  others.  As  Finck  has 
pointed  out,  this  has  been  very  much  accentuated  from  the  time  of 
Petrarch  on. 

Now  if  these  unmated  individuals  differ  from  the  others  in  any 
important  respect,  sexual  selection  is  very  important.  Or  if  we 
can  alter  the  percentage  of  the  unmated  in  different  classes,  sexual 
selection  may  become  very  potent. 

Figure  1  shows  how  the  innately  mediocre  individuals  are  most 
numerous  and  how  both  the  markedly  superior  and  inferior  by 
nature  are  each  much  less  common.  I  mean  by  superior  those  who 
are  more  individually  happy  and  socially  useful  than  the  average. 
The  mental  characteristics,  at  least  in  such  a  category,  are  too  com- 
plex for  a  unit  character  treatment,  even  if  such  superiority  is  built 
up  by  unit  characters. 

We  must  consider,  then,  what  causes  the  failure  to  mate  and 
what  is  the  quality  of  each  of  these  classes.  Taking  the  men,  we 
have : 

1.  The  cultivation  of  a  taste  for  sexual  variety  and  a  consequent 
unwillingness  to  submit  to  the  restraints  of  marriage. 

2.  Infection  by  venereal  disease. 

3.  Pessimism  in  regard  to  women  from  such  experiences. 

4.  Deficiency  in  normal  sexual  feeling  or  perversion. 

5.  Deficiency  of  one  kind  or  another,  causing  difficulty  in  getting 
an  acceptable  mate. 

The  persons  in  these  five  groups  are,  as  a  class,  inferior.  This 
inferiority  is  in  part  innate  and  in  part  the  result  of  bad  environ- 
ment. But  since  innate  inferiority  is  so  frequently  a  large  factor, 
we  can  conclude  that  the  group  as  a  whole  will  average  innately 
inferior. 

There  are  two  other  classes  largely  superior  by  nature: 

6.  Those  who  seek  some  other  end  so  ardently  that  they  will  not 
make  the  necessary  sacrifice  in  money  and  freedom  to  marry. 

7.  Those  whose  likelihood  of  early  marriage  is  reduced  by  a 
prolonged  education  and  apprenticeship. 

We  see  that  the  action  of  sexual  selection  in  regard  to  males, 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  517 

while  favorable  in  some  ways,  is  in  great  need  of  improvement. 
Such  efforts  may  be  made  along  three  lines: 

1.  Try  to  lead  all  young  men  to  avoid  a  loose  sexual  life  and 
venereal  disease.  The  effects  of  a  general  effort  will  be  heeded 
more  by  the  superior  than  by  the  inferior. 

2.  Hold  up  the  role  of  husband  and  father  as  particularly  hon- 
orable, and  proclaim  its  shirking,  without  adequate  cause,  as  dis- 
honorable. For  a  man  to  say  he  has  never  met  a  girl  whom  he 
can  love,  simply  means  he  has  not  diligently  sought  one,  or  else 
he  has  a  deficient  emotional  equipment,  for  there  are  many,  sur- 
prisingly many,   estimable,   attractive,  unmarried  women. 

3.  Cease  prolonging  the  educational  period  past  the  early  twenties. 
The  professional  schools  in  our  country  are  steadily  delaying  the 
age  of  graduation  and  thereby  that  of  marriage.  They  formerly 
asked  for  high  school  training,  and  many  still  ask  no  more.  But 
other  schools  have  demanded  more  and  more,  till  now  one  requires 
a  bachelor's  degree  for  entrance.  The  situation  is  made  still  more 
serious  for  medical  students  by  the  frequent  post-graduate  hospital 
practice  without  pay.  It  is  time  to  call  a  halt.  This  cannot  go  on  with- 
out serious  loss  to  the  race.  Our  young  men  should  not  have  their 
marriage  postponed  by  external  circumstances  past  twenty-five 
years.  This  means  we.  must  allow  students  to  specialize  earlier.  If 
there  is  need  of  limiting  the  number  of  candidates  let  us  have  com- 
petitive entrance  examinations.  We  must  have  our  superior  men 
marrying  earlier,  even  at  some  cost  to  their  early  efficienc3^  The 
high  efficiency  of  any  profession  can  be  more  safely  kept  up  by 
demanding  a  minimum  amount  of  continuation  work  in  after- 
noon, or  evening  or  seasonal  classes,  laboratories  or  clinics.  No 
more  graduate  fellowships  should  be  established  till  those  now  ex- 
isting carry  a  stipend  adequate  for  marriage. 

Now  we  come  to  the  consideration  of  sexual  selection  in  women. 
Are  the  unmated  inferior? 

We  do  find  some  inferior  individual  groups,  such  as  those  un- 
attractive in  manner  and  appearance,  wholly  as  the  result  of  poor 
health.  This  may  be  either  inherited  or  else  the  result  of  ignorance, 
frequently  due  to  mental  inferiority.  Others  are  unattractive  be- 
cause of  the  absence  of  all  sex  feeling,  or  of  some  physical  ab- 
normality. And  still  others  are  unmated  because  they  have  fallen 
into  ways  of  loose  living,  some  as  the  direct  result  of  innate  de- 
fects, such  as  feeble-mindedness,  unusual  susceptibility  to  sugges- 
tion or  sexual  hyperesthesia. 

On  the  other  hand,  when  we  have  passed  these  groups  of  women, 
we  find  large  groups  that  are  distinctly  superior.     Some  of  these 


518  FIRST    XATIOXAI.    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

have  had  their  chauee  of  marriage  reduced  by  ,u:oing  to  women's 
colleg-es,  others  through  engaging  in  pre-eminently  feminine  occu- 
pations, such  as  the  teaching  of  children,  yielding  meager  oppor- 
tunities to  associate  with  men,  or  living  in  those  cities  that  have  an 
undue  proportion  of  women.  Then  there  are,  besides  these,  superior 
women  who,  because  they  are  brought  up  in  families  without 
brothers  or  brothers'  friends,  are  so  unnaturally  shy  that  they  are 
unable  to  become  friendly  with  men.  however  much  they  may  care 
to.  There  are  still  others  who  repel  men  by  a  manner  of  extreme 
self -repression  and  coldness,  sometimes  the  result  of  parents'  or 
teachers'  overzealous  efforts  to  inculcate  modesty  and  reserve, 
things  valuable  in  due  degree,  but  bad  in  excess. 

In  order  to  present  to  yon  the  seriousness  of  the  situation,  I 
Avill  present  the  results  of  a  study  made  by  my  student,  Miss  Helen 
D.  ^Murphey.  This  deals  with  the  graduates  of  Washington  Semi- 
nary in  Washington,  Penn.,  a  secondary  school  for  women  founded 
in  1837,  greatly  antedating  the  first  woman's  college,  which  opened 
in  1865.  You  will  see  in  Fig.  2  that  the  marriage  rate  has  declined. 
The  drop  in  the  '60 's  is  due  to  the  Civil  War.  You  will  also  notice 
that  the  percentage  engaged  in  occupations  other  than  housewifery 
has  increased  progressively.  It  is  not  clear  which  of  these  occur- 
rences is  causal. 

The  ominousness  of  this  declining  marriage  rate  is  aggravated 
by  the  low  birth-rate  which  these  same  women  contribute,  as  shown 
in  Fig.  3.  Now  combining  these  results  to  get  the  birth  rate  of 
the  graduates  as  a  whole,  we  have  this  (Fig.  4)  discouraging  re- 
sult. Notice  that  only  the  earliest  classes,  with  one  or  two  excep- 
tions, have  enough  children  to  reproduce  the  class.  And  this  is 
not  a  college,  and  is  not  in  New  England,  but  in  the  same  small 
city  as  Washington  and  Jefferson  College,  a  much  larger  institu- 
tion for  men.  If,  then,  under  these  favorable  conditions,  the  mar-^ 
riage  rate  is  so  low,  and  marriage  is  so  late  (Fig.  5),  we  may  infer 
that  the  low  rate  is  widespread. 

Let  us  now  examine  some  of  the  results  thus  far  attained  in  a 
study  of  Wellesley  College  data,  made  by  my  student.  Miss  Bertha 
Stutzmann  (Table  6).  We  see  from  this  that  the  recent  Wellesley 
alumnae  have  a  very  low  marriage  and  birth  rate.  There  is  only  one 
mitigating  circumstance,  that  these  women  have  married  superior  men, 
as  shown  in  Miss  Smith's  ('00)  study. 

That  college  women  are  superior  to  the  average  woman  is  a  safe 
inference.  However,  we  may  use  another  criterion  of  superiority. 
Eminence   may   be    measured   by   space    in    collective   biographies^ 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  519 

Table  7  shows  such  a  correlation  with  a  very  late  asre  at  marriage 
and  a  consequently  decreased  racial  contribution. 

The  objection  has  been  made  that  engenists  are  too  much  dis- 
turbed by  this  late  marriage  of  superior  women.  To  postpone 
marriage  seriously  reduces  the  likelihood  of  marriage.  The  critic 
says  that  late-marrying  women  will  have  their  children  closer  to- 
gether and  so  eventually  have  as  many.  But  the  facts  as  collected 
by  Miss  Smith  do  not  bear  this  out.  Furthermore,  the  late  mar- 
riage of  superior  persons  cuts  down  their  contribution  to  the  race 
stream,  because  the  years  of  fertility  left  to  the  wife  are  reduced 
(now  that  the  average  of  human  life  is  prolonged,  the  climacteric 
seems  to  come  on  startlingly  soon  to  many  of  these  late  married 
women").  Again,  late  marriages  are  relatively  ineffective,  because 
of  the  lengthened  generations.  Suppose  a  generation  to  be  25  years 
or  335^  years  respectively  in  two  different  stocks,  and  that  all  per- 
sons marry  and  each  couple  have  four  surviving  children  or  two 
per  parent.  The  effect  (Fig.  8)  is  to  cause  the  25-year  stock  to  con- 
stitute two-thirds  of  the  population  at  the  end  of  a  century. 

Is  it  not  imperative  that  something  be  done  to  raise  the  marriage 
rate  of  all  superior  women?  To  this  end  we  must  dissuade  superior 
men  from  .shirking  marriage.  If  these  superior  men  would  keep 
their  sex  records  clean,  they  would  not  suffer  the  severe  deprecia- 
tion which  they  do  sustain  in  the  eyes  of  superior  women.  But 
let  us  not  take  that  ambiguous  shibboleth,  "the  single  standard  of 
morals."  to  mean  a  general  sex  strike,  that  is.  ostracizing  every 
man  who  has  had  illicit  sex  experience.  This  is  too  extreme.  Early 
offenses,  where  infection  did  not  occur  or  was  positively  cured, 
though  properly  considered  a  severe  drawback,  should  not  be  per- 
petually condemning  when  followed  by  reform  and  real  love.  Such 
an  unforgiving  and  uncompromising  position  cannot  be  approved 
because  it  leads  a  very  large  number  of  women  into  celibate  lives, 
with  a  serious  dysgenesic  result.  In  addition  it  increases  the  tempta- 
tions of  the  men  left  unmarried.  These  extremists  must  remember 
that  it  is  hard  to  get  men  to  marry  at  even  a  normal  rate,  as  Pro- 
fessor Cattell  has  shown  this  morning,  and  which  I  need  not  there- 
fore demonstrate.  The  threat  of  a  sex  strike  ^Yl[l  never  enforce 
chastity.  Slow  and  hard  as  it  is,  we  must  content  ourselves  to  build 
up  a  sounder  moral  basis  by  better  attested  methods. 

Inappreciation  of  wifehood  and  motherhood  by  misguided  fem- 
inists must  cease,  and  greater  honor  and  appreciation  must  be  meted 
out  to  mothers,  in  order  to  more  than  compensate  for  the  recog- 
nition that  women  earn  in  rival  occupations.  Women  should 
properly  be  permitted  to  do  any  work  they  wish,  not  incompatibL) 


520  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

with  their  well-being;  but  greater  honor  and  esteem  is  due  those 
who  have  not  shirked  the  paramount  function  and  responsibilities 
of  motherliood. 

While  waiting:  for  separate  colleges  to  become  co-educational, 
as  they  eventually  will,  their  present  dysgfenesic  tendency  can  i)rob- 
ably  be  reduced  by  the  gradual  introduction  of  men  teachers  into 
women's  colleges,  since  women  professors  tend  to  foster  celibate  career- 
hunting,  which,  attractive  as  it  is  to  many  young  women  at  first, 
in  most  cases  is  eventually  unsatisfying.  Furthermore,  the  intro- 
duction of  courses  dealing  with  the  home  and  the  child  would  give 
college  women  increased  interest  in  and  eagerness  for  that  noblest 
profession  of  home-making  and  motherhood. 

Let  us  not  err  in  our  efforts  to  teach  chastity  by  making  sex 
appear  an  evil  thing.  This  is  a  terrible  mistake  and  all  too  com- 
mon. One  of  my  students,  referring  to  a  widely  read  sex  book  for 
young  men,  said  one  would  infer  from  it  that  all  maiTied  men  suffer 
a  serious  sacrifice  in  health.  I  am  confident  that  much  of  the 
celibacy  of  w^omen  may  be  blamed  to  ill-balanced  mothers  and  others 
who,  in  w^ord  or  attitude,  build  up  an  impression  that  sex  is  indecent 
and  bestial,  and  engender  a  general,  damaging  suspicion  of  men. 
It  is  necessary  to  keep  our  heads  level  in  the  sex  ethics  campaign. 
The  venereal  diseases  will  probably,  if  we  can  continue  our  present 
progress  in  treatment  and  prophylaxis,  be  brought  under  control 
in  the  course  of  a  century,  while  the  problem  of  differential  mating- 
and  the  fecundity  of  the  superior  stocks  will  be  wath  us  as  long 
as  the  race  lasts,  w^hich  we  may  expect  to  be  tens  of  millions  of 
years.  Let  us  not  present  too  luridly,  by  drama,  novel,  or  maga- 
zine stories,  dramatic  and  highly-colored  individual  sex  histories. 
These  often  impress  an  abnormal  situation  on  sensitive  girls  so 
strongly  that  aversion  to  marriage  or  sex  antagonism  is  sometimes 
aroused.  The  facts  should  be  presented  in  a  more  dispassionate, 
scientific,  proportioned,  and  psychologically  sound  way — not  by 
cjTiics,  but  by  competent,  experienced,  sweet-minded  persons. 

Eligible  young  people  should  have  their  circle  of  acquaintances 
broadened.  Co-education  (Tables  9  and  10),  I  believe,  is  one  of 
the  best  means,  as  associating  the  best  groups.  But  many  other 
means  should  be  encouraged.  We  have  in  this  a  further  justifica- 
tion of  cards,  dancing  and  theaters.  That  these  may  sometimes 
be  pursued  intemperately  need  not  condemn  them  universally. 
These  and  other  social  devices  extend  the  range  of  acquaintance, 
and  also  give  the  necessary  time  for  mutual  estimates  and  friend- 
ships. Others  besides  parents  should  feel  some  obligation  to  afford 
these  social  opportunities  to  young  people.     Surfeit  for  some  indi- 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  521 

viduals  and  dearth  for  others  call  for  curtailment  here  and  en- 
couragement there. 

I  now  pass  to  the  consideration  of  the  objection  so  frequently 
heard  that  the  selection  of  mates  in  man  cannot  possibly  be  im- 
proved, because  it  is  wholly  a  personal  and  capricious  thing.  But 
the  objectors  on  this  score  ignore  the  fact  that  three  mental  stages 
are  normally  passed  thru  in  this  mate-choosing  process.  They  fall 
into  error  by  concentrating  attention  on  the  last,  most  obvious, 
emotional,  "  love-is-blind "  stage.  The  first  involves  the  broad  de- 
termination of  our  associates.  The  second  is  the  narrowing  of 
choice  to  those  whom  we  specially  admire  and  elect  as  friends.  The 
last  is  the  actual  "falling  in  love." 

One  of  the  chief  factors  in  this  first  stage  is  the  structure  of 
the  social  unit  to  which  we  belong.  How  frequently  matings  are 
determined  by  the  school,  church,  or  neighborhood!  Then  there 
is  another  group  composed  of  our  parents'  chosen  friends,  with 
whose  children  we  are  naturally  thrown.  The  mother  who  sends 
her  girl  to  the  university  rather  than  into  the  the  dansant  set, 
determines  largely  the  type  of  her  daughter's  finance,  not  only  be- 
cause her  associates  are  different  in  the  two  cases,  but  because  the 
girl's  ideals  will  be  differently  built  up.  The  young  man  who  goes 
with  fast  girls  is  indirectly  determining  the  kind  of  girl  he  will 
marry,  if  indeed,  he  is  not  thereby  led  to  abandon  marriage.  Dur- 
ing this  second  stage  of  more  intensive  associations  or  friendships, 
there  is  clear-minded  discrimination,  before  the  emotions  have 
become  imperious.  I  believe  that  the  period  of  mere  friendliness 
is  longer  in  most  cases  than  the  period  of  conscious  loving  before 
marriage.  So  we  see  the  choice  of  a  mate  is  not  ordinarily  ca- 
pricious. 

To  show  you  that  marriage  selection  does  really  operate,  I  have 
collected  in  Table  11  the  cases  so  far  observed  showing  assortative 
mating.  This  may  be  defined  as  the  degree  to  which  like  mates 
with  like.  This  does  not  have  as  great  a  eugenic  significance  as 
preferential  mating,  but  the  latter  has  not  yet  been  so  well  demon- 
strated. Assortative  mating  has  the  value,  however,  of  building 
up  the  unusually  able  brains  the  world  needs.  In  this  Table  1  ex- 
presses perfect  assortative  mating,  that  is,  each  degree  always 
mating  with  the  corresponding  degree.*  0  expresses  random  mating. 
You  will  notice  in  the  royal  families  that  assortative  mating  is  low 
because  interfered  with  for  state  reasons. 

My  student,  Miss  Carrie  F.  Gilmore,  has  found  a  preferential 
mating  for  facial  appearance  and  class  marks,  as  shown  in  Fig. 
12.    Preferential  mating  is  also  indicated  in  the  following  data  re- 


.)2L*  first    XA'I'IOXAL    COXFKKExXCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

gardiny:  college  women  and  their  non-college  sisters,  cousins,  and 
friends  as  collected  by  ]\Iiss  M.  R.  Smith  (Table  13). 

^Marriage  selection  is  under  some  degree  of  legal  control  thru 
marriage  and  divorce  laws.  Those  who  maintain  that  mating  is 
wholly  capricious  forget  the  very  considerable  extent  to  which 
social  control  has  made  itself  effective  in  the  past.  Indeed,  many 
of  the  prohibitions  are  now  relaxed,  such  as  the  notorious  deceased 
wife's  sister  provision.  It  is  obvious  that  marriage  laws  should 
make  as  few  restrictions  as  possible  without  strong  reason.  A  mini- 
mum age  and  a  high  degree  of  consanguinity  have  been  an  almost 
universal  matter  for  legislation  or  enforced  custom.  And  let  it  be 
noted,  their  object  has  been  primarily  eugenic.  A  relationship 
closer  than  that  of  cousin  should  constitute  a  prohibition.  Yet 
cousin  marriages  need  not  be  denied  except  in  the  event  of  that 
branch  of  the  family  common  to  the  cousins  in  question  having 
individuals  with  certain  specified  defects.  The  suggestion  that 
proposed  cousin  marriages  should  be  passed  upon  by  a  state  eugenic 
board,  tho  biologically  sound,  does  not  seem  so  from  the  socio- 
logic  standpoint.  In  case  of  an  adverse  decision,  there  would  fol- 
low either  broken  hearts  or  a  liaison,  for  the  hope  of  a  favorable  de- 
cision would  have  engendered  a  sitrong  attachment.  Freedom 
from  venereal  disease,  at  least  for  men,  must  be  attested  to  by 
competent  physicians  by  competent  tests,  the  state  assuming  a 
share  of  the  financial  burden.  It  does  not  seem  wise,  however,  to 
demand  freedom  from,  all  mental  and  physical  defects,  for  if  the 
defect  is  very  serious,  a  surer  method  must  be  employed  than  the 
withholding  of  a  marriage  license.  If  it  is  less  than  very  serious 
and  not  pernicious,  we  are  not  justified  in  prohibiting  marriage, 
provided  it  is  the  earnest  intention  of  the  couple  not  to  reproduce. 
In  the  event  of  such  a  marriage  proving  fertile,  sterilisation  would 
prevent  a  second  offense. 

■"*<  Miscegenation"  of  certain  races  may  properly  be  controlled  as 
far  as  possible  by  the  refusal  of  marriage  licenses  and  by  public 
opinion^  This  will  unfortunately  result  in  cases  of  individual  in- 
justice, but  is  nevertheless  racially  necessary.  The  proposition  to 
refer  doubtful  cases  of  mixed  blood  to  the  state  eugenic  boards  is 
objectionable,  for  the  same  reasons  as  above. 

While  society  may  deny  the  right  to  marry  only  for  grave  cause, 
it  should  be  glad  to  divorce  pairs  whose  progeny  are  not  desirable ; 
this  for  the  reason  that  in  one  case  societj^  is  acting  against  the 
will  of  the  two  parties.  In  the  second  case  both  the  two  parties 
concerned  and  society  profit  by  the  divorce.  Divorce  is  far  prefer- 
able to  separation,  since  the  unoflfending  party  should  net  be  de- 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  523 

niecl  the  privilege  of  remarriage,  as  the  race  in  most  cases  needs 
his  or  her  contribution  to  the  next  generation.  Divorce,  it  must 
be  remembered,  is  ordinarily  just  a  legal  recognition  of  a  separa- 
tion that  already  exists.  The  time-honored  and  justifiable  grounds 
of  adultery,  sterility,  impotence,  venereal  infection,  desertion,  non- 
support,  and  habitual  cruelty  are  no  more  worthy  of  legal  recogni- 
tion than  the  dysgenesic  grounds  of  drunkenness,  feeble-mindedness, 
epilepsy,  insanity,  or  other  specified  serious  mental,  moral  or 
physical  defects. 

For  sexual  selection  to  work  at  its  best,  it  is  desirable  that  the 
mated  persons  be  as  superior  as  possible  to  the  unmated.  Is  it  not, 
then,  a  social  blunder  to  deny  divorce  to  a  married  pair  if  one  of 
them  at  least  is  inferior?  We  hear  much  of  a  divorce  evil,  but 
we  have  in  reality  a  divorce  remedy  for  the  evil  of  ill-mated  pairs. 

Dysgenesic  marriage  we  cannot  prevent  as  frequently  as  would  be 
desirable,  because  we  have  not  the  cooperating  will  of  the  couple. 
When,  in  such  undesirable  marriages  the  individuals  come  to  see 
their  mistake,  society  should  gladly  welcome  the  prompt  undoing 
of  the  marriage  bond. 

In  closing  let  me  urge  you  to  do  all  in  your  power  to  correct 
this  growing  tendency  to  postpone,  if  not  to  abandon,  martiage 
entirely  on  the  part  of  our  superior  young  people.  Hold  out  mar- 
riage as  one  of  the  ends  of  a  useful,  normal,  beautiful  life.  Help 
superior  young  people  to  meet,  and  encourage  and  further  their 
early  marriage.  Give  more  honor  and  appreciation  to  those  who 
have  married  well  and  have  had  adequate  children.  And  in  what- 
ever ways  you  properly  can,  reduce  this  appalling  percentage  of 
superior  celibates  who  are  thus  pulling  down  the  quality  of  the 
human  raee. 


524  FIKST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BET'J 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION 


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2g. 


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EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION 


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FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 


-Curve   showing  time  between   graduation   ;ind  mar- 
riage. 

Average  age  of  graduates,  nineteen. 
Washington   Seminary  Classes  of  '41-'00,    Status 
in   1913. 


^ 


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;    i    3    4    A     U    T    ?     <)    lo   u    )2   13  H  IS  )k  n    ir  11  20  ii    ij  jj   av  a-  ju  Ji  u  if  Jo  j;  Jx  i-i  it  Jiji- 

TABLE  G. 
WELLESLEY   ALUMNAE    STATUS    IN    FALL    OF    1912 
By  Beetha  J.  Stutzmann 


Per  Cent  Which  Have 

Married 

No.  of  Children  per  Student 

NON. 

NON. 

Graduations 

All 

<!».  b.  k. 

<1».  B.  K. 

(|).  B.  K. 

(p.  B.  K. 

1905     

32.8 

20.0 

33.8 

.20 

.21 

1906     

38.2 

.50.0 

37.8 

.00 

.22 

1907     

30.6 

•21.0 

31.3 

.16 

.11 

1908     

29.8 

33.3 

29.6 

.13 

.14 

1909     

16.2 

.5.8 

15.9 

.06 

.05 

1910     

7.3 

6    -^ 

6.3 

.00 

.01 

19ll     

6.1 

6.2 

6.1 

.00 

.00 

1912     

1.7 

2.0 

1.9 

.00 

.00 

Collectively     .  . 

19.1 

15.4 

19.3 

.065 

.085 

TABLE  7. 

AGE   AT  MARRIAGE   OF   EMINENT   WOMEN 

C.  S.  Castle,  Pop.  Sci.  Mon.,  June,  '13 


Century 

Av.  Age 

Range 

No.  of  Cases 

12 

16.2 

8-30 

5 

13 

16.6 

12-29 

5 

14 

13.8 

6-18 

11 

15 

17.6 

13-26 

20 

16 

21.7 

12-50 

28 

17 

20.0 

13-43 

50 

18 

23.1 

13-53 

127 

19     (Amei 

.  27.7)    26.2 

15-67 

189 

EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION 


/        § 


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530 


FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTKHMENT 


TABLE  9. 

THORKDIKK— MARRIAGES    AMONG   COLLEGE    WOMEN    AS    IN    laOl 

OUTLOOK,  Oct.  5,  '01 


Ages 


Smith,  Vnssar 
and  Wellesley 


55 

45 

35 

29.5 

23.5 

17 


45  Per  Cent  of  Collesre   "Women   Marry   by   40. 

90  Per  Cent  of  All   Women    Marry   by   40. 

96  Per  Cent  of  Arkansas  Women  Marry  by   40. 

SO  Per  Cent  of  Massachusetts  Women   Marry  by  40. 

In  Massachusetts    30   per   cent   have   married   at   the    age   at    which    collesre    women    graduate. 

TABLE  10. 
SHINN — MARRIAGE    RATE    OF    COLLEGE    WOMEN.    CENTURY,    OCT.    '95 


Women   Over 


Separate 


Assuming 
Graduation 

at 

22 


25 


38.1 
49.7 
53.6 
56.9 


29.6 
40.1 
46.6 
51.8 


„          ,  ^       ■,     ^  „  ■      (Nor.  Atlan.   ..29.0 

Marriage  Rate  from  Co-ed.   Colleges  >n  ^  jyj-j^    West    ..33.6 

Women   in   general  marry  most  frequently  20-25   years  old. 
College    women    marry    most    frequently    25-30    years    old. 

TABLE  11. 
ASSORT ATIVE  MATING 


1.  =rr  COMPLETE 


Trait 


Investigator 


Probable  Error 


Stature  (English  Middle  Class)    

Stature    

Age    

Cephalic  Index  . 

Deafness     

Normality    (Families  with  Criminals) 

Longevity    

Intelligence     

Temper    

Excitability 

Sympathy    

Reserve 

Success  in   Career    

Insanity    

Intelligence    (Royal)    


Pearson-Galton 

Pearson 

Lutz 

Boas 

Schuster 

Goring 

Warren  et 

Elderton  et  al. 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION 


531 


CO 


CM 

o 


+ 


a> 


O     QC 


C/3 


0) 

CO 


CO 


o 

CO 

o 


O    ^ 


O 
00 


o       o 


532 


FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 


SMITH,    M.   R.,   '00   COLLEGIATE   ALUMNAE   DATA 
Tub.   Amer.    Stat.   Ass'n,    VII,    1900,   p.    1. 


Under  23  years  .  . 
23  to  32  years  .  . 
33  years  and  over 


Equivalent  Non-College 


30.1 

64.9 

5.0 


Age  at  Marriage 


r26.?.   College 

J  24.2   Sisters  ) 

■|  24.7   Cousins  > 

L24.'_'   Friends  ) 


College     

Equivalent  Non-College 


No.  of  Children 


1.65 
1.875 


Per  Cent  Childless  at  Time 


25.36 
17.89 


Where  Wife  is 

Occupations  of  Husbands,  Per  Cent 

College 

Equivalent  Non-College 

College   Teachers    .' 

Other   Teachers    

65.9 
23.3 
15.7 
9.0 
2.0 
7.0 
0.9 

51.4 
11.8 
11.2 

8.6 

Scientists     .         

0.6 

Clergymen 

Artists 

4.8 
0.3 

Where  Wife  is 

Income  of  Husbands,   Per  Cent 

College 

Equivalent   Non-College 

Less  than  $2,000 

24.5 
46.6 
27.1 

36.7 

$2,000    to    $5,000    

44.1 

Over    $5,000    

16.9 

SOME  EFFICIENT  CAUSES  OF  CRIME 

Professor  R.  B.  von  Klein Smid,  Secretary  American  Association  Clinical 
Criminology,  Associate  Superintendent  and  Director  Department  of  Re- 
search, Indiana  Reforaiatoiy,  Jeffersonville,  Indiana. 

A  student  in  the  field  of  criminology  is  forced  to  wonder  at 
times  whether  there  is  any  other  field  in  which  it  is  possible  for  him 
to  encounter  so  great  a  diversity  of  opinion  or  such  extreme  and 
opposing  views.  It  is  to  be  said,  however,  that  conclusions  here- 
tofore reached  have  come  largely  from  empirical  sources  alone, 
rather  than  from  scientific  investigations,  and  that  the  extreme  posi- 
tions held  are  those  dictated  by  the  angles  from  which  penal  and 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  333 

correction  problems  have  been  approached.  In  general  these  con-^ 
elusions  may  be  grouped  as  four  in  number. 

The  first  is  that,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  every  man  is  guilty 
of  crimes,  his  detection,  conviction  and  sentence  avoided  only  be- 
cause of  concomitant  circumstances.  Were  the  eye  of  the  law 
trained  as  carefully  upon  him  as  upon  others  who  are  compelled 
to  pay  the  penalty  of  their  misdeeds,  he,  too,  must  suffer  the  dis- 
grace and  the  punishment  meted  out  to  other  offenders.  In  other 
words,  all  have  committed  and  do  commit  crimes,  and  it  is  very^ 
largely  a  matter  of  chance  as  to  which  ones  reap  the  just  harvest 
of  their  anti-social  seed  sowing.  Out  of  this  theory  has  grown  the 
belief  that  by  no  means  are  all  of  our  criminals  incarcerated  in 
institutions,  nor  indeed  our  worst  ones,  but  that  there  are  many, 
as  Tarde  points  out,  who  even  go  so  far  as  to  make  a  profession  of 
the  criminal  life,  operating  with  a  cunning  which,  with  rare  excep- 
tions, evades  detection  and  so  escapes  the  penalty. 

The  second  belief  on  the  part  of  certain  of  those  Avho  give  atten- 
tion to  the  problem  of  crime  is  that  all  criminals  are  vicious  men, 
and  consequently  that  it  is  the  dut,y  of  society  to  hunt  them  out 
wherever  they  may  be  found  in  order  to  mete  out  to  them  that  de- 
gree of  punishment  appointed  by  legislation  for  the  particular  crime 
committed.  Out  of  the  attitude  of  this  faith  have  grown  the  high 
wall,  the  whipping  post  and  the  dungeon,  together  with  all  means 
of  discipline  and  punishment  which  humiliate  and  degrade,  in  the 
conviction  that  the  vicious  must  be  cowed  and  made  afraid  to  vent 
their  nefarious  temper  upon  a  society  strong  enough  and  determined 
enough  to  cope  with  them,  and  to  demand  of  them  an  eye  for  an 
eye  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth. 

Another  view  held-  particularly  by  those  of  sociological  inter- 
ests is  that  transgressors  of  the  law  would  be  very  few  in  number, 
if  any,  except  for  a  peculiar  and  contaminating  social  environment. 
Those  of  this  belief  hold  that  Society  is  to  blame  directly  for  the 
existence  of  the  so-called  "criminal  class"  because  she  neglects  to 
conduct  her  economic  and  social  affairs  so  as  to  surround  all  of  her 
members  with  those  influences  which  make  for  good  alone. 

Still  a  fourth  conclusion  is  to  the  effect  that  all  criminals  are 
defectives  and  that  no  man  of  normal  mental  and  physical  status 
commits  a  crime.  On  the  grounds  of  this  belief  there  have  sprung 
up  among  us,  in  the  last  few  years,  a  number  of  serious  and,  more 
recently,  organized  attempts  to  investigate  the  field  of  crime  for 
the  purpose  of  determining  the  degree  of  abnormality  of  those  who 
have  been  convicted  and  incarcerated. 

While  the  truth  is  not  to  be  found  exclusively  in  the  theory  held 


534:  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    liETTKHMENT 

by  any  one  of  these  partieular  groups,  it  is  not  at  all  unlikely  that 
there  is  a  considerable  element  of  soundness  in  the  arguments  of 
all;  in  fact,  may  it  not  be  the  case  when  investigations  will  have 
continued  for  a  greater  length  of  time  and  a  more  exhaustive  study 
Avill  have  contributed  more  generously  to  the  science  of  criminology, 
that  it  will  be  discovered  that  there  is  a  large  element  of  identity 
in  the  theories  advanced  and  that  these  various  conclusions  are 
not  antagonistic  to  so  great  a  degree  as  supposed.  Until  quite  re- 
cently the  science  of  criminology  was  regarded  as  a  legal  science, 
exclusively.  Now  there  are  indications  that  there  are  many  who 
believe  it  to  be  purely  a  social  science.  On  the  contrary,  if  there 
be  a  science  of  criminology  (which  some  deny),  there  are  those 
who  insist  that  it  has  its  origin  in  the  sciences  of  medicine  and 
psychology.  The  legal  science  emphasizes  the  responsibility  of  the 
present  criminal ;  the  social  science,  the  responsibility  of  society 
from  which  he  came ;  the  medico-psychological  science,  the  responsi- 
bility not  more. of  the  individual  criminal  than  of  his 'ancestors. 

May  it  not  be,  too,  that  these  different  positions  have  come  about 
only  because  of  varying  approaches  to  the  same  truth.  If  we  grant 
that  the  individual  offender  is  vicious  and  should  be  punished  ac- 
cording to  the  law%  we  still  have  to  account  for  the  fact  that  this 
man  is  vicious  and  some  other  members  of  society  are  not.  If  we 
grant  that  the  environment  from  which  he  came  was  conducive  to 
criminal  activity,  we  still  have  to  account  for  the  fact  that  many 
others  from  the  same  environment  do  not  become  offenders.  Grant 
a  vicious  attitude  in  his  case  and  carelessness  and  neglect  on  the 
part  of  society  to  create  a  proper  environment  for  him,  and  we  are 
confronted  with  the  fact  that  it  was  this  particular  individual  who" 
committed  the  crime  who  doubtless  carries  within  himself  the  cause 
of  his  misdeeds.  However,  just  as  surely  as  we  discoTer  from  a 
clinical  study  of  the  individual  that  the  probable  cause  of  his  own 
downfall  rests  in  his  constitutional  inferiority,  we  shall  find  it  neces- 
sary to  lay  the  blame  for  his  condition  in  large  part  at  the  door 
of  short-sighted  society  and  its  institutions.  From  the  standpoint, 
then,  of  the  clinical  research  laboratory,  let  us  see  what  situation 
presents  itself. 

One  has  not  labored  long  among  those  convicted  of  crime  be- 
fore he  is  strongly  impressed  with  the  fact  that  he  is  dealing  with 
beings  of  retrograde  type — beings  who  fall  appreciably  below  the 
generally  recognized  standard  of  normality,  and  who,  in  a  very 
large  percentage  of  cases,  bear  about  in  their  bodies  the  marks  of 
this  degeneracy.  In  this  matter,  however,  one  must  needs  exercise 
the  greatest  care  to  avoid  the  common  error  of  concluding  that  the 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  535» 

presence  of  one  or  more  characteristics,  generally  accepted  as  stig- 
mata of  degeneracy,  is  proof  positive  that  the  subject  is  subnormal. 
The  Darwin  ear,  the  Morel  ear,  or  the  ear  marked  with  the  entire 
absence  of  the  lobulus,  the  malformed  palate,  polydactylism  or  hy- 
pertrichosis— any  of  these  ma^  be  found  in  a  particular  individual 
in  whom  the  closest  analysis  will  fail  to  find  any  basis  for  a  classi- 
fication below  the  normal ;  and  yet  the  number  of  these  stigmata 
and  their  various  combinations  so  frequently  found  among  those 
convicted  is  sufficient  to  cause  their  presence  to  be  regarded  as  a 
usual  accompaniment  of  criminal  activity.  Asymmetry  in  the  face^ 
microcephaly,  macrocephaly.  dental  deformities,  strabismus,  mi- 
crophthalmia, pigmentary  retinitis,  albinism,  syndactylism,  mis- 
placed and  malformed  limbs,  flat  feet,  hypospadias  and  hermaphro- 
dism — these  and  many  other  signs  of  degeneracy  are  constantly 
met  with. 

We  do  not  seek  to  establish  a  causative  relation  here,  but  merely 
to  observe  the  accompaniment  of  stigmata  with  crime.  This  of 
itself  is  of  the  utmost  importance.  On  the  other  hand,  so  frequent 
and  so  serious  are  the  various  physical  and  physiological  abnormali- 
ties and  defects  as  to  challenge  our  earnest  effort  to  discover  this, 
closer  relationship.  Phimosis,  enlarged  tonsils,  adenoids,  bad  teeth, 
defective  vision,  poorly  developed  chest,  stooping  shoulders,  pul- 
monary lesions,  valvular  heart  lesions  and  a  serious  nervous  con- 
dition brought  on  by  eye  trouble  of  one  sort  or  another;  "a  sub- 
normal temperature,  associated  with  an  accelerated  pulse  and  res- 
piration," as  noted  by  Doctor  Sleyster;  "perversions  of  the  sexual 
instinct,  uncontrollable  desire  for  liquors,  migraine,  disorders  of 
the  nervous  system,  insensibility  to  pain,  defects  of  speech  and 
reduced  physiological  tension,"  as  pointed  out  by  Doctor  Bowers; 
impotency  and  sterility — Avhile  by  no  means  is  this  a  list  to  be  ac- 
cepted in  toto  as  naming  positive  evidences  of  degeneracy,  all  of 
these  conditions  are  bound  to  assert  themselves  among  either  the 
l)rimary  or  the  secondary  causes  of  crime. 

From  the  philosophical  standpoint  it  may  be  that  we  are  not 
ready  to  admit  of  anything  more  than  a  mere  parallelism  between 
mind  and  matter,  yet  it  must  be  admitted  that  a  seriously  defective 
body  could  not  express  rightly  a  mind  of  even  supernormal  capabil- 
ities. "Aye,  there's  the  rub.'"  As  though  not  sufficiently  afflicted 
with  physical  and  physiological  defects,  the  criminal  class  are  lack- 
ing pathetically  in  mental  ability,  and  it  is  in  an  investigation  along 
this  line  that,  in  my  thinking,  we  arrive  at  the  real,  fundamental, 
efficient  cause  of  the  greater  proportion  of  crime. 

It  has  been  recognized  for  some  time  by  those  who  have  had  to- 


536  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

do  in  any  intimate  capacity-  with  the  criminal  class  that,  as  a  whole, 
they  are  of  a  low  mental  order,  and  yet  only  within  the  last  two 
years  have  a  sufficient  number  of  laboratories  been  operating  to 
furnish  such  data,  as  would  support  a  rather  wide-spread  belief, 
by  the  results  of  scientific  investigation.  In  this  work,  however, 
there  is  much  yet  to  be  desired.  The  tests  themselves  applied  in  the 
various  clinics  are  to  be  more  thoroughly  tested,  corrected  and 
adapted  through  a  longer  period  of  time  and  with  a  greater  num- 
ber of  subjects.  Too  few  scientists  well  trained  for  the  work  are 
in  the  field;  and  there  is  lacking  at  present  a  sufficiently  strong 
public  sentiment  to  demand  a  breaking  away  from  tradition  in  the 
handling  of  law  violators,  and  to  insist  upon  the  adoption  of 
methods  prescribed  by  the  scientific  diagnosis  of  the  case. 
Nevertheless,  the  returns  to  date  are  indicative,  and  of  very 
valuable  significance.  The  New  York  State  Reformatory  at  Bed- 
ford Hills  reports  that  thirty-seven  per  cent  of  its  inmates  are  de- 
fective. Dr.  Frank  L.  Christian,  of  the  Reformatory  at  Elmira, 
reports  forty-two  per  cent  defective.  Results  of  our  own  laboratory 
w^ork  in  the  Indiana  State  Reformatory  at  Jeffersonville  show  quite 
fifty  per  cent  to  be  subnormal.  Returns  from  reliable  sources  at 
Avork  among  juvenile  delinquents  show  a  percentage  as  high  or 
higher.  There  is  little  question  that  when  terminology  and  defini- 
tion, standards  and  methods  of  procedure  are  agreed  upon  among 
the  various  laboratories,  the  variation  of  results  will  fall  well  within 
a  reasonably  small  margin  of  difference.  All  of  this  suggests  that 
in  the  past  we  have  disregarded  quite  entirely  the  peculiar  condi- 
tions of  what  likely  will  prove  to  be  at  least  one-half  of  the  popula- 
tion of  our  penal  and  correctional  institutions.  This  situation 
belies  the  very  purpose  for  which  these  institutions  are  founded  and 
maintained.  Moreover,  were  this  condition  of  these  offenders  known 
before  trial,  conviction  and  sentence,  it  is  quite  certain  that  the 
necessity  of  a  different  disposition  of  the  cases  would  have  been 
recognized. 

The  range  and  degree  of  defectiveness  afford  an  interesting 
study.  We  have  those  of  positive  psychosis — the  insane,  including  al- 
coholics, drug  fiends,  epileptics  and  feeble-minded  imbeciles,  morons, 
and  those  of  but  slight  subnormality.  As  a  class,  of  course,  all  of  these 
reveal  to  the  institution  clinician  a  long  list  of  symptoms  and  reactions, 
which  would  have  led  an  alienist  at  once  under  any  cireurastanees  and 
surroundings  to  a  correct  diagnosis  of  their  condition.  While  this 
group,  representing  approximately  fifty  per  cent  of  the  population  of 
our  prisons  and  reformatories,  is  disposed  of  comparatively  easily,  the 
remaining  inmates,  sharing  with  the  subnormal  many  of  the  mental 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  537 

and  psychic  stigmata  peculiar  to  the  criminal  class,  form  a  group 
which  furnish  a  problem  of  the  greatest  complexity — anomalies  of  in- 
tellect. Emotion  and  will  are  everywhere  presenting  themselves  for 
analysis.  Dr.  Harold  W.  Wright,  in  a  recent  number  of  the  Jonrnal  of 
the  American  Medical  Associatimi,  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  all 
offenders  are  characterized  by  one  or  more  of  the  following  attributes : 
"exaggerated  suggestibility;  exaggerated  egotism;  emotional  insta- 
bility ;  a  lack  of  altruistic  or  unselfish  sense ;  a  lack  of  the  power  of 
sustained  energy — that  is,  abnormal  nervous  fatigue ;  a  tendency  to  the 
easy  disintegration  of  consciousness,  which  permits  the  brutal  or  in- 
ferior qualities  of  the  subconscious  mind  easily  to  become  dominant 
when  temptation  occurs,  and  to  be  ungoverned  by  the  critical  quality  of 
the  conscious  mind :  even  when  the  critical  function  is  sufficiently 
aroused,  the  power  of  direction  by  the  will  is  in  abeyance."  The 
offender  is  marked,  too.  by  instability  and  eccentricity,  is  given  to 
self-pity,  moroseness,  fault-finding-  and  hatred,  and  is,  therefore, 
resentful  and  retaliative ;  he  is  lacking  in  the  ethical  sense  and 
consequently  is  presumptuous ;  he  is  deplorably  deficient  in  judg- 
ment. All  or  any  of  these  characteristics  may  be  possessed  in  such 
a  degree  as  to  make  it  practically  impossible  for  the  unfortunate 
so  to  deport  himself  as  to  satisfy  the  conditions  of  good  citizenship 
and  healthy  social  relationships. 

Responsibility  for  crime  in  the  manifestly  subnormal  is  quite 
out  of  the  question.  These  will  alwaj^s  be  mere  children  and  re- 
quire a  guardianship.  The  perpetuity  of  their  kind  among  us  is 
quite  entirely  a  matter  of  eugenics.  But  who  shall  say  that  the 
majority  of  those  not  classified  by  present-day  tests  as  defectives 
would  not  be  able  to  find  factual  defense  of  their  crimes  in  their 
own  infirmities?  Indeed,  there  are  those  who  choose  to  call  them 
"borderland  cases,"  believing  that,  as  all  feeble-minded  persons 
are  potential  criminals,  so  large  numbers,  at  least,  of  those  crim- 
inals usually  regarded  as  normal,  require  only  a  peculiar  series  and 
setting  of  stimuli  to  reveal  such  serious  defects  as  to  prove  the  ex- 
istence of  positive  subnormality,  and  often  clear-cut  psychoses. 

If  asked  the  question,  "Why  did  you  commit  the  crime  for 
w^hich  you  are  paying  the  penalty?"  and  pushed  for  an  answer 
beyond  that  born  of  the  memory  of  the  mere  pleasure  or  gratifica- 
tion in  the  reward  of  the  act,  many  must  honestly  answer,  "I  really 
don't  know.  I  guess  I  couldn't  help  it."  Either  some  instinctive 
tendency  of  low  order,  undeveloped  and  uncontrolled,  is  pushing 
on  the  unfortunate  individual  to  criminal  reaction,  or  some  specific 
mental  function  too  weak  to  do  its  office  work  or  perverted  in  the 


538  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

nature   of  its   activity    coinpelled    an    inal)ility   to   resist    temptation 
when  it  offered.     Take  a  case  or  two  in  point : 

North  (4059)  is  a  habitual  criminal,  a  native  of  the  state  of 
Kentucky,  whose  mother  committed  suicide  at  the  age  of  thirty- 
nine.  For  some  time  previously  she  had  been  a  nervous  wreck,  and 
had  been  separated  from  her  husband  for  two  years.  The  son  never 
saw  or  heard  of  his  father  after  the  separation,  at  which  time  he 
was  seven  years  of  age.  After  the  death  of  his  mother  he  fell  into 
the  hands  of  an  aunt  and  attended  public  school  more  or  less  reg- 
ularly. He  failed  of  promotion  twice,  because  of  lack  of  attention 
to  his  work,  and  finally  left  school  at  the  seventh  grade.  His  asso- 
ciates were  bad.  He  drank  moderately,  smoked  cigarettes,  and 
early  suffered  venereal  diseases.  His  first  arrest  was  at  the  instance 
of  his  aunt,  who,  no  longer  able  to  control  him,  hoped  by  this  means 
to  keep  him  off  the  streets  at  night.  His  second  arrest  was  for 
petit  larceny.  He  took  money  from  the  cash  drawer  of  a  pool  room 
at  night.  He  next  broke  into  a  store  with  others,  securing  knives 
and  revolvers.  Again  with  companions  he  attempted  to  burglarize 
for  the  purpose  of  securing  money  with  which  to  secure  a  room  at 
the  hotel  for  immoral  purposes.  The  crime  for  which  he  was  sen- 
tenced to  the  Reformatory  consisted  of  the  theft  of  a  motorcycle. 

His  physical  condition  at  this  time  is  fairly  good.  He  is  small 
in  stature,  but  fairly  well  developed  and  not  unattractive  in  appear- 
ance. He  is  not  lacking  in  general  intelligence.  The  Binet  test 
classifies  him  adult,  while  he  grades  of  high  order  in  information 
and  other  tests.  In  general,  however,  there  is  revealed  an  unsettled 
condition  of  mind.  The  nervous  status  of  his  mother,  probably 
before  his  birth  and  during  his  early  childhood,  her  consequent  neg- 
lect of  him  and  her  suicide — all  must  have  served  to  react  upon  him 
in  such  a  way  as  to  impress  him  for  life  with  a  lack  of  normal 
nervous  organization  and  to  stamp  his  subconscious  mind  with  a 
character  conducive  to  instability  and  consequent  immorality.  The 
correctives  of  judgment  have  never  been  furnished.  The  easiest 
w^ay  out  is,  for  him,  the  best  way. 

Some  w^orthy  ideals  of  boyhood  may  have  prevented  criminal 
activity  earlier  in  life,  but  after  the  first  offense  relieved  the  tension, 
others,  all  of  the  same  nature,  followed  with  quick  succession.  He 
is  of  the  type  that  seeks  pleasure  in  the  activities  suggested  by 
the  complex  of  emotion,  as  completely  regardless  of  the  intellect 
as  if  it  did  not  exist.  When  once  his  action  is  begun,  the  power 
of  inhibition  is  paralyzed. 

An  example  of  the  born  criminal  is  found  in  Eastman  (4052)^ 
about  twenty-one  years  of  age,  now  serving  a  sentence  of  from  two 


EUGEXICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  539 

to  fourteen  years  for  assault  and  battery  with  intent  to  kill.  He 
is  a  native  of  Buffalo,  born  of  Polish  parents.  His  father  was  a 
common  laborer  up  to  the  time  of  his  death  by  accident,  four  years 
ago.  Eastman  had  no  formal  schooling,  prior  to  the  age  of  eight 
years,  when  he  was  arrested  and  sent  to  a  private  reform  school 
at  Buffalo.  Here  he  remained  for  six  years.  After  his  release, 
arrest  followed  arrest,  until  he  was  sent  to  the  Elmira  Eeformatory 
on  the  charge  of  burglary.  Paroled  in  1912,  he  with  three  com- 
panions worked  his  way  west  to  Indiana  as  a  common  tramp.  On 
being  ordered  out  of  a  box  car  wherein  they  were  stealing  a  ride, 
the  gang  opened  fire  on  the  train  conductor,  severely  wounding 
him.  From  an  early  age,  Eastman's  companions  were  bad.  His  jail 
and  reform  school  surroundings  probably  only  accentuated  his  disre- 
gard for  the  rights  of  others.  He  used  both  liquor  and  tobacco^ 
contracting  the  habits  when  a  mere  boy.  His  physical  condition  is 
fair,  though  he  is  not  free  from  certain  physical  stigmata.  He 
claims  to  have  suffered  a  fracture  of  the  skull  some  years  ago,  from 
the  effects  of  which  he  has  not  fully  recovered.  This  accident, 
however,  was  not  experienced  until  after  his  life  of  crime  was  well 
begun.  His  mental  tests  were  marked  by  a  general  spirit  of  indif- 
ference on  his  part.  He  cared  not  at  all  to  make  a  creditable  record 
for  himself.  Attention  and  application  were  out  of  the  question 
with  him,  though  he  did  not  lack  so  seriously  in  point  of  general 
information.  He  was  not  interested  by  those  motives  which  usually 
govern  action.  He  confessed  that  he  had  never  worked  and  did 
not  care  for  the  money  which  labor  earned.  Thoroughly  selfish, 
he  has  no  regard  for  ideals  of  honor,  and  no  respect  for  law  and 
order.  He  is  not  impressed  with  the  heinousness  of  his  crime,  nor 
does  he  feel  any  pity  or  remorse  because  others  have  suffered 
through  him.  He  furnishes  a  splendid  example  of  those  in  whom 
there  is  an  entire  absence  of  the  normal  development  of '  instinctive 
tendencies  in  the  ethical  sphere. 

A  type  of  criminal  through  passion  is  South  (4065).  He  is 
twenty  years  of  age,  son  of  temperate,  law-abiding  American  par- 
ents, both  living  and  living  together,  without  any  known  criminal 
history.  He  remained  in  school  through  the  eighth  grade,  where 
he  failed  in  grammar,  because,  as  he  says,  he  liked  arithmetic  so 
much  better  that  he  put  in  his  best  efforts  on  that  branch.  After 
leaving  school  he  purchased  a  car  and  opened  a  taxicab  business, 
which  he  conducted  for  three  years.  After  bankruptcy  he  became 
an  instructor  in  a  school  for  automobile  drivers.  He  smokes  cigars, 
but  confessed  to  no  other  bad  habits.  He  was  both  honest  and  in- 
dustrious.    His  single   crime   consisted   of  stealing   an   automobile 


540  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BET'I'ERMENT 

from  an  old  gentleman  who  employed  him  through  two  weeks  to 
overhaul  his  machine  and  then  refused  to  pay  him  a  fair  wage, 
taking  advantag:e  of  the  fact  that  no  contract  had  been  made  at 
the  time  of  engagement.  Enraged  beyond  control  at  this  perfidy, 
South  ran  the  car  away,  to  be  revenged.  His  only  motive  was  to 
get  even.  He  was  arrested,  convicted,  and  sentenced  for  grand 
larceny. 

Physically  he  is  none  too  strong.  He  has  suffered  from  hernia 
from  childhood  and  has  had  venereal  disease.  His  mentality,  in 
general,  is  of  high  order.  He  easily  grades  adult,  with  no  marked 
deficiency  in  the  tests  applied,  and  yet,  brooding  over  a  wrong  so 
accentuated  his  anger  at  his  unfair  treatment  as  to  cause  him  to 
lose  all  control  of  himself.  Here,  too,  as  in  the  second  case,  the 
power  of  inhibition  under  severe  strain  was  not  sufficiently  opera- 
tive to  support  good  judgment  by  strong  will. 

Time  will  not  allow  a  consideration  of  examples  of  the  merely 
accidental  criminal  or  of  the  weak  subject  of  suggestion.  These, 
too,  show  a  defect  of  specific  function,  which  places  the  subjects 
■completely  at  the  mercy  of  circumstances. 

Crime,  then,  is  more  than  a  mere  accompaniment  of  defective 
mind.  It  is  the  natural  outgrowth  of  faulty  mental  processes.  This 
doubtless  accounts  for  the  fact  that  punishment  cannot  cure  the 
criminal,  nor  even  deter  others  from  committing  crimes.  It  is  fool- 
ish to  insist  that  punishment  even  deters  the  criminal  from  repeat- 
ing his  crimes.  There  is  surely  no  fact  more  clearly  proved  to  the 
criminologist  than  this  one.  Institutions  of  punishment  only  serve 
to  augment  the  anti-social  attitude  of  the  criminal  and  return  him 
to  society  determined  to  perpetrate  even  more  daring  crimes  than 
he  had  known  before.  Statistics  from  investigators  the  world  over 
call  our  attention  to  the  fact  that  crime  among  us  is  increasing 
at  a  very  rapid  rate.  Treatment,  not  punishment,  is  what  is  needed 
— good,  intelligent,  sympathetic,  and  scientific  treatment  under  the 
best  conditions  and  by  the  best  advised  scientists  that  can  be  se- 
cured for  the  work.  This  is  not  a  call  for  the  introduction  of  sen- 
timentality. Warden  Francis  insists  that  the  greatest  menace  to 
our  progress  today  in  institution  affairs  is  "the  long-haired  man 
and  the  short-haired  woman,"  and  he  is  right. 

Instead  of  indulging  in  expression  of  sentimental  regard  for  the 
unfortunate  offenders.  Society  should  rather  give  herself  to  the 
most  careful  investigation  of  those  tolerated  and  even  encouraged 
practices  which  everywhere  are  shown  to  be  those  agencies  that 
contribute  to  the  perpetuity  and  the  multiplication  of  the  criminal 
class. 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  541 

Of  a  total  of  416  new  arrivals  at  the  Reformatory  last  year,  246 
came  from  disorganized  families,  and  approximately  this  same  pro- 
portion has  been  maintained  throughout  the  last  ten  years;  that  is 
to  say,  that  sixty  per  cent  of  the  criminal  class,  as  represented  by 
the  boys  of  our  institution,  have  not  had  the  possibility  of  normal 
family  training.  In  a  very  large  number  of  the  disrupted  homes, 
divorce  has  been  granted.  In  other  eases  the  father,  the  mother 
or  both  were  dead.  Neglect  of  youth  makes  directly  for  crime. 
Clearly,  it  seems  to  me,  society  has  a  duty  to  perform  by  the  chil- 
dren in  disorganized  homes.  No  one  of  us  but  recognizes  the  large 
place  the  home  should  and  does  take  in  the  normal  development  of 
the  child.  Where  these  influences  are  made  impossible  because  of 
one  reason  or  another,  it  is  obligatory  upon  the  state  to  act  in  loco 
parentis  to  assure  to  the  child  that  training  without  which  we 
cannot  hope  for  his  normal  development. 

Again  society  not  only  harbors,  but  seeks  to  profit  by,  such 
agencies  as  play  upon  the  weaknesses  of  the  Aveak.  Fifty-nine  per 
cent  of  the  inmates  received  during  the  past  six  years  Avere  users 
of  intoxicating  liquors ;  eighty  per  cent  used  tobacco  in  one  form 
or  another;  while  fifty  per  cent  were  addicted  to  the  use  of  cigar- 
ettes. Whatever  may  be  said  in  the  way  of  excuse  for  a  moderate 
use  of  alcoholic  beverages  and  tobacco  among  adults,  there  can  be 
no  justification  whatever  for  the  use  of  those  drugs  on  the  part  of 
adolescents :  but  in  spite  of  legislation,  the  one  purpose  of  which 
is  to  make  it  impossible  for  the  ruination  of  the  boys  of  our  coun- 
try to  follow  from  these  sources,  the  process  continues  among  us 
to  an  ever-increasing  extent. 

Most  states  of  our  nation  boast  rigid  eonipulsorv  education 
laws.  In  spite  of  this  fact,  over  ten  per  cent  of  the  men  entering 
our  institution  are  absolutely  illiterate,  while  the  number  who  have 
reached  the  high  school  in  educational  progress  is  practically  neg- 
ligible. Of  the  416  new  arrivals  at  the  Indiana  Reformatory  last 
year,  eleven  only  claimed  to  have  completed  the  twelfth  grade, 
three  entered  college  and  one  the  theological  seminary.  The  largest 
number  left  school  at  about  the  fourth  grade.  Here,  again,  sc  long 
as  we  are  content  to  legislate  merely  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  our 
state  assemblies  out  of  mischief  while  in  session,  with  little  tlought 
of  enforcing  the  laws  which  they  make,  we  need  not  look  for  a  bet- 
tering of  those  social  conditions  out  of  which  we  annually  recruit 
our  law  violators. 

Fully  one-third  of  the  new  registrations  of  last  year  ware  idle 
at  the  time  of  committing  the  crime  for  which  they  w^re  con- 
victed.    This  is  not  to  place  the  blame  either  here  or  tlisre,  and 


542  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

yet  it  -was  no  more  true  in  the  days  of  our  youth  than  it  is  now 
that  the  devil  himself  puts  to  work  any  man  who  stands  on  the 
street  corners  Avith  his  hands  in  his  pockets. 

I  love  the  Church  and  should  be  pained  to  say  one  word  of  ad- 
verse criticism  against  her;  yet  I  wonder  if  she  fully  understands 
and  appreciates  her  obligation  toward  those  who  come  within  the 
shadow  of  her  towers.  Only  122  of  the  416  sent  to  us  from  the 
counties  of  Indiana  last  year  Avere  without  church  affiliation.  One 
denomination  alone,  and  that  not  the  strongest  in  the  state,  sent 
us  seventy-six.  No,  they  were  not  good  church  members,  yet  the 
church  can  ill  afford  to  lose  so  many  of  its  communicants  in  a 
single  year  to  a  single  correctional  institution  within  the  borders 
of  the  Commonwealth. 

It  may  be  argued  that  these  various  social  agencies  are  not  to 
be  blamed  for  the  lack  of  results  in  their  attempts  to  train  those 
Avhom  we  have  clearly  shown  to  be  either  mental  defectives  or  at 
least  more  or  less  seriously  disturbed  in  mental  function.  Never- 
theless, we  do  insist  that  Avhere  the  peculiarities  of  mental  reac- 
tion are  due  to  a  lack  of  proper  nurture  rather  than  to  a  defect 
of  nature,  such  oversight  and  care  should  and  could  have  been 
exercised  as  to  enable  a  considerable  number  to  live  lives  of  happi- 
ness, harmlessness,  and  comparative  usefulness.  While  investiga- 
tion in  this  field  is  still  in  its  infancy,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
the  coming  years  Avill  prove  conclusively  what  seems  now  to  be 
indicated — that  while  the  real  efficient  cause  of  crime  is  to  be  found 
in  defective  mental  condition,  the  contributing  agencies,  in  large 
part,  are  those  social  institutions  which  fail  to  interpret  the  vision 
and  with  consecrated  effort  so  to  purge  themselves  of  carelessness 
and  neglect  as  to  recognize  not  only  their  splendid  opportunity,  but 
their  grave  and  undeniable  responsibility. 


RACE    BETTERMENT    AND    OUR    IMMIGRATION    LAWS 
Professor    Eobert    DeC.    Ward,    Harvard    University.    Cambridge,    Mass. 

In  developing  new  fruits,  and  cereals,  and  flowers,  we  send 
our  Gcvernment  experts  abroad.  Far  and  wide,  over  Europe  and 
Asia,  in  Africa  and  even  in  Australia,  they  diligently  seek  out  the 
best  se^ds  and  plants  and  cuttings  which  they  eau  find.  These. 
having  ^rst  been  carefully  selected,  are  then  quarantined,  if  neces- 
sary, and  closely  examined  to  see  that  they  are  sound  and  free  of 
disease  ind  imperfection.  Then,  and  not  till  then,  are  they  planted 
in  our  sdl.  and  begin  their  work  of  improving  our  stock. 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  543 

So  also  it  is  with  our  domestic  animals.  From  abroad,  after  a 
study  of  pedigrees  often  reaching  back  several  generations,  we 
import  the  best  horses  and  cattle  and  sheep  and  swine  that  can  be 
bought  anywhere  in  the  world.  AVe  send  over  expert  breeders  to 
select  and  bring  back  these  animals.  Every  possible  care  is  taken 
t(i  ensure  the  selection  and  the  importation  of  none  but  sound  and 
fit  stock. 

During  the  past  decade  there  have  come  to  this  country-  from 
abroad  each  year  nearly  one  million  human  beings  whose  blood  is 
to  be  mixed  with  ours  in  the  production  of  the  "American"  race. 
Yet  infinitely  more  care  was  taken  in  the  selection  of  the  few  cattle 
which  were  imported  for  breeding  purposes  in  this  same  period 
than  anyone  thought  of  taking  in  the  case  of  these  millions  of  men 
and  women  and  children.  Our  public  health  is  being  well  pro- 
tected against  diseased  cattle,  but  we  have  not  as  yet  done  nearly 
as  much  as  we  should  to  guard  against  the  far  greater  danger  that 
lies  in  bad  human  blood.  No  officials,  expert  in  diagnosing  mental 
and  physical  defects,  were  sent  abroad  to  pick  out  the  fittest  and 
most  desirable  aliens  for  introduction  into  this  country,  or  even 
placed  on  board  ship  to  pick  them  out  in  transit. 

A  policy  of  national  eugenics,  for  the  United  States  as  for 
every  other  nation,  means  the  prevention  of  the  breeding  of  the 
unfit  native.  But  for  us  it  means  far  more  than  that.  For  us  it 
means,  in  addition,  the  prevention  of  the  immigration  of  the  unfit 
alien.  And  of  these  two  problems  of  American  national  eugenics 
the  second  is  by  far  the  easier  to  solve.  We  are  only  just  be- 
ginning to  devise  means  of  reducing  and  of  controlling  the  num- 
ber of  births  among  the  unsound  and  the  unfit  w^ho  are  already  in 
our  midst.  But  we  have  an  opportunity  which  is  unique  in  his- 
tory for  the  practice  of  eugenic  principles,  immediately,  and  on 
a  vastly^reater  scale  than  is  possible  in  the  case  of  any  other 
nation.  [By  selecting  our  immigrants,  through  proper  legislation 
we  can  pick  out  the  best  specimens  of  each  race  to  be  our  own 
fellow-citizens  and  to  be  the  parents  of  our  future  citizensj  The 
responsibility  which  rests  upon  us  in  this  matter  is  overwheljning. 
"We  can  decide  upon  what  merits— physical,  mental,  moral— ithese 
incoming  aliens  shall  be  selected.  But  what  have  we  done?  We 
have  left  the  choice  of  the  fathers  and  mothers  of  the  future  ^Ameri- 
cans practically  altogether  to  the  selfish  interests,  which  care  very 
little  whether  we  want  the  immigrants  they  bring,  or  whether  these 
people  will  be  the  better  for  coming.  At  present,  the  selection  of 
our  immigrants  is  almost  altogether  in  the  hands  of  the  ste<tnship 
companies.      Steamship    agents   and   brokers   all   OA'er   Europf.    and 


544  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

even  in  -western  Asia  and  northern  Africa,  are  today  deciding  for 
ns  the  character  of  the  American  race  of  the  future.  The  steam- 
ships and  railroad  companies,  and  the  large  employers  of  cheap 
labor,  have  financial  interests  at  stake.  They  want  unrestricted 
and  unselected  immigration.  They  are  well  organized,  and  have 
very  great  influence  in  Washington.  None  of  these  "interests" 
cares  in  the  least  for  the  sanity  or  for  the  physical  soundness  of  our 
race.  If  their  pocketbooks  are  well  filled,  they  rest  content.  Think 
of  the  extraordinarily  illogical  and  indefensible  position  of  the 
great  "philanthropist"  who  gives  his  millions  to  "charity"  and  is 
at  the  same  time  opposing  any  further  regulation  of  immigration 
because  he  wants  to  import  foreign  "cheap  labor,"  regardless  of 
its  etfect  upon  the  race,  in  order  that  he  may  roll  up  more  millions ! 
This  is  not  altogether  a  fictitious  case.  "We  constantly  speak  of  the 
need  of  more  "hands"  to  do  our  labor.  We  forget  that  we  are  im- 
porting, not  "hands"  alone,  but  bodies  also.  The  vast  majority 
of  incoming  alien  immigrants  are  potential  fathers  and  mothers, 
and  the  character  of  the  race  that  is  to  be  born  depends  upon  the 
kind  of  alien  bodies  Avhich  we  are  allowing  to  have  landed  on  our 
shores  day  by  day.  It  is  just  at  this  point  that  there  is  the  con- 
tact between  immigration  as  an  economic  problem  and  immigration 
as  a  racial  and  as  a  eugenic  problem,  a  contact  which  few  of  us  are 
fully  aware  of. 

Our  laws  at  present  aim  to  exclude  some  twenty-one  classes  of 
mentally,  physically,  morally,  and  economically  undesirable  aliens. 
On  paper,  the  list  of  the  excluded  classes  is  long  and  formidable, 
and  seems  sufficient  to  accomplish  our  eugenic  purpose.  But  the 
fact  is  that  careful  and  unprejudiced  students  of  immigration,  both 
within  the  Immigration  Service  and  outside  of  it,  agree  that  we 
cannot  now  keep  out  the  unfit  sufficiently  to  preserve  the  mental 
and  physical  status  quo  of  our  population,  to  say  nothing  of  pro- 
moting eugenic  improvement.  The  former  Commissioner  of  Im- 
migration at  the  Port  of  New  York  says:  "The  present  excluded 
classes  by  no  means  include  all  who  are  undesirable"  (1912  Ee- 
port).  The  Committee  on  Immigration  of  the  Eugenics  Section 
of  tie  American  Genetic  Association,  in  its  last  Annual  Report, 
sumned  up  the  situation  as  follows:  "Not  only  (1)  are  the  immi- 
gration laws  inadequate  to  effect  the  exclusion  of  the  unfit,  but  (2) 
the  iispeetion  is  not  as  thorough  as  it  ought  to  be,  owing  to  in- 
adeqiate  facilities,  an  insufficient  number  of  inspectors,  and  the 
frequmt  arrival  of  very  large  numbers  of  aliens  at  one  time,  and 
(3)  ii  some  cases  the  law  has  actually  been  violated,  both  in  the 
spirit  and  in  the  letter." 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  545 

Our  immigration  laws  have  grown  up  slowly  as  the  result  of 
experience  extending  over  many  years.  They  are  good  as  far  as 
they  go.  They  have  served  as  the  basis  for  the  immigration  legis- 
lation of  Great  Britain  and  of  Canada.  They  were  not  the  result 
of  any  "Know  Nothing"  agitation,  of  the  sudden  demands  of  a 
political  party,  or  of  the  whim  of  a  moment.  As  recently  as  1875, 
our  laws  excluded  only  criminals  and  prostitutes.  Slowly,  deliber- 
ately, carefully,  this  legislation  was  planned  and  grew  up.  Never- 
theless, the  experience  of  years  has  brought  certain  defects  to  light. 
Competent  officials  haA^e  pointed  them  out.  Disinterested  citizens, 
and  economists,  and  medical  men,  and  social  workers,  have  studied 
our  laws,  and  have  shown  us  where  they  fail  to  accom])lish  their 
purposes.  There  is  need  of  more  excluded  classes,  and  there  is 
need  of  better  administrative  machinery. 

Most  of  the  recommendations  which  have  been  urged  by  those 
who  have  made  an  unprejudiced  study  of  immigration  were  in- 
cluded in  the  Eeport  of  the  United  States  Immigration  Commission, 
which  investigated  the  whole  question  for  over  three  years,  and 
w^ere  embodied  in 'the  immigration  bill  which  passed  the  Sixty-second 
Congress;  was  vetoed  by  President  Taft:  was  passed  by  the  Senate 
over  the  veto  by  a  vote  of  72  to  18 ;  and  failed  by  less  than  a  dozen 
votes  of  being  passed  over  the  veto  by  the  House.  Every  medical 
man  in  the  United  States:  every  social  ivorker :  every  person  in  any 
way  connected  tvith  the  care  of  mental  defectives;  every  taxpayer; 
every  citizen  who  wants  to  keep  the  blood  of  the  race  pure,  should  join 
in  demanding  of  the  Sixty-third  Congress  the  immediate  passage  of  a 
similar  hill  and  should  see  to  it  that  that  hill  becomes  a  laic. 
C^To  our  own  very  heavy  burden  of  the  defective  and"  the  degen- 
erate we  are  adding  every  year,  by  immigration,  thousands  of  aliens 
whose  presence  here  wall  result,  because  of  their  own  defects  and 
those  of  their  offspring,  in  lowering  the  physical  and  mental  stand- 
ards of  the  American  racerj  We  have  much  still  to  learn  about 
heredity.  But  we  know  enough  to  be  sure  that  if  the  quality  of  our 
race  is  to  be  preserved,  there  must  be  a  far  more  careful  selection 
of  our  immigrants  than  w^e  have  ever  attempted  to  nlake.  The 
need  is  indeed  imperative  for  applying  eugenic  principles  in  much 
of  our  legislation.  But  the  greatest,  the  most  logical,  the  most 
effective  step  that  we  can  take  is  to  begin  with  the  proper  eugenic 
selection  of  the  incoming  alien  millions.  Let  us  see  to  it  that  we 
are  protected,  not  merely  from  the  burden  of  supporting  alien  de- 
fectives, but  from  that  "watering  of  the  nation's  life-blood"  which 
results  from  their  reproducing  their  kind  after  admission.  As 
Prof.  Karl  Pearson  puts  it:  "You  cannot  change  the  leopard's  spots. 


546  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFEKENCK    ON    HACK    liKTTIOKMKXT 

siiul  yoii  t-niiiiot  cliantit'  l)ii(l  stock  to  good.  Yoii  may  dilute  it,  pos- 
sibly spread  it  over  a  Avidc  area,  spoiling  f^ood  stock,  but  until  it 
ceases  to  mnltiply,  it  will  not  cease  to  be."  Every  Senator  and 
every  Cong-ressnian  of  the  Ignited  States  should  have  brought  home 
to  him  the  truth  of  Lord  Beaconsfield's  words:  "The  public  health 
is  the  foundation  on  Avhich  reposes  the  happiness  of  the  people 
and  the  power  of  a  country.  The  care  of  the  public  health  is  the 
first  duty  of  a  statesman." 

The  conservation  of  our  national  resources — how  much  we  hear 
about  that.  Conservation  of  American  forests  is  important.-  So  is 
conservation  of  American  coal,  anci  of  American  oil,  and  of  Ameri- 
can natural  gas,  and  of  American  water  supplies,  and  of  American 
fisheries.  But  the  conservation  and  improvement  of  the  American 
Race  is  vastly  more  important  than  all  other  conservation.  The 
real  wealth  of  a  nation  is  the  quality  of  its  people.  Of  what  value 
are  endless  acres  of  forests,  millions  of  tons  of  coal,  and  billions  of 
gallons  of  water,  if  the  Race  is  not  virile,  and  sane,  and  sound? 


KACE  BETTERMENT  AND  AMERICA'S  ORIENTAL  PROBLEM 

Professor  Sidney  L.  Gulick,  D.D.,  Kyoto,  Japan. 

The  problem  of  race  betterment  for  Americans  is  intimately 
connected  with  that  of  immigration ;  for  the  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands from  other  lands  who  annually  come  here  to  stay,  contribute 
their  quota  to  the  heredity  of  the  American  people.  During  the 
past  fifty  years  a  few  score  thousand  Chinese  and  Japanese  have 
come  to  our  land.  At  first  welcomed  by  those  who  wanted  cheap 
labor,  they  are  noAV  feared,  and  complete  Asiatic  exclusion  is  be- 
coming the  settled  policy  of  America  and  of  all  lands  in  which  the 
white  man  is  dominant.  A  high  wall  of  exclusion  is  raised  against  the 
Asiatics  in  Britislj  America,  the  United  States,  New  Zealand,  Australia 
and  British  Africa.  This  threatens  serious  dangers  if  persisted  in. 
California's  anti-Asiatic  legislation  is  producing  indignation 
throughout  Japan,  not  because  of  deprivation  of  economic  oppor- 
tunity, but  because  of  treatment  which  is  regarded  as  unfriendly, 
ignominious  and  contrary  to  the  treaties  of  sixty  years'  standing. 

Japan,  three  hundred  years  ago,  afraid  of  the  white  man's  ag- 
gressions, excluded  for  250  years  all  foreign  peoples,  refused  to  her 
own  people  all  foreign  travel,  and  sought  to  live  entirely  to  herself. 
The  price  she  paid  for  national  seclusion  was  loss  of  international 
stimulus  to  growth :  she  fell  behind.  At  last  it  became  impossible 
to  carry  out  her  age-long  exclusion  policy.     To  maintain   her  ex- 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  547 

isteuce  she  was  compelled  to  nudergo  radical,  liumiliating,  and 
painful  reorganizations  of  her  national  life.  She  adopted  the  new 
policy  of  learning  what  the  white  man  has  to  teach,  and  of  enter- 
ing fully  into  the  life  of  the  world.  The  late  war  with  Russia 
shoAvs  her  success. 

In  the  Boxer  uprising,  China  tried  to  follow  Japan's  exclusion 
policy  of  three  hundred  years  ago,  but  she  began  too  late  and  failed. 
One  month  after  the  signing  of  the  treaty  of  Portsmouth  between 
Japan  and  Eussia,  China  officially  abolished  her  system  of  classical 
education  which  had  lasted  for  over  two  thousand  years  and  adopted 
Japan's  policy  of  learning  from  the  white  man. 

Japanese  cannon  at  Port  Arthur  and  Mukden  sounded  out  not 
only  over  the  hills  and  plains  of  Manchuria,  but  over  all  Asia,  and 
told  the  colored  races  the  secret  of  power  wherewith  to  hold  their 
own  against  the  white  man;  namely,  international  life  with  mastery 
and  adoption  of  the  white  man's  knowledge. 

Napoleon  is  reported  to  have  said:  "China  is  a  sleeping  giant — 
let  her  sleep;  for  when  she  wakens,  she  will  shake  the  world." 
China  is  awaking ;  she  is  friendly  now  to  America  because  of  our 
return  of  the  Boxer  Indemnity  and  our  helpfulness  in  recent  times. 

But  do  you  think  China  will  fail  to  be  indignant  if  we  continue 
to  treat  her  citizens  in  America  as  we  have  been  treating  them  dur- 
ing the  past  fifty  years?  As  surely  as  the  night  follows  sunset,  will 
the  united  antipathy  and  ill  treatment  of  the  yellow  man  by  the 
white  race  be  followed  by  resentment  and  indignation  of  the  yellow 
man.    Then  will  begin  the  "Yellow  Peril." 

What  an  unspeakable  obstacle  to  race  improvement  will  arise 
if  the  Occident  and  Orient  are  thus  set  in  solid  ranks  against  each, 
other?  Not  only  will  incalculable  commercial  loss  take  place,  but 
vast  military  and  naval  expenses  will  be  thought  necessary,  as  each 
prepares  to  meet  the  anticipated  invasion  of  the  foe.  Race  suspi- 
cion, ill-will,  antagonism  will  demand  the  application  of  the  wealth 
and  brains  of  both  sides  to  military  defenses  instead  of  to  race 
betterment.  IMilitarism  and  warfare  breed  countless  ills;  they  are 
fertile  sources  of  race  deterioration. 

But  we  must  look  at  this  matter  from  another  side.  Races, 
plant,  animal  and  human,  have  arisen  through  isolation  and  segre- 
gate interbreeding.  For  thousands  of  years  little  groups  of  men 
have  battled  Avith  the  universal,  common  problems  of  human  life, 
practical,  theoretical,  social,  moral,  and  religious;,  each  has  de- 
veloped its  own  mode  of  solving  these  problems;  each  has  its  OAvn 
world-view,  its  own  practical  methods  of  Avringing  a  liA'ing  from 


548  FIRST    NATIOXAL    CONFKHKNCK    ON    UACK    IJKTTKKJf ENT 

Nature;  its  mvii  way  of  intej.',Tatin<;-  society,  of  iiial<in<;-  men  social 
mid  responsible. 

Each  people  and  race  has  thus  been  carrying  on.  quite  uncon- 
sciously indeed,  yet  none  tlie  less  really,  vast  practical  experiments. 
These  have  progressed  along  lines  largely  different.  Divergent  evo- 
lution is  the  source  of  diverse  races  and  civilization.  Yet  in  spite 
of  large  isolation,  periods  of  limited  interchange  of  ideas  and 
practices  have  occurred :  these  have  proved  to  be  periods  of  im- 
mense progress;  the  stimulus  of  one  civilization  on  another  has 
been  of  incalculable  value,  adding  materially  to  richness  of  life 
and  thus  to  race  betterment.  On  the  other  hand,  prolonged  in- 
breeding of  small  groups  of  men  has  tended  to  degeneration.  The 
virile  races  today  are  all  the  products  of  wide  race  mixture. 

Now  the  outstanding  characteristic  of  the  present  age  is  the 
collapse  of  space  through  man's  modern  mastery  of  nature.  Races 
wholly  ignorant  even  of  one  another's  existence  are  now  coming 
into  close  contact.  Two  great  streams  of  civilization  have  arisen — 
the  Eastern  and  the  Western.  With  the  modern  collapse  of  space, 
mankind  inevitably  enters  on  a  new  era  of  universal  contact,  re- 
sulting in  convergent  social  and  biological  evolution.  The  good  and 
the  true  which  each  race  has  acquired  through  its  isolated  life. 
may  now  be  communicated  to  every  other  race.  So,  too,  may  its 
diseases  and  its  errors.  The  barriers  separating  peoples  today  are 
language  and  race  antipathy — race  prejudice.  This  general  inter- 
change, however,  is  intimately  related  to  universal  race  better- 
ment. The  policy  of  the  white  race,  scorning  all  other  races  and 
excluding  them  from  equal  opportunity  with  themselves  in  their 
own  best  political,  economic,  moral  and  religious  life,  is  a  serious 
obstacle  to  race  betterment — alike  of  the  white  man  himself  and 
also  of  the  colored  races. 

Eace  betterment  rests  on  two  distinct  factors:  nature  and  nur- 
ture— biological  heredity  and  social  heredity.  The  laws  of  the 
two  are  distinct,  yet  their  interrelation  is  of  the  closest.  Human 
race  betterment,  be  it  ever  remembered,  does  not  depend  exclusively 
on  biological  principles,  for  social  inheritance,  given  only  after 
birth,  is  a  factor  of  superlative  force ;  this  is  given  not  by  biological 
processes,  but  by  education,  by  language,  by  every  influence  which 
molds  the  mind  and  heart  and  conduct.  Wholesome  nurture,  trans- 
mitting wholesome  social  inheritance,  can  alone  provide  the  right 
environment  in  which  human  biological  heredity  can  produce  its 
best  results. 

This  distinction  between  social  and  biological  heredity  and  in- 
heritance  is   of  the   utmost   consequence   in   considering  the   prob- 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  549 

lems  of  immigration,  race  assimilation,  and  race  improvement.  Civi- 
lization, mental  habits,  moral  and  religious  ideas,  with  all  the 
practices  to  which  they  lead,  are  matters  of  social,  not  of  bio- 
logical heredity ;  they  can  be  taught  to  individuals  of  any  race. 
The  social  assimilation  of  races  can  proceed  independently  of  in- 
termarriage. Sociologically  speaking,  Japanese  and  Chinese  are 
just  as  assimilable  as  Italians  and  Russians.  Indeed,  Asiatic  chil- 
dren born  and  reared  in  America  are  more  completely  cut  off  from 
their  social  inheritance  than  are  the  children  of  any  European 
people  because  of  tlie  extraordinary  difficulty  of  learning  to  read 
Chinese  and  Japanese. 

The  problem  of  the  intermarriage  of  whites  and  Asiatics  is  one 
that  needs  scientific  study.  We  need  a  commission  of  expert  biolo- 
gists, sociologists,  and  psychologists  to  make  such  a  collection  of  the 
facts  already  available  that  we  may  know  accurately  what  are 
the  biological  consequences  of  intermarriage.  Even  though  the 
intermarriage  of  whites  with  blacks  may  be  bad — I  know  nothing, 
however,  as  to  facts  at  this  point — it  does  not  necessarily  follow 
that  their  intermarriage  with  Japanese  or  Chinese  will  be  bad. 
Black  races  have  been  developed  under  the  tropics  and  have  never 
undergone  social  discipline.  Chinese  and  Japanese  have  lived  for 
thousands  of  years  in  the  North  Temperate  Zone,  and  have  under- 
gone severe  social  discipline.  They  are  on  the  whole  vigorous, 
brainy  people.  The  Japanese  are  characteristically  artistic  and 
dexterous.  There  is- every  reason  to  hold,  a  priori,  that  intermar- 
riage would  prove  advantageous,  just  as  crossing  of  nearly  allied 
animal  and  plant  races  is  often  highly  advantageous.  But  we  now 
need  scientific  knowledge  which  can  be  collected  only  by  experts 
adequately  equipped.  Whether  race  improvement  or  degenera- 
tion will  occur  through  Asiatic  and  white  intermarriage  should  not 
longer  be  left  to  the  decision  of  ignorant  dogmatism  based  on  race 
prejudices. 

The  permissibility  of  race  intermarriage — even  if  biologically 
not  harmful — is,  however,  closely  dependent  on  social  assimila- 
tion. Social  assimilation  should  precede  intermarriage,  otherwise 
the  right  conditions  cannot  be  secured  for  transmission  of  the  right 
social  inheritance.  This  is  a  principle  of  the  very  highest  im- 
portance, and  pertains  alike  to  Europeans  and  Asiatics  coming  to 
America. 

It  is  not  to  be  lightly  assumed,  however,  that  all  races  should 
have  absolute  freedom  for  immigration  to  America.  The  United 
States  is  making  stupendous  experiments  and,  in  justice  to  our- 
selves, and  for  the  sake  of  the  whole  human  race,  we  must  not 


550  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE   BETTERMENT 

allow  those  races  and  peoples  to  come  here  in  any  considerable 
numbers  -who  will  not  or  cannot  enter  into  our  life  and  cordially 
make  these  experiments  with  us.  The  Pacific  Coast  is  quite  right 
in  demanding-  that  there  shall  be  no  swamping  Asiatic  immi- 
gration. It  is  wrong  in  its  mode  of  attacking  the  problem,  in  its 
treatment  of  the  Asiatic  and  also  its  attempt  to  solve  the  problem 
from  the  standpoint  of  exclusively  local  interests. 

The  new  Asia  that  is  arising,  with  its  consciousness  of  race 
history,  destiny,  pride,  and  plight,  demands  of  the  West  equality 
of  treatment  with  that  accorded  one  another  by  nations  of  the  West. 

America  accordingly  needs  a  new  Oriental  policy,  which,  while 
it  conserves  our  great  democratic  experiment  and  its  institutions, 
shall  treat  all  races  alike  and  yet  shall  admit  only  so  many  annually 
from  each  land  as  we  can  really  assimilate. 

This  is  a' principle  that  applies  equally  to  every  people.  This 
assimilable  number  depends  in  large  part  on  the  number  of  those 
from  that  land  already  here  and  assimilated.  The  full  explanation 
of  this  principle  I  have  given  in  my  work  on  '^ America's  Japanese 
Problem. ' '  An  immigration  law  should  be  enacted  allowing  an  annual 
immigration  from  any  single  mother-tongue  group  of.  say.  five  per 
cent  of  those  already  here  and  naturalized,  including  their  American- 
born  children.  Such  a  law  would  allow  practically  unlimited  immigra^ 
tion  from  Great  Britain.  Germany  and  Scandinavia;  it  would  curtail 
somewhat  immigration  from  South  Europe,  and  allow  only  a  very 
small  number  of  immigrants  from  Japan  and  China. 

For  the  real  and  full  assimilation  of  foreigners,  moreover,  nat- 
uralization upon  qualification  is  essential.  Provision  should  accord- 
ingly be  made  for  proper  education  of  aliens  in  American  history, 
ideals,  political  practices,  and  the  English  language.  Only  when 
aliens  qualify  should  they  be  given  the  ballot.  If  Chinese  and  Jap- 
anese have  adequately  qualified,  they,  too,  should  be  naturalized. 

In  conclusion,  I  summarize  the  central  points  brought  forward. 

1.  The  era  of  convergent  evolution  has  begun.  The  policy  of 
complete  exclusion  by  one  race  of  the  civilization  and  people  of 
another  has  been  repeatedly  tried  and  has  failed  because  it  is  in 
the  end  disastrous. 

2.  The  permanent  betterment  of  any  one  section  of  the  human 
race  cannot  go  forward  to  any  large  degree  independently  of  that 
of  the  rest.  We  are  members  of  one  another — East  and  West,  North 
and  South.  The  diseases  of  Africa  and  Asia  and  the  destructive 
ideas  of  Europe  and  America  cannot  be  permanently  isolated.  The 
good  of  each  should  be  transmitted  to  the  rest.     Race  betterment 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  551 

must  be  universal  if  it  is  to  be  permanent.     All  must  consciously 
combine  in  repressing  the  bad  and  upbuilding  the  good. 

3.  I  urge,  therefore,  the  importance  of  appointing  a  commission 
of  experts  for  the  scientific  determination  of  questions  of  inter- 
marriage between  members  of  different  races. 

4.  I  also  urge  the  importance  of  adopting  immigration  and  nat- 
uralization laws  which,  while  they  conserve  the  essential  inter- 
ests of  our  own  country,  shall  also  deal  justly  and  courteously  with 
■every  other  race  on  a  basis  of  equality  and  in  harmony  with  their 
dignity  and  race  consciousness. 

Discussion. 

Immigrant  Classij&cation  by  Mother-Tongue 

Professor  Herbert  Adolphus  Miller. 

Dr.  Sidney  Gulick  stated  that  a  large  part  of  the  immigration 
problem  was  assimilation,  and  suggested  that  if  we  had  a  law  limit- 
ing the  number  of  immigrants  to  five  per  cent  from  any  mother- 
tongue,  that  would  probably  be  a  practical  way  to  handle  it.  The 
Dillingham  Bill,  before  Congress  now,  limits  the  number  to  ten 
per  cent  of  any  nationality,  taking  the  country  of  birth  as  the 
basis  of  computing  that  nationality.  Doctor  Gulick 's  suggestion  of 
mlother-tongue  is  the  only  possible  solution  of  the  immigrant  diffi- 
culty. Most  people  do  not  realize,  for  instance,  that  most  of  the 
immigrants  who  furnish  so  much  of  our  problems,  come  from 
Austria,  Hungary,  and  Kussia.  It  is  absurd  to  compute  it  as  ten 
per  cent  of,  say,  the  people  from  Austria.  The  smallest  proportion 
who  migrate  here  are  Germans  and  the  largest  number  are  Poles. 
Poles  come  also  from  Germany  and  from  Russia.  Twenty-eight  per 
cent  of  Austrian  immigrants  are  Poles.  From  Russia  fifty-two  per 
cent  are  Jews  and  a  large  i^er  cent  of  those  who  come  from  Germany 
are  both  Poles  and  Jews.  From  Russia  there  are  fifty-two  per  cent 
Jews,  then  Poles,  then  Lithuanians,  then  Finns,  then  finally  twent>'- 
two  per  cent  Russians.  The  framers  of  this  bill  think  of  the  im- 
migration by  countries  as  those  who  have  definite  characteristics. 
The  Slovak  of  Austria  hates  the  Magyar,  and  the  Pole  hates  the  Ger- 
man, and  the  Bohemian  hates  the  German,  and  the  Slovak  hates 
the  German,  so  there  is  less  similarity  between  the  people  of  Austria 
and  Russia  who  come  here  than  there  is  between  the  people  of 
Sweden.  France,  and  England.  If  we  are  going  to  get  after  this 
on  the  proper  basis,  it  should  be  on  the  mother-tongue  basis. 

Last  year  I  went  to  supper  with  a  Lithuanian  undertaker.  To 
be  gracious,  I  asked  him  about  his  business.  His  face  lighted  up 
quickly,  and  he  said,  "It  is  a  strange  thing  that  this  is  a  growing 


552  FIRST    NATIONAI;    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

city,  but  the  number  of  funerals  has  dropped  off  about  one-third. '^ 
I  asked  him  why  it  wns.  He  said  that  it  was  because  of  the  new 
law,  which  he  did  not  understand,  which  required  the  undertaker 
to  have  a  death  certificate  from  a  physician  or  to  notify  the  coroner, 
and  if  the  coroner  finds  that  a  physician  was  not  called  in,  he  fines 
the  family  twenty-five  dollars.  It  is  necessary  to  fine  only  one 
family  in  a  community.  These  Lithuanian  peasants,  as  you  know, 
are  illiterate ;  they  have  never  been  in  the  habit  of  calling  in  a 
physician.  I  have  found  people  who  have  been  in  Lithuania  who 
have  had  pneumonia  and  did  nothing  for  it  except  to  take  gun- 
powder, thinking  it  would  shoot  the  pain  out.  That  is  a  prevailing 
idea.  They  never  call  a  doctor,  but  this  law,  fining  them  for  not 
calling  a  doctor,  suggests  to  a  whole  neighborhood  that  the  way  to 
save  the  coroner's  fine  is  to  get  the  physician.  In  order  to  save 
the  fine,  the  people  call  the  doctor.  They  have  cut  the  death-rate 
down  nearly  a  third  in  that  mining  town. 

This  undertaker  had  a  good  deal  of  information  that  the  most 
of  us  don't  have.  He  said  that  most  of  these  babies  are  saved  by 
young  doctors.  He  said  the  old  doctors  are  good  for  the  big  folks, 
but  the  young  doctors  save  the  babies.  I  don't  know  how  that  is 
explained,  but  it  is  an  interesting  thing.  This  particular  town  has 
this  immigrant  problem  also  in  a  very  interesting  way. 

Another  host  was  a  Polish  priest.  The  Poles  of  Spring  Valley 
come  from  Kussia  and  Germany  and  they  are  members  of  that 
church.  In  this  city,  nine-tenths  of  the  population  are  foreign-bom. 
They  are  all  segregated  into  groups.  There  is  practically  no  Ameri- 
can influence.  You  cannot  reach  that  problem  by  a  literacy  test. 
You  have  to  meet  it  by  some  readjustment  of  the  forces  of  civiliza- 
tion, so  as  to  get  a  group  small  enough  to  bring  under  the  influence 
of  those  things  which  are  necessary  for  the  maintenance  of  our 
American  civilization. 

Discussion. 

Immigration 

Professor  Maynard  M.  Metcalf. 

I  Avish  to  correct  a  little  further  Dr.  Sidney  Guliek's  point,  that 
race  betterment  means  the  betterment  of  the  human  race,  not 
merely  of  any  American  race.  The  point  I  wish  to  make  is  that 
since  isolation  is  ceasing  and  every  man  is  becoming  every  other 
man's  neighbor,  there  w^ill  ultimately  be  but  one  human  race.  Com- 
plete amalgamation  of  all  races  which  persist  is  inevitable.  What- 
ever the  general  feeling  as  to  the  intermarriage,  illegitimate  birth 
alone  would  cause  complete  amalgamation.    It  is  merely  a  question 


EUGENICS  AND  IMMIGRATION  553 

of  mathematics,  and  not  of  sociology.  The  most  interesting  ques- 
tions in  this  connection  are  first,  What  races  will  survive  to  share 
in  building  the  ultimate  human  race?  and  second.  What  will  be 
their  contribution  to  that  race?  In  five  thousand  years — and  that 
of  course  to  the  eugenist  is  but  a  day — in  five  thousand  years  we 
may  know,  though,  of  course,  it  may  be  longer.  The  fact  that  there 
will  be  but  one  race, of  mankind  ultimately  has  important  bearing 
upon  a  number  of  social  questions  of  the  present  moment,  and  the 
inevitableness  of  that  result  should  be  in  the  mind  of  those  w^ho 
are  thinking  of  any  such  question  as  eugenics. 

Discussion.  ' 

The  Socially  Assimilated 

Dr.  Luther  H.  Gulick. 

The  suggestion  of  my  brother  [Dr.  Sidney  L.  Gulick]  with  ref- 
erence to  immigration  was  somewhat  different  from  the  one  offered. 
My  brother  suggests  that  the  immigration  from  any  mother-tongue 
group  be  five  per  cent  of  those  who  have  already  become  citizens. 
It  is  not  significant  how  many  unassimilated  people  have  come  to 
this  country  of  a  given  nationality  or  tongue.  The  significant  thing 
is  how  many  have  become  American  citizens;  that  is,  have  become 
socially  assimilated.  They  are  the  class  through  whom  social  diges- 
tion may  take  place,  and  I  may  say  my  brother  is  in  touch  with 
Senator  Dillingham  with  reference  to  this  matter. 


CONSTRUCTIVE  SUGGESTIONS  FOR  RACE  BETTERMENT- 
SUMMARIZED 

Abolish  Production  and  Sale  of  Alcoholic  Liquors 

Mr.  Arthur  Huxter 

Wliile  not  a  total  abstainer,  I  am  convinced  that  it  wonld  be 
immeasnrably  better  for  this,  or  any  other,  country  to  have  the 
production  and  sale  of  alcoholic  liquors  abolished  if  it  were  prac- 
ticable. The  advantages  claimed  for  alcohol  are  a  small  offset,  in 
my  judgment,  to  the  evils  which  proceed  from  its  use  and  its  abuse. 

Fake  Cures  for  Consumption 

Dr.  S.  a.  Kxopf 

The  man  advertising  fake  cures  for  consumption  should  be 
treated  as  a  murderous  criminal,  for  such  he  is. 

Refuse  Liquor  Advertisements 

George  B.  Peak 

A  few  years  ago  the  leading  newspaper  in  our  city  announced 
the  fact  that  no  liquor  advertisements  would  appear  in  the  paper 
in  the  future.  That  paper  was  soon  followed  by  the  other  papers, 
and  now  in  Des  Moines,  a  city  of  over  one  hundred  thousand,  it  is. 
impossible  to  insert  a  liquor  advertisement  in  any  of  the  papers. 

Anti-Spitting  Ordinances 

Dr.  S.  a.  Knopf 

Anti-spitting  ordinances  with  the  request  to  hold  the  hand  be- 
fore one's  mouth  when  coughing,  the  -avoidance  of  overcrowding,^ 
proper  ventilation  and  without  overheating,  a  frequent  disinfection 
of  all  street,  railroad,  and  Pullman  cars,  cabins,  steamboats,  etc., 
are  the  only  way  to  minimize  the  dangers  from  tuberculosis  and 
other  infectious  diseases  of  the  respiratory  organs  for  the  traveling 
public.  These  ordinances  should  be  enforced,  but  receptacles  in 
public  places  for  those  who  must  spit  should  also  be  provided. 

Better  Babies  Contests 

Dr.  Lydia  Allen  DeVilbiss 

During  the  past  year  [by  the  Better  Babies  Contests]  at  least 
one  hundred  thousand  babies  have  been  examined  for  physical  and 
mental  development,  as  part  of  this  campaign  for  race  betterment. 
The  parents  of  these  babies  have  been  taught  that  the  unfit  child  is 


CONSTRUCTIVE    SUGGESTIONS    SUMMARIZED  DDD 

not  a  visitation  of  Providence,  but  the  natural  result  of  ignorance 
or  sin.  They  have  also  learned  that  in  this  day  of  scientific  care 
of  children,  practically  every  baby  can  be  made  a  better  baby  if 
properly  and  intelligently  brought  up. 

A  Health  Survey 

Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg 

A  health  survey  should  be  made  of  every  civilized  community, 
which  should  include  every  man,  woman  and  child. 

Birth  Registration 

Dr.  Cressy  L.  Wilbur 

I  would  suggest  that  this  organization  formally  take  some  action 
in  regard  to  the  importance  of  birth  registration,  and  perhaps  ap- 
point a  committee  to  take  up  the  matter  as  a  national  and  state 
question. 

Breast-Feeding 

Dr.  S.  a.  Knopf 

Malnutrition  and  the  underfeeding  of  the  masses,  which  is  so 
great  a  predisposing  factor  to  tuberculosis,  should  be  combated  by 
beginning  with  having  fewer  artificial-fed  and  more  breast-fed  babies ; 
by  instructing  ignorant  mothers  how  to  feed  infants  and  little 
children ;  by  providing  simple  but  substantial  school  luncheons 
for  all  school  children  at  cost;  by  education  of  the  mothers  in  eco- 
nomic housekeeping,  cooking,  and  food  values;  and  by  having  eat- 
ing places  for  the  great  army  of  unmarried  laborers  after  the  ex- 
ample of  the  German  Volkskilchen,  where  people  can  receive  good, 
wholesome  food  at  reasonable  prices;  by  legislative  and  philan- 
thropic endeavors  to  make  farming  more  profitable  and  more  at- 
tractive, and  by  a  wiser  statesmanship,  whereby  the  cost  of  living 
may  be  reduced  for  the  entire  people. 

Edward  Bunnell  Phelps 

Simply  give  the  baby  what  God  intended  it  should  have — one 
primary  article  of  food  for  which  its  little  digestive  organs  alone 
are  adapted — mother 's  milk ;  also  plenty  of  air,  plenty  of  Avater,  plenty 
of  sunshine,  and  keep  out  of  its  stomach  for  the  first  six  months,  as 
you  would  a  virulent  poison,  any  semblance  of  solid  matter.  I 
finally  believe,  after  some  years'  study  of  the  statistical  side  of  this 
subject,  that  if  we  could  accomplish  this  much,  we  could  cut  the 
world's  infant  mortality  rate  in  the  middle. 

Bureaus  of  Child  Hygiene 

Dr.  S.  a.  Knopf 

Many  mothers  do  not  know  how  to  feed  their  children,  which 
results  in  malnutrition.     Education,  best  accomplished  by  the  per- 


556  FIRST    NATION Ali    CONKIOKENCE    ON    HACK    BKTTKiniKNT 

soiial  visits  of  competent  nurses,  under  the  direction  of  a  bureau 
of  child  hygiene,  should  be  a  part  of  every  modern  health  board. 


,  Business  Men's  AiRdavits 

George  B.  Peak 

I  noticed  the  other  day  in  a  Des  Moines  paper  that  tw^elve  of  the 
leading  business  men  of  Des  Moines — men  who  pay  the  largest  taxes 
(with  the  exception  of  one  taxpayer  there,  who  rents  his  buildings 
very  largely  for  saloon  purposes) — signed  an  affidavit  and  presentwl 
it  to  the  courts.  They  demanded  that  the  saloon  be  closed  on  the 
ground  that  (1)  it  increased  their  taxes  because  it  increased  the 
expenses  of  looking  after  the  policing  of  the  city:  (2)  because  it 
increased  the  expenses  of  the  courts;  because  it  filled  the  poorhouses 
and  because  of  the  expense  of  the  inebriate  asylum  and  all  of  these 
things;  (3)  that  the  saloon,  instead  of  being  a  revenue  producer, 
was  an  expense  maker.  Whenever  you  can  get  the  people  to  see 
the  saloon  from  that  point  of  view — that  it  is  an  expense  maker  in- 
stead of  a  revenue  producer — j^ou  make  a  gain. 


Camp  Hospitals 

Dr.  S.  a.  Knopf 

In  many  Indians'  homes  sanitary  conditions  are  frightful.  A 
federal  commission  appointed  to  investigate  tuberculosis  among 
the  Indians  reports  that  "a  comprehensive  remedy  can  be  afforded 
by  the  establishment  of  camp  hospitals  in  the  nature  of  temporary 
sanatoria  for  the  treatment  of  tuberculous  Indians  on  the  reserva- 
tions where  the  disease  is  known  to  be  common."  The  report  rec- 
ommends a  vigorous  campaign  throughout  the  Indian  country  of 
systematic  instruction  in  sanitary  habits  and  methods  of  living 
looking  toward  the  making  and  enforcement  of  reasonable  sanitary 
regulations.  I  have  only  this  suggestion  to  add,  that  whenever  pos- 
sible a  doctor  of  their  own  race  (not  a  "medicine  man"),  educated 
and  licensed  as  a  regular  physician,  should  be  put  in  charge  of  anti- 
tuberculosis work  among  the  Indians,  or  at  least  be  an  assistant  to 
the  government  physician.  Outdoor  sleeping,  proper  nutrition,  and 
the  prohibition  of  the  sale  of  alcohol  on  reservations  or  anywhere 
else  to  Indians,  should,  of  course,  be  added. 


Clearing  House  for  Mental  Defectives 

PREsroENT  Stephen  Smith 

The  establishment  of  a  "Clearing  House  for  Mental  Defectives"" 
to  coordinate  all  organizations  which  have  supervision  of  children,* 
in  a  common  effort  to  separate  the  defectives  and  place  them  under 
proper  care  and  treatment. 


CONSTRUCTIVE    SUGGESTIONS    SUMMARIZED  DO/ 

Clinical  Facilities  for  the  Recognition  of  Tuberculosis 

Dr.  S.  a.  Kxopf 

Clinical  facilities  for  the  recognition  of  tuberculosis  in  every 
community  arranged  by  physicians  in  cooperation  with  the  munic- 
ipal authorities;  a  multiplication  of  such  institutions  as  dispen- 
saries, serving  as  centers  or  clearing  houses  to  distribute  the  cases; 
preventoria  to  which  to  send  suspected  cases ;  sanatoria  for  the  cur- 
able cases,  and  hospital-sanatoria  for  the  seemingly  hopeless  ones 
for  isolation ;  and  where  it  is  possible  sanatorium  treatment  at  home, 
— these  are  most  efficacious  weapons,  up  to  this  date,  for  solving 
this  phase  of  the  tuberculosis  problem. 

Commission  on  Intermarriage 

Prof.  Sidney  L.  Gulick 

The  problem  of  the  intermarriage  of  whites  and  Asiatics  is  one 
that  needs  scientific  study.  We  need  a  commission  of  expert  biolo- 
gists, sociologists,  and  psychologists  to  make  such  a  collection  of  the 
facts  already  available  that  we  may  know  accurately  what  are  the 
biological  consequences  of  intermarriage.  . 

Conservation 

Frederick  L.  Hoffman 

Much  has  of  necessity  been  left  unsaid  which  has  immediate 
reference  to  the  factors  conditioning  race  progress  as  measured  by 
changes  in  the  death  rate,  but  the  most  pressing  question  is  the  more 
intelligent,  and  if  necessary  the  radical,  conservation  and  control 
of  the  natural  resources  of  the  earth,  including  the  food  resources 
of  the  sea. 

There  is  imperative  need  of  improved  methods  of  agricultural 
production  and  the  elimination  of  waste  of  soil,  seed,  and  labor, 
Avhich  is  inherent  in  primitive  methods  of  farming,  such  as  are  still 
exceedingly  common  throughout  the  entire  United  States  and 
Canada. 

There  is  urgent  need  of  more  scientific  methods  of  utilizing  waste 
products  of  all  kinds,  and  of  qualified  research  into  the  sources  of 
new  food  supplies. 

Constitutional  Amendment 

Dr.  Hexry  Smith  Williams 

The  records  of  police  courts,  the  records  of  prisons,  the  records 
of  almshouses,  the  records  of  as^dums  for  the  insane — all  show  con- 
ditions in  the  prohibition  territory  that  average  at  least  as  bad  as 
and  very  commonly  worse  than  those  in  license  territories.  I  fear 
there  can  be  no  question  about  that.  It  remains,  then,  to  inquire, 
What  shall  we  do?  Accepting  the  facts  as  I  found  them,  I  cannot 
make  myself  believe  that  the  present  line  of  legislation  is  effective^ 


.rob  FIRST    NATIOXAI.    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    P.KTTKRM  KXT 

ov  is  till'  best  that  we  can  do.  Others  feel  the  same  waj'  aud  some 
iu  allthol•it^^  Last  summer  Senator  Works,  of  California,  introduced 
a  joint  resolution  in  Congress  providing  for  the  total  abolition  of 
distilled  liquor.  He  wishes  to  have  a  constitutional  amendment 
passed  to  that  effect. 

Convalescent  Homes  and  Colonies 

Dr.  S.  a.  Knopf 

To  ha^  e  a  sufficient  number  of  convalescent  homes  where  pa- 
tients discharged  from  general  hospitals,  including  also  the  mothers 
discharged  from  the  maternity  hospitals,  can  remain  long  enough 
for  their  physiological  vigor  and  earning  capacity  to  be  re-estab- 
lished, is  the  only  way  to  overcome  this  source  of  predisposition 
to  tuberculosis. 

But  to  send  the  tuberculous  patient,  particularly  a  laborer  or  a 
working  girl  or  woman,  for  a  six-months'  or  even  a  year's  sojourn 
at  a  sanatorium  is  not  enough  to  make  the  cure  lasting.  Hence, 
agricultural,  horticultural,  and  general  industrial  colonies  should 
be  attached  to  our  public  sanatoria.  It  is  here  where  the  patient  has 
the  best  possible  chance,  by  graded  labor,  still  under  medical  super- 
vision, to  make  his  cure  a  lasting  one. 

Agricultural,  horticultural  and  industrial  colonies  where  sana- 
torium graduates  may  have  an  opportunity  to  go  for  a  year  or  more 
to  earn  a  fair  wage,  and  at  the  same  time  given  a  chance  to  make 
themselves  stronger  and  more  resistant  against  a  new  outbreak  or 
invasion  of  tuberculosis  are  as  essential  as  sanatoria  or  special  hos- 
pitals. 

Contests 
Deax  Wm.  W.  Hastings 

Physical  and  Mental  Perfection  Contests  for  ascertaining  physical 
and  mental  conditions  and  promoting  improvements. 

Counter  Attractions  to  Saloons 

Dr.  Henry  Smith  Williams 

More  important  as  I  see  it  than  anything  else,  let  the  en- 
tire proceeds,  both  the  government  revenue  and  local  license  fees, 
be  used  for  public  utility,  and  not  applied  to  the  general  tax-rate, 
but  be  used  for  eleemosynary  institutions,  playgrounds,  gymnasia, 
music  halls,  and  other  counter-attractions  to  the  saloon.  That,  of 
covirse,  is  the  second  fundamental  principle  of  the  great  Swedish 
Gothenburg  System. 

Country  Life 

Rev.  Newell  Dwight  Hillis 

The  evangelist  who  ultimately  wnll  solve  the  problem  of  the  de- 
terioration of  the  factory  class  physique  in  the  Bowery  districts 
is  the  inventor  who  will  give  us  a  better  electric  motor,  a  better  car 
that  can  be  loaded  Avith  working  men  and  women  twenty  miles  in 


CONSTRUCTIVE    SUGGESTIONS    SUMMARIZED  559 

the  country  and  laud  them  in  the  city  at  work  in  fifteen  minutes  for 
two  cents,  and  then  with  a  little  house  set  in  a  garden  and  with 
light  and  air  on  every  side,  we  shall  give  the  boys  a  chance  and 
the  girls  a  chance  to  build  their  bodies  and  to  manufacture  a  splendid 
physique  as  the  implement  of  thinking  and  of  the  soul,  and  then  to 
have  all  the  other  things  artistic,  intellectual,  social,  religious,  edu- 
cational. 

Dr.  S.  a.  Knopf 

Alcohol,  venereal  diseases,  and  tuberculosis  are  more  prevalent 
in  cities  than  in  the  country.  I  venture  to  say  that  all  of  these  dis- 
eases, and  particularly  tuberculosis,  will  be  decreased  by  a  return 
to  the  farm.  If  our  statesmen  can  help  to  make  farming  more  at- 
tractive and  profitable,  country  life,  particularly  for  young  people, 
less  monotonous  and  more  enjoyable,  a  great  step  toward  the  de- 
crease in  the  morbidity  and  mortality  of  the  above-mentioned  dis- 
eases and  a  consequent  betterment  of  the  race  will  surely  be  attained. 

Sir  Horace  Plunkett 

Speaking  as  a  social  worker,  may  I  ask  the  Conference  to  bear 
in  mind  the  countryside,  and  to  give  us  any  help  it  can.  by  way  of 
counsel  and  advice,  as  to  how  we  maj^  re-enforce  our  plea  that  coun- 
try life  is  better  for  the  race  than  city  life,  and  how  we  may,  by 
applying  the  wisdom  of  the  Conference,  demonstrate  that  truth. 

The  people  of  my  own  country  are  predominantly  rural,  and  ray 
experience  in  studying  and  dealing  practically^  Avith  its  problems  has 
brought  me  into  embarrassingly  intimate  relations  with  a  numerous 
body  of  social  workers  in  the  rural  sections  of  the  United  States. 
These  workers  aim  at  a  complete  reconstruction  of  rural  life — an 
improvement  of  its  technical  and  business  methods  and  of  its  do- 
mestic and  social  conditions.  For  reasons  of  national  importance 
and  urgency — reasons  economic,  social,  and  political — the  settle- 
ment of  a  much  greater  proportion  of  the  people  upon  the  farm  lands 
of  the  country,  in  healthy,  happy,  and  progressive  communities,  is 
becoming  every  year  increasingly  the  aim  and  object  of  philan- 
thropic endeavor. 

Dean  Walter  Taylor  Sumner 

I  wish  that  before,  this  Convention  there  could  be  the  greatest 
emphasis  put  upon  the  fact  that  the  city  is  no  place  for  boys  and 
girls.  This  is  a  Race  Betterment  Conference,  and,  taking  it  from 
the  angle  of  industry,  the  boy  and  the  girl  have  far  more  show 
in  a  rural  district  than  they  have  in  the  city. 

Booker  T.  Washington 

We  should  use  our  influence,  if  we  would  better  the  condition 
of  my  race,  to  keep  the  masses  of  our  people  in  the  country  districts 
and  out  of  contact  with  the  large,  complex  problems  of  city  life, 


560  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

eithtn-  North  or  South.    The  negro,  on  the  whole,  is  better  off  in  our 
Southern  states  than  he  is  anywhere  else  in  this  country. 

Dr.  S.  a.  Knopf 

]  must  refer  to  many  of  the  abnormal  industrial  conditions  of 
our  day  and  the  social  injustice  arising  therefrom — our  strikes,  the 
lack  of  employment  in  some  districts,  the  lack  of  workers  in  others, 
etc.  These  conditions  must  be  readjusted;  our  deserted  farms  must 
be  repopulated  from  the  congested  cities;  the  lives  of  the  masses 
must  be  made  happier,  larger,  and  fuller.  When  all  this  is  realized, 
it  will  not  only  help  in  the  solution  of  the  tuberculosis  problem, 
but  will  be  a  mighty  factor  in  bringing  about  what  this  Conference 
has  been  called  to  consider — a  genuine  race  betterment.  But  let 
us  not  think  that  this  will  come  about  unless  we  all  believe  in  and 
work  for  a  larger  love  of  humanity  and  for  more  social  justice  and 
personal  service  to  our  less  fortunate  brothers  and  sisters.  Some- 
one has  said  that  service  to  man  is  the  highest  service  to  God. 

"Cures" 

Dr.  Louis  Faugeres  Bishop 

An  element  in  the  prevention  of  arteriosclerosis  is  the  edu- 
cation of  all  persons  in  the  habit  of  taking  "cures,"  if  this  name 
may  be  used  for  periods  of  time  set  apart  for  the  putting  of  the  body 
in  the  best  possible  order. 

We  should  adopt  the  motto,  "Attend  to  the  health  while 
healthy,"  and  encourage  the  European  custom  of  the  combination 
of  a  vacation  and  a  visit  to  a  cure  resort. 

Death  Certificates 

Prof.  Herbert  Adolphus  Miller 

Last  year  I  went  to  supper  with  a  Lithuanian  undertaker.  To 
be  gracious,  I  asked  him  about  his  business.  His  face  lighted  up 
quickly,  and  he  said,  "It  is  a  strange  thing  that  this  is  a  growing 
city,  but  the  number  of  funerals  has  dropped  off  about  one-third." 
I  asked  him  why  it  was.  He  said  that  it  was  because  of  the  new 
law,  which  he  did  not  understand,  which  required  the  undertaker 
to  have  a  death  certificate  from  a  physician  or  to  notify  the  coroner. 
If  the  coroner  found  that  a  physician  was  not  called  in.  he  fined 
the  family  twenty-five  dollars.  It  was  necessaiy  to  fine  only  one 
family  in  a  community. 

Differential  License 

Dr.  Henry  Smith  WiLLiA:\rs 

I  would  have  the  saloon  where  we  must  have  it,  pay  a  much 
higher  license  on  distilled  beverages.  That  would  discriminate 
against  whiskey  and  increase  its  price.  As  a  mere  economic  result, 
therefore,  its  consumption  would  tend  to  decrease. 


CONSTRUCTIVE    SUGGESTIONS    SUMM.VRIZED  561 

School  Hygiene 
Dr.  E.  B.  Hoag 

Large   cities  should  employ   a  director   of   school  hygiene   and 
several  assistant  directors  on  full  time.    A  few  half-time  men  may' 
be  required,  but  in  general  the  work  of  half-time  men  in  large  cities 
Avill  be  better  done  by  full-time  school  nurses. 

Standardize  the  position  of  the  school  health  officer  in  the  United 
States. 

A  community,  then,  in  selecting  a  school  medical  officer,  should 
seek  a  cultured  physician  whose  training  in  the  fundamentals  of 
medical  science  has  been  adequate,  and  who,  in  addition,  possesses 
aptitude  and  enthusiasm  for  the  Avork  and  a  willingness  to  supply 
any  deficiency  he  may  have  along  special  lines. 

The  school  health  officer  should,  in  the  larger  places,  be  con- 
trolled by  the  board  of  education. 

A  cooperative  plan  whereby  the  board  of  education  and  board 
of  health  jointly  control  school  hygiene  may  be  desirable  for  spe- 
cial local  reasons. 

School  health  officers  may  be  provided  by  combining  the  posi- 
tion of  town  or  small  city  health  officer  with  that  of  school  health 
officer,  in  which  case  the  expense  may  be  shared  by  the  board  of 
health  and  board  of  education;  the  appointment  may  be  made  by 
the  former  board,  with  the  approval  of  the  latter.  This  is  an  excel- 
lent arrangement  for  large  towns  and  small  cities. 

County  health  officers,  if  properly  qualified,  may  be  appointed 
as  school  officers  as  well,  and  in  this  joint  capacity  supervise  the 
school  health  of  a  village  or  a  whole  county,  according  to  the  popu- 
lation and  distance  involved.  This  will  often  solve  the  problem 
of  hygiene  in  rural  schools. 

The  compensation  for  a  school  health  officer  may  be  based  upon 
the  time  required  of  him  and  upon  the  amount  of  his  responsibility. 

School  health  officers  should  familiarize  themselves  with  the  fol- 
lowing divisions  of  school  and  child  hygiene:  (a)  Transmissible  dis- 
eases; (b)  school  sanitation;  (c)  physical  defects;  (d)  mental  de- 
fects ;  (e)  dental  hygiene ;  (f )  the  teaching  of  hygiene ;  (g)  juvenile 
delinquency;  (h)  retardation;  (i)  school  hygiene  literature;  (j) 
the  elements  of  school  architecture. 

Disease  Prevention  Campaign 

Dr.  C.  N.  Johnson- 

If  our  school  boards  would  spend  one-half  the  amount  in  a  cam- 
paign for  the  amelioration  and  prevention  of  disease  that  they  now 
spend  annually  for  teaching  the  "repeaters"  who  are  made  such  by 
reason  of  disease,  it  would  not  only  be  more  humanitarian,  but  it 
would  be  an  immense  saving  financially. 

Dr.  Lii-lian  H.  South 

Hookworm  is  one  of  the  easiest  disease^  to  cure  and  to  prevent. 
The  wav  we  can  eradicate  it  is  by  asking  everyone  to  be  examined 


562  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    iJETTEKMENT 

for  hookworm.  It  does  not  cost  anythiiifi'.  The  laboratory  of  the 
State  Board  of  Health  examines  specimens  from  all  over  the  coun- 
try, free  of  charge.  We  ask  the  affected  ones  to  take  the  treatment 
until  they  are  cured.  If  you  have  a  sanitary  toilet  in  every  one  of 
these  homes,  you  will  banish  hookworm  disease,  typlioid  fevei-.  and 
diarrhea,  which  are  so  prevalent. 

The  State  Board  of  Health  have  devised  a  separate  tank  arrange- 
ment that  does  not  have  to  be  cleaned  out  and  is  odorless  and  fire- 
proof. That  is  the  way  we  are  going  to  combat  this  question  and 
revolutionize  the  Avhole  South,  in  combating  the  hookworm. 

Disinfection 

Dr.  S.  a.  Knopf 

Thorough  disinfection  of  rooms  and  house  should  follow  the 
removal  of  a  tuberculous  patient,  and  tuberculosis  would  no  longer 
be  a  house  disease. 

Educational  Courses 

Dk.  Winfield  Scott  Hai.l 

Education  should  cover  the  following  lessons :  Motherhood  and 
Fa.therhood ;  "Womanhood  and  Manhood ;  Periodicity ;  Social  Rela- 
tionships and  Eugenics. 

Frederick  L.  Hoff^max 

There  is  need  of  greater  emphasis  being  placed  in  educational 
courses  upon  the  principles  and  practice  of  domestic  economy  and 
the  required  reduction  of  per  capita  food  consumption,  with  a  pro- 
portionate increase  in  nutritive  values,  conforming  to  the  results  of 
qualified  studies  of  dietaries  such  as  have  been  made  by  Professors 
Atwater,  Chittenden,  and  others. 

Mrs.  Melvil  Dewey 

The  education  of  all  w^omen  in  the  principles  of  sanitary  science 
as  the  key  to  race  progress  in  the  twentieth  century;  also — 
HANDWORK  in  elementary  schools; 
DOMESTIC  SCIENCE  in  secondary  schools ; 
HOME  ECONOMICS  in  normal  and  professional  schools : 
EUTHENICS  iu  colleges  and  universities. 

Edw^ard  Bunnell  Phelps 

Twenty  million  children  are  regularly  attending  the  public 
schools  of  this  country.  At  least  one-fourth  of  that  number,  or  five 
million  children,  eventually  become  mothers.  Why  not  systematize 
the  teachings  of  two  or  three  or  four  fundamentals  of  motherhood 
in  the  public  schools  for  the  girls  between,  say,  eight  or  nine  and 
fifteen  or  sixteen  years ;  properly  put  before  them  moving  pictures, 
manikins,  illustrations,  as  you  please,  and  teach  them  the  funda- 
mentals of  motherhood  and  thereby  insure,  at  least  for  the  next 


CONSTRUCTIVE    SUGGESTIONS    SUMMARIZED  563 

generation,  proper  motherhood  for  our  two  and  a  half  million  babies 
a  year? 

Dr.  Carolyn  Geisel 

Men,  give  us  money  to  support  the  woman's  college  which 
teaches  a  woman  her  own  business.  Then  she  will  stand  by  you, 
equipped  to  be  your  helpmate  indeed,  equipped  to  care  for  your 
babies,  to  keep  them  very  carefully,  but,  more  than  that,  equipped 
to  keep  you  out  of  your  grave. 

Graham  Taylor 

One  of  the  recommendations  of  the  Vice  Commission  was  not 
only  better  police,  not  only  stronger  spiritual  forces,  but  a  safe,  sane 
training  in  sex  hygiene.  It  was  begun  with  the  parents  and  it  was 
continued  last  year  by  authority  of  the  Board  of  Education  with 
about  fifty-one  thousand  high  school  children,  by  about  forty  care- 
fully selected  physicians  in  very  carefully  supervised  and  censored 
lectures  under  the  masterful  and  sane  and  visioned  leadership  of 
Ella  Flagg  Young. 

Educational  Period 

Prof.  Roswbll  H.  Johnson 

Cease  prolonging  the  educational  period  past  the  early  twenties. 
The  professional  schools  in  our  country  are  steadily  delaying  the  age 
of  graduation  and  thereby  that  of  marriage. 

Electric  Rays 

President  Stephen  Smith 

Use  electric  rays  in  school  rooms  for  facilitating  the  mental  and 
physical  development. 

Encourage  Early  Marriage 

Prof.  Roswell  H.  Johnson 

Hold  out  marriage  as  one  of  the  ends  of  a  useful,  normal,  beau- 
tiful life.  Help  superior  young  people  to  meet,  and  encourage  and 
further  their  early  marriage. 

Eugenic  Investigation 

Prof.  Maynard  M.  Metcalf 

Aside  from  a  few  very  limited  aspects  of  the  negative  practice 
of  eugenics,  the  w^hole  subject  is,  as  yet,  of  little  social  significance. 
The  prolonged  labor  of  hundreds  of  special  students  is  needed  be- 
fore this  matter,  which  already  is  of  the  keenest  biological  interest, 
can  become  of  the  greatest  social  moment.  We  must  cultivate  a 
little  of  the  patience  of  God.  The  man  of  science  needs  to  work 
quietly,  patiently,  doggedh',  without  too  much  thought  of  so-called 
practical  value  to  follow  from  his  studies. 


7)i'A  KIK.ST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTKK.M  KNT 

There  are  positive  aspects  of  the  matter  Avhich  deserve  the  chief 
emphasis.  Let  me  again  iirpe  that  among  the  great  needs  must  be 
recognized  scientilic  study  of  the  principles  of  inheritance,  and  for 
this  liberal  financial  support  should  be  had ;  and  the  cultivation  of 
the  realization  that  in  marriage  it  is  ignoble  to  seek  the  happiness 
only  of  the  man  and  wife  and  to  forget  the  character  of  the  chil- 
dren and  through  them  the  welfare  of  society. 

To  what  extent  the  state  can  now  intervene  to  prevent  unsocial 
marriages  is  a  question  Avhich  needs  careful  detailed  study,  and  is 
not  an  appropriate  question  for  discussion  in  this  brief  general  paper. 
But  aside  from  this  question  of  the  limits  of  state  action,  we  must 
emphasize  the  vital  need  of  cultivation  of  the  social  point  of  view 
in  this  most  vital  of  social  institutions,  the  family,  and  the  need 
now  to  gather  the  data  upon  which  eugenics  may  in  the  future  be 
based. 

Eugenics  and  Euthenics  Education 

Dr.  J.  H.  IvELLOGG 

Eugenics  and  euthenics  should  be  magnified  before  the  people 
until  their  paramount  importance  is  appreciated  and  legislatures 
become  willing  to  appropriate  funds  as  liberally  for  these  essential 
means  of  race  betterment  as  they  are  now  doing  for  the  improve- 
ment of  crops  and  farm  animals  through  similar  means. 

The  laws  of  eugenics  and  euthenics  should  be  taught  in  every 
school  and  preached  from  every  pulpit.  Every  teacher,  every  leader 
of  human  thought,  every  publisher,  all  professions,  all  serious- 
minded  men  and  women  should  join  in  making  known  to  every 
human  being  in  every  corner  of  the  globe  the  fact  that  the  human 
race  is  dying,  and  to  discover  and  apply  the  remedies  necessary 
for  salvation  from  this  dismal  fate. 

Dean  Walter  Taylor  Sumner 

I  believe  that  education  is  the  great  hope  for  eugenics.  The 
greatest  agent  in  education  in  this  country  today  "^dth  reference 
to  health  certificates  is  the  press,  largely  the  metropolitan  press,  of 
this  country. 

Eugenical  Agencies 
Mr.  H.  H.  Laughlin 

Education,  legal  restriction,  segregation,  sterilization  —  these 
four  eugenical  agencies  are  of  primary  remedial  value.  If  the  first 
fail,  apply  the  second;  if  it  also  fail,  apply  the  third;  if  segrega- 
tion ceases  and  the  first  two  factors  do  not  deter  from  parenthood 
the  potential  parent  of  inadequates,  apply  the  fourth.  Purify  the 
breeding  stock  of  the  race  at  all  costs. 

Eugenics  Registry  Office 

Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg 

A  Eugenics  Registry  Office  is  needed  to  establish  a  Race  of  Hu- 
man Thoroughbreds.     It  takes   only  four   generations  to  make   a 


CONSTRUCTIVE    SUGGESTIONS    SUMMARIZED  565 

thoroughbred,  when  the  principles  of  eugenics  have  a  fair  chance 
to  operate.  Intelligent  men  and  women  everywhere  throughout  the 
civilized  world  are  becoming  aroused  to  the  race  significance  of 
these  great  biologic  laws,  and  are  anxious  to  become  informed  in 
relation  to  Eugenics  and  Euthenics,  and  to  conform  their  lives  to 
the  principles  of  physiologic  and  biologic  righteousness. 

We  have  registries  for  horses,  cattle,  sheep,  pigs,  and  even  cats 
and  dogs.  If  a  lady  wishes  to  establish  the  standing  of  her  pet 
poodle  as  a  thoroughbred,  she  can  do  so  by  appealing  to  an  official 
record,  and  the  puny  canine  may  lift  its  head  above  its  fellows  a 
born  aristocrat,  and  prove  its  claim.  But  nowhere  on  earth,  so  far 
as  the  writer  knows,  is  there  to  be  found  a  registry  for  human 
thoroughbreds. 

The  hope  is  entertained  by  the  promoters  of  this  Conference  that 
one  of  its  results  may  be  the  establishment  of  such  a  Registry.  In- 
deed, it  seems  that  the  time  has  fully  come  when  a  Eugenics  Reg- 
istry Office  should  be  established,  in  which  may  be  recorded  the 
names  of  infants  born  under  eugenic  conditions,  and  perhaps  also 
the  names  of  persons  who  in  person  and  pedigree  are  able  to  mea- 
sure up  to  eugenic  standards. 

Prizes  should  be  offered  for  the  finest  families  and  the  best 
health  and  endurance  records. 

Exhibits 

Dr.  S.  a.  Kkopf 

Besides  popular  anti-tuberculosis  and  general  hygienic  educa- 
tion, demonstrations  by  permanent  exhibits,  distribution  of  litera- 
ture, lectures  in  schools,  colleges,  workshops,  mills,  factories,  mines, 
stores,  and  offices,  the  examination  of  every  tuberculous  adult  should 
be  accompanied  by  personal  instruction  in  how  to  prevent  infect- 
ing others. 

Fashions 

Dr.  Carolyn  Geisel 

You  know  that  the  fashions  of  today  are  not  of  your  seeking. 
You  did  not  make  them,  but  I  call  upon  you,  in  the  strength  of  your 
united  womanhood,  that  we  arise  in  our  power  and  demand  that 
decent  clothes  be  put  upon  the  market  for  us  to  wear,  or  that  we 
will  remain  in  our  homes  until  we  can  get  a  gown  that  will  be 
seemly. 

Fecundity  Statistics 

Prof.  Walter  F.  Willcox 

In  the  Report  of  the  Director  of  the  Census  to  the  Secretary  of 
Commerce  and  Labor  for  the  year  1910  one  may  read  the  follow- 
ing passage:  "It  is  also  proposed  ...  to  work  out  from  the  re- 
turns on  the  schedules  statistics  with  regard  to  fecundity  as  indi- 
cated by  the  number  of  children  born  and  the  number  living  for 
women  of  different  classes  in  comparison  with  their  age  and  the 


56G  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

duration  of  marriage.  ...  A  considerable  amount  of  preliminary 
work  on  this  subject  was  undertaken  at  the  census  of  1900,  but  the 
results  were  never  tabulated  or  published.  It  is  respectfully  sug- 
gested that  the  Secretary  recommend  to  Congress  that  the  Director 
of  the  Census  be  authorized  to  tabulate  the  more  important  informa- 
tion on  this  subject  for  the  1900  census  as  well  as  that  for  1910. 
.  .  .  This  subject  is  one  of  profound  importance  and  the  census 
schedules  furnish  data  by  which  conclusions  of  the  utmost  value 
can  be  readily  drawn.  A  plan  has  been  devised  by  which  the  ex- 
pense of  .  .  .  tabulating  the  results  on  this  subject  for  the  census 
of  1910  will  be  much  less  than  would  have  been  necessary  to  com- 
plete the  work  on  the  lines  begun  in  1900."* 

At  the  present  time  no  funds  are  available  for  completing  this 
work,  and  there  is  danger  that  for  the  third  time  the  inquiry  will 
suffer  shipwreck. 

Feeble-Minded  Colonies 

See  also  ''Cleaiing  Bouse  for  Feeble-Minded." 

Hastings  H.  Hart 

If  the  several  states  will  establish  colonies  for  the  feeble-minded, 
to  accommodate  those  who  are  now  kept  at  public  expense  in  insane 
hospitals,  almshouses,  prisons,  and  reformatories,  they  will  make 
room  in  those  institutions  for  persons  who  properly  belong  there, 
and  will  obviate,  for  the  time  being,  the  necessity  for  their  enlarge- 
ment.    All  of  these  institutions  ought  to  be  hospitals  in  principle. 

Feeble-Minded  Girls 

Hastixgs  H.  Hart 

We  should  undertake  a  comprehensive  campaign  for  the  care  of 
all  feeble-minded  girls  of  child-bearing  age. 

Food  and  Environment 

Mrs.  Melvil  Dewey 

The  relation  of  both  food  and  environment  to  man's  efficiency 
is  a  vital  question.  How  far  they  are  responsible  for  his  character, 
his  health  and  understanding,  what  special  elements  are  most  po- 
tent and  which  are  the  most  readily  controlled,  are  questions  offer- 
ing an  interesting  field  for  research. 

Government 

S.  S.  McClure 

"When  masses  of  individuals  set  out  to  cooperate  together  to  pro- 
duce some  given  result  or  to  carry  on  some  given  enterprise,  it  has 
been  found  that  there  is  only  one  successful  method  of  organizing, 
and  that  method  is  by  the  election  of  what  corresponds  in  all  cases, 
without  any  exception,  to  what  a  board  of  directors  is  to  a  corpora- 
tion. 

*  Report  of  the  Director  for  1909-10,  pp.  45-46. 


CONSTRUCTIVE    SUGGESTIONS    SUMMARIZED  567 

Government  Basis  for  Sale  of  Alcohol 

Daniel  A.  Poling 

I  am  convinced  that  the  Government  ought  to  assume  a  proper 
attitude  on  the  alcohol  question,  that  the  Government  ought  to  say 
as  a  foundation  basis — a  basis  upon  which  we  can  work  to  eugenics 
— whether  the  liquor  traffic  as  an  institution,  the  liquor  traffic  as 
a  great  problem,  industrially,  economically,  politically,  and  morally 
is  right  or  wrong.  Having  so  declared  itself,  then  it  comes  to  us  as 
a  greater  opportunity  to  take  care  of  the  actual  situation  that  con- 
fronts us  at  the  present  time. 

Health  Certificate 
Dean  Walter  Taylor  Sumner 

We  may  approach  the  subject  of  a  health  certificate  through  the 
avenue  of  those  who  perform  marriage  ceremonies.  At  the  Ca- 
thedral in  Chicago,  since  Easter  of  1912,  we  took  the  stand  that 
thereafter  we  would  marry  no  persons  unless  they  presented  a  cer- 
tificate, signed  by  a  reputable  physician,  that  they  had  not  an  in- 
curable or  communicable  disease.  Since  that  time  over  fifty  minis- 
terial associations  representing  nearly  every  religious  body  from 
jMaine  to  California  in  their  membership,  about  thirty-five  hun- 
dred of  the  clergy,  have  agreed  at  least  to  urge,  if  not  downright  to 
demand,  a  health  certificate  before  they  will  perform  a  marriage 
ceremony. 

Housing 
Dr.  S.  a.  Knopf 

In  addition  to  wise  state  and  city  legislation,  philanthropy  also 
must  come  to  the  rescue  by  building  houses  for  the  masses  such  as 
will  deserve  the  name  of  human  habitations,  giving  the  occupants 
an  abundance  of  light,  air,  and  sunshine.  Wherever  and  whenever 
practical,  the  home  of  the  married  American  workman  should  be 
a  detached,  single-family  house. 

Our  colored  population  and  the  districts  .where  many  Chinese 
and  Japanese  live  must  receive  special  consideration  under  the  sub- 
ject of  housing. 

In  view  of  the  existing  race  prejudice  or  antipathy,  it  would  be 
better  for  colored  people  to  unite  and,  by  cooperation  with  philan- 
thropists, to  build  sanitary  tenement  houses  in  segregated  districts 
than  to  try  to  crowd  into  the  already  overcongested  districts  in- 
habited by  the  poorer  classes  of  the  white  population. 

Immigrant  Insurance  against  Tuberculosis 

Dr.  S.  a.  Knopf 

The  influx  of  tuberculous  immigrants  likely  to  become  a  burden 
to  the  community  should  be  prevented  by  compelling  all  steam- 
ship companies  to  assure  a  clean  bill  of  health  for  every  immi- 
grant they  bring  to  these  shores,  and  to  insure  every  immigrant 
against  tuberculosis.    The  policy  should  entitle  the  bearer  to  return 


568  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

transportation  and  free  treatment  in  a  sanatorium  in  the  event  of 
his  contracting  tuberculosis  within  a  specified  time.  The  cost  of 
the  insurance  could  be  added  to  the  price  of  the  steamship  ticket. 

Immigration  Legislation  and  Investigation 
Prop.   Robert   DeC.   Ward 

We  have  an  opportunity  Avhich  is  unique  in  history  for  the  prac- 
tice of  eugenic  principles  immediately,  and  on  a  vastly  greater  scale 
than  is  possible  in  the  case  of  any  other  nation.  By  selecting  our 
immigrants,  through  proper  legislation,  we  can  pick  out  the  best 
specimens  of  each  race  to  be  our  own  fellow-citizens  and  to  be 
the  parents  of  our  future  citizens. 

Most  of  the  recommendations  which  have  been  urged  by  those 
who  have  made  an  unprejudiced  study  of  immigration  were  in- 
cluded in  the  Report  of  the  United  States  Immigration  Commission, 
which  investigated  the  whole  question  for  over  three  years,  and 
were  embodied  in  the  immigration  bill  which  passed  the  Sixty- 
second  Congress ;  was  vetoed  by  President  Taft ;  was  passed  by  the 
Senate  over  the  veto  by  a  vote  of  72  to  18 ;  and  failed  by  less  than 
a  dozen  votes  of  being  passed  over  the  veto  by  the  House.  Every 
medical  man  in  the  United  i  States;  every  social-  worker;  every  per- 
son in  any  way  connected  with  the  care  of  mental  defectives ;  every 
taxpayer;  every  citizen  who  wants  to  keep  the  blood  of  the  race 
pure  should  join  in  demanding  of  the  Sixty-third  Congress  the  im- 
mediate passage  of  a  similar  bill  and  should  see  to  it  that  that  bill 
becomes  a  law. 

Prof.  Sidney  L.  Gulick 

I  urge  the  importance  of  adopting  immigration  and  naturaliza- 
tion laws  which,  while  they  conserve  the  essential  interests  of  our 
own  country,  shall  also  deal  justly  and  courteously  with  every  other 
race  on  a  basis  of  equality  and  in  harmony  with  their  dignity  and 
race  consciousness. 

America  needs  a  new  Oriental  policy  which,  while  it  conserves 
our  great  democratic  experiment  and  its  institutions,  shall  treat 
all  races  alike  and  yet  shall  admit  only  so  many  annually  from 
each  land  as  we  can  really  assimilate. 

An  immigration  law  should  be  enacted  allowing  an  annual  immi- 
gration from  any  single  mother-tongue  group  of,  say,  five  per  cent 
of  those  already  here  and  naturalized,  including  their  American- 
born  children. 

H.  H.  LalttHlin 

As  a  final  factor,  the  federal  government  must  cooperate  with 
the  states  to  the  extent  of  excluding  from  America  immigrants  who 
are  potential  parents  and  who  are  by  nature  endowed  with  traits 
of  less  value  than  the  better  ninety  per  cent  of  our  existing  breed- 
ing stock. 

Adequate  data,  upon  which  differential  exclusion  of  immigrants 
could  be  based,  can  be  secured  only  by  investigating  the  traits  of 


CONSTRUCTIVE    SUGGESTIONS    SUMMARIZED  569 

immigrant  families  in  tlieir  native  toAvns  and  villages,  by  sending  ' 
trained  field  workers  to  sneh  places. 

Industrial  Welfare 
F,  0.  Clements 

Our  President,  in  going  through  the  factory  one  day,  noticed  a 
woman  heating  coffee  on  a  radiator.  Later  he  saw  a  group  of  girls 
eating  cold  lunches  at  their  workbenches,  and  so  a  kitchen  was 
installed  and  they  are  now  served  a  warm  lunch  at  a  nominal  fee. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  business,  the  men  and  women  came  to 
work  at  the  same  time,  and  left  at  the  same  time.  Now  the  women 
arrive  later  than  the  men,  and  in  the  evening  they  are  well  on  their 
way  home  before  the  men  leave  the  factory. 

In  the  old  days  employees  were  compelled  to  climb  the  stairs  to 
the  various  departments.  Today,  elevator  service  is  provided,  with 
separate  elevator  service  for  the  women. 

The  uncomfortable  stool  has  been  replaced  by  the  high-back 
chair  and  foot-rests.  The  Company  has  installed  every  type  of  con- 
venience, sanitation,  and  safety  within  the  factory. 

A  meeting-place  was  provided  for  the  boys,  and  classes  in  man- 
ual training  established. 

A  plot  of  ground  was  set  apart  for  garden  work,  and  the  boys 
supplied  with  seeds  and  tools  and  put  to  work. 

It  was  found  necessary  to  do  a  great  deal  of  neighborhood  work 
to  clean  up  the  unsightly  surroundings,  so  that  skilled  labor  might 
be  induced  to  come  to  that  town. 

Lectures  illustrated  by  slides  were  made  up  to  illustrate  the 
proper  and  improper  way  of  beautifying  the  surroundings. 

For  many  years,  much  of  our  type  of  instruction  has  had  to  do 
with  the  general  question  of  health. 

In  our  older  type  of  buildings,  air  is  dravra  through  a  ventilating 
duct  from  the  top  and  distributed  throughout  the  building.  The 
air  is  changed  every  fifteen  minutes.  Some  of  our  more  modem  types 
of  buildings  wash  and  humidify  the  air,  and  a  very  close  regula- 
tion of  temperature  is  possible. 

In  our  Polishing  Department  and  metal  rooms  there  is  an  ex- 
haust system  installed  for  carrying  away  the  metal  dust. 

Shrubbery  hides  the  foundations  and  walls  of  our  buildings,  and 
adds  very  much  to  the  beauty  of  the  surroundings. 

At  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  at  three  in  the  afternoon, 
the  windows  in  the  office  departments  are  thrown  open  and  the  men 
and  women  indulge  in  light  exercise. 

We  have  gymnasium  and  health  classes  for  increasing  the  effi- 
ciency of  the  office  force  and  the  women  employees. 

The  office  clerks  meet  three  times  a  week  in  the  gymnasium  after 
working  hours. 

The  athletic  fields  surrounding  the  factory  are  used  by  employees 
before  and  after  work  and  during  the  noon  hour.  They  consist 
of  tennis  courts,  baseball  grounds  and  gun  club  grounds. 

Scattered  throusrhout  Hills  and  Dales  are  a  number  of  Adiron- 


;)((»  FIRST    NATIONAI;    rONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT. 

dack  Camps.  These  are  liilly  ('(|nii)pe(l  niul  can  be  used  by  any 
employee  on  application. 

Any  woman  employee  is  eligible  for  membership  in  the  Woman's 
Century  Clnb,  its  object  being  to  promote  the  intellectual  and  social 
welfare  of  its  members. 

A  vacation  house  located  in  Hills  and  Dales  is  used  by  the  Cen- 
tury Club  for  entertainments,  week-end  parties,  etc.  Its  object  is 
to  teach  women  how  to  manage  a  home. 

The  company  encourages  horseback  riding,  by  boarding  the 
horses  owned  by  employees  in  the  Company's  stables  at  cost. 

The  company  maintains  training-schools  in  various  parts  of  the 
w^orld  for  its  agents. 

They  also  have  advertising,  accounting,  apprenticeship,  physical 
training,  salesmanship,  and  other  classes,  meeting  at  regular  inter- 
vals. 

The  office  building  is  supplied  with  distilled  water  and  individual 
cup  service.- 

Two  hundred  and  twenty  shower  baths  are  distributed  through- 
out the  factory.  Every  employee  is  given  company  time  to  take 
two  baths  a  week. 

Treatment  rooms  have  been  provided. 

]Much  attention  has  been  paid  to  food. 

Our  Officers'  Club  accommodates  about  six  hundred  people  at 
lunch.  We  serve  a  very  wholesome,  well-cooked  dinner,  very  simple 
and  plain.  Food  is  kept  hot  in  chafing  dishes  and  served  on  plates 
holding  hot  water. 

Brushes  and  combs  are  sterilized  daily  and  washed  in  benzine. 

Roller  towels  have  been  done  away  with,  substituting  individual 
hand  towels. 

The  girls  are  provided  with  sleevelets  and  clean  aprons  every 
Aveek. 

Umbrellas  and  overshoes  are  loaned  on  rainy  days. 

All  new  employees  must  undergo  a  physical  examination.  We 
belicA^e  in  periodic  examinations. 

The  employees  have  a  strong  voluntary  Relief  Association  which 
pays  sick,  accident,  and  death  benefits. 

We  also  have  an  emergency  hospital  where  accidents  are  cared 
for. 

We  haA^e  a  trained  nurse  who  visits  our  sick  employees  in  their 
bomes. 

An  oculist  examines  the  eyes  of  our  employees  and  decides 
when  glasses  are  needed.  Free  examination  is  afforded  and  the 
Company  pays  half  of  the  price  of  the  glasses. 

Our  Hall  of  Industrial  Education,  recently  erected,  is  capable  of 
seating  about  1,200  people.  These  lecture  halls  and  school  rooms 
are  thoroughly  equipped  with  projection  apparatus.  This  hall  is 
aptly  named  our  Power-IIouse.  IMuch  of  our  time  has  been  devoted 
to  educational  talks  on  health. 

Welfare  work  supplies  just  that  which  is  lacking.  It  brings  the 
best  there  is  out  of  each  employee  and  results  in  cooperation  and 
team  play. 


CONSTRUCTIVE    SUGGESTIONS    SUMMARIZED  571 

Inheritance  Records 

Prof.  Maynard  M.  Metcalf 

One  thing,  however,  of  the  greatest  practical  value  we  can  do; 
We  can  promote  in  every  possible  way  the  gathering  and  safe  filing 
of  human  inheritance  records,  which  in  the  future  will  serve  as  the 
foundation  of  such  practice  of  eugenics  as  shall  prove  wise  and  prac- 
tical. I  can,  in  imagination,  see  the  day  when  the  compilation  of 
inheritance  data  for  each  citizen  will  be  compulsory,  and  when  the 
files  of  these  records  will  be  the  most  valued  of  all  state  documents  ; 
when  no  marriage  license  will  be  issued  except  after  the  most  care- 
ful scrutiny  of  the  inheritance  records  of  each  contracting  party 
by  trained  students  of  inheritance,  and  Avhen  the  state  will  debar 
from  marriage  those  whose  children  will  be  a  burden  to  it.  The 
bearing  of  children  is,  of  course,  not  an  individual  right,  but  a  social 
privilege,  and  in  time  it  must  come  to  be  so  recognized.        > 

Meanwhile  let  us  actively  promote  the  gathering  and  preserving 
of  inheritance  records  for  all  persons,  thus  providing  data  for  in- 
telligent practice  of  eugenics  in  coming  generations.  We  can  at 
once  insist  upon  the  gathering  of  such  data  for  all  persons  in  our 
state  penal  institutions,  almshouses,  hospitals,  asylums,  etc.  I  am 
told  that  the  city  of  Rochester  is  doing  this  with  its  public  school 
children.  We  can  urge  the  gathering  of  such  data  by  privately 
controlled  institutions  of  similar  purpose.  We  can  urge  right- 
minded  individuals  everywhere  to  supply  such  data  as  to  themselves 
and  their  families.  Nothing  short  of  a  state  system  of  compulsory 
gathering  of  data  for  all  individuals  can  serve  as  an  adequate  basis 
for  such  negative  eugenics  as  it  may  in  time  be  wise  to  enforce  by 
law. 

Dr.  C.  B.  Da\'enport 

We  believe  that  it  would  be  an  excellent  thing  were  students 
who  appear  in  schools  able  to  present  to  the  teacher  a  record  of 
inherited  capacities  or  performances  of  close  relatives  in  order 
that  the  teacher  might  have,  when  the  pupil  appears,  something 
more  than  a  blank  face  and  a  suit  of  clothes,  some  idea  of  the  prob- 
able potentialities  in  that  child,  that  his  teachings  might  be  directed 
in  such  a  way  as  to  develop  them  and  that  he  should  not  have  to 
wait  for  a  year  in  order  to  find  out  what  the  capacities  of  the  pupil 
are. 

Inland  Sanatoria  for  the  Tuberculous 
Dr.  S.  a.  Knopf 

For  larger  children  afflicted  with  pulmonary  tuberculosis,  we 
should  have  inland  sanatoria  with  schools  attached. 

Even  the  smallest  children,  if  found  tuberculous,  should  receive 
institutional  treatments  when  the  parents  are  poor,  and  whenever 
possible  the  mother  should  be  allowed  to  remain  with  the  child. 

We  must  at  once,  throughout  this  vast  country,  strive  to  have 
no  uncared-for  tuberculous  patient.  To  this  end,  institutions  for 
the  treatment  and  care  of  the  tuberculous  who  cannot  be  cared  for 


572  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFEHENCE    ON    UAC'E    BETTERMENT 

at  liome  without  endangering  others  should  be  multiplied  by  state 
and  municipal  appropriations  and  private  philanthropy. 

Hastings  H.  Hart 

We  should  convert  existing  institutions  which  are  no  longer 
needed  for  their  present  purposes  into  state  institutions  for  defective 
delinquents. 

International  Conference 

ROBBINS  GiLMAN 

I  offer  you  this  suggestion,  to-wit:  That  this  Conference  set  in 
motion  machinery  for  the  calling  together  of  delegates  from  all  the 
leading  nations  of  the  world  for  a  conference  to  discuss  ways  and 
means  by  which  such  nations,  each  acting  for  itself,  but  for  the  good 
of  all.  can,  through  governmental  action,  or  otherwise,  better  the 
race  of  man  from  the  standpoints  of  physical  health,  mental  attain- 
ments, and  moral  stamina.  This  would  be  more  than  a  Eugenics 
Congress,  although  eugenists  would  be,  it  is  hoped,  delegates;  it 
w^ould  be  more  than  a  Health  Congress,  although  doctors  would  be 
in  attendance :  it  would  be  more  than  an  Ecumenical  Conference, 
although  spiritual  leaders  would  be  there ;  it  Avould  be  more  than  a 
Peace  Conference,  although  peace  advocates  would  attend.  It  would 
be  a  gathering  of  statesmen,  scientists,  humanitarians,  and  govern- 
ment officials,  all  optimists,  with  national  and  international  barriers 
knocked  down,  interested  in  the  welfare  of  each  because  the  wel- 
fare of  each  is  inseparable  from  the  welfare  of  all.  Prison  re- 
former, social  and  unemployment  insurance  advocate,  child 
labor  expert,  the  missionary,  the  teacher,  the  doctor,  the  social 
worker,  physiologist,  psychologist — they  would  all  be  present  to  dis- 
cuss the  relationship  of  syphilis,  alcohol,  and  tuberculosis  to  racial 
betterment  and  the  direct  and  indirect  bearing  thereon  of  medicine, 
education  in  matters  of  sex,  proper  care  and  treatment  of  infectious 
and  communicable  diseases,  mental  deficiency,  housing  and  living 
conditions,  city  planning,  hours  of  labor  and  recreation.  And  above 
all  would  such  a  conference  discuss  the  positive  side  of  Race  Better- 
ment ;  eugenics  and  not  dysgenics ;  constructive  work  as  opposed  to 
destructive :  perfectibility  and  not  deformity  or  degeneration  or  dis- 
ease. 

Investigation  of  Insanity 

Prop.  Walter  F.  Willcox 

We  need  in  this  country  a  thoroughly  disinterested,  competent, 
and  qualified  study  of  the  subject  of  the  increase  of  insanity.  I 
feel  sure  that  if  such  a  study  were  made,  it  would  show  that  the 
increase  that  exists,  if  it  does  exist,  is  far  less  than  the  increase 
shown  on  the  face  of  the  figures.  I  am  disposed  to  say  that  some 
increase  would  be  found,  but  nothing  like  the  increase  we  ordinarily 
hear  about. 

Dr.  H.  W.  Austin 

Further  scientific  investigations  are  necessary  to  accurately  de- 
termine the  causes  of  the  various  forms  of  insanity  and  other  mental 


CONSTRUCTIVE    SUGGESTIONS    SUMMARIZED  573 

defects,  and  the  cause  of  their  rapid  increase  in  number,  and  also 
the  best  method  to  be  adopted  to  prevent  their  multiplication. 

Laws  to  Prevent  Multiplication  of  Defectives 

Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg 

Society  must  establish  laws  and  sanctions  which  w^ll  check  the 
operation  of  heredity  in  the  multiplication  of  the  unfit. 

Hastixgs  H.  Hart 

We  should  provide  by  law  for  the  establishment  of  separate  de- 
partments or  colonies  in  connection  with  prisons  and  with  adult  and 
juvenile  reformatories. 

We  should  secure  legislation  whereby,  whenever  inmates  of  in- 
stitutions for  other  classes  are  found  to  be  feeble-minded,  they  may 
be  kept  permanently  in  public  care. 

Dr.  H.  W.  Austin 

Provided  they  could  be  wisely  drawn  and  wisely  executed,  spe- 
cial laws  to  prevent  the  propagation  of  defectives,  such  as  the 
chronic  insane,  the  feeble-minded,  epileptics,  the  degenerate  and 
habitual  criminals,  would  accomplish  much  in  the  way  of  race  bet- 
terment. In  legislation,  as  well  as  in  social  reform  work  intended 
for  race  betterment,  in  which  individual  liberty  is  concerned,  it  is 
essential  that  w^e  first  have  an  actual  knowledge  or  some  understand- 
ing of  the  evils  which  we  are  endeavoring  to  remedy. 

Lectures 

Dr.  Guilford  H.  Sumner 

Local  interest  in  health  work  should  be  stirred  up  by  practical, 
convincing  literature  and  lectures. 

Marriage  Laws 

Dr.  H.  W.  Austin 

Uniform  and  proper  marriage  laws  that  would  prevent  the  in- 
nocent from  contracting  disease  and  that  would  tend  to  improve 
the  offspring  are  desirable ;  but  syphilis  and  other  venereal  diseases 
may  be,  and  often  are,  contracted  by  men  and  even  women  who  were 
free  from  the  disease  prior  to  marriage.  Therefore,  to  eliminate 
syphilis  as  a  cause  of  mental  and  physical  degeneracy,  one  must 
resort  to  education  as  to  the  terrible  results  of  this  disease,  to  re- 
ligious and  moral  education  and  preventive  medicine  and  thera- 
peutics. 

Byron  W.  Holt 

The  Pittsburg  ]Morals  Efficiency  Commission  took  a  strong  posi- 
tion in  favor  of  eugenics  marriage  legislation.  It  also  reached  the 
conclusion  that  (as  the  New  York  Evening  Post  states  it)  "  the  one 
most  potent  weapon  in  the  reduction  of  vice  the  Commission  be- 
lieves to  be  early  marriages,  to  encourage  which  it  emphasizes  good 


;)/4  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

housing:,  cheaper  living,  and  even  vocational  education,  as  permitting 
the  easy  conversion  of  voutli  into  self-responsihle,  M'age-earning  man- 
hood."' 

Marriag-e  and  Social  Welfare 

Prof.  Maynard  M.  Metcalf 

Let  us  promote  the  view  that  social  welfare,  not  individual  com- 
fort, is  the  ultimate  criterion  in  marriage. 

Meat  and  Milk  Inspection 

Dr.  S.  a.  Knopf 

Contaminated  food  substances,  i.  e.,  contaminated  by  the  tubercle 
bacillus — tuberculous  meat,  milk — sources  of  tuberculous  infec- 
tion., as,  for  example,  from  cattle  or  hogs,  should  be  dealt  with  by 
federal  laws,  since  state  laws,  by  reason  of  their  diversit}'  and  often 
inadequacy,  have  proved  inefficient.  All  milk,  if  not  coming  from 
tuberculin-tested  cattle,  should  be  thoroughly  and  scientifically,  and 
not  merely  commercially,  sterilized.    , 

Rfa'.  Caroline  Bartlett  Crane 

In  an  agricultural  region  such  as  surrounds  thousands  of  cities 
and  villages  in  the  United  States,  one  would  naturally  expect  that 
the  meat  supply,  like  the  milk  supply,  would  be  shipped  in  from 
the  surrounding  country,  and  that  each  city  might  protect  itself 
against  diseased  or  unAvholesome  meat  by  a  proper  ordinance  and 
a  proper  system  of  inspection. 

We  are  not  necessarily  dependent  on  federal  meat  inspection. 
The  remedy  is  to  make  meat  inspection  a  detail  of  Community  Hy- 
giene. There  is  no  advantage  from  a  sanitary  or  economic  view- 
point in  shipping  cattle  a  thousand  miles  or  so  to  a  packer  to  be 
slaughtered,  then  shipping  the  meat  back,  with  all  the  attending 
loss  and  deterioration  and  the  increased  prices.  We  want  to  foster 
local  packing  houses  and  local  stock  yards.  We  want  to  build  up 
the  stock-raising  industry  around  about  our  own  communities.  We 
must  not  expect  help  by  getting  our  meats  from  Argentina.  We 
want  to  cultivate  our  own  stock-raising  industry,  a  commercial  as 
well  as  a  sanitary  benefit  to  all  our  people. 

Then  we  should  let  the  label  tell  the  truth,  w^hether  upon  locally 
or  federally  inspected  meat.  If  there  are  people  willing  to  eat 
meat  from  tuberculous  and  cancerous  carcasses,  let  them:  but  let 
them  also  know  what  they  are  eating  by  the  use  of  a  special  stamp 
or  designation  which  conveys  that  knowledge.  But  let  us  demand 
that  persons  who  wish  to  eat  meat,  but  only  if  it  is  from  animals 
free  from  disease,  may  have  the  means  of  knowing  how  to  obtain 
such  meat. 

We  should  do  all  we  can  to  bring  about  a  reform  in  our  dis- 
graceful federal  service ;  but,  also,  we  should  promote  local  inspec- 
tion of  a  high  order.  It  is  for  any  community  to  put  the  standard 
just  as  high  as  it  will.     In  the  matter  of  milk  inspection,  each  city 


CONSTRUCTIVE    ST'GGESTIONS    STJMMARIZED  oTd 

may  decide  for  itself  how  many  bacteria  per  cubic  centimeter  will 
be  allowed,  and  all  other  details  of  milk  inspection.  In  the  same 
manner,  a  city  can  decide  exactly  what  standard  it  will  have  for 
its  meat  supply.  Plere  is  a  department  of  "Community  Hygiene" 
which  has  been  long  and  most  un.iustifiably  neglected  and  one  which 
I  earnestly  commend  to  this  Conference,  and  to  all  members  who 
feel  an  interest  in  the  purity  of  the  public  food  supply,  the  purity 
of  governmental  administration,  and  the  prosperity  of  agriculture 
in  this  country. 

Medical  Examinations 
Dr.  Victor  C.  Vaughan 

Adopt  frequent  and  thorough  medical  examinations  (especially 
hefore  entering  into  a  marriage  contract),  in  order  to  detect  wrong 
conditions  in  their  incipiency  and  enable  the  examinee  to  cure  them 
while  cure  is  possible. 

It  has  been  proposed  that  the  life  insurance  companies  repre- 
sented here  seek  to  prolong  the  lives  of  their  policy  holders  by  offer- 
ing them  free  Inedical  re-rexamination  at  stated  intervals. 

Frederick  L.  Hoffmax 

The  physical  training  of  the  young,  and  the  medical  supervision 
of  schools  and  factories,  including  periodical  examination  for  the 
purpose  of  correcting  physical  defects  in  the  initial  stage,  or  treat- 
ing incipient  disease,  with  a  reasonable  chance  of  cure,  have  become 
accepted  principles  of  modern  government.  In  course  of  time  these 
efforts  must  profoundly  modify  not  only  the  health  of  the  young, 
but  what  is  equally  important,  the  health  of  persons  employed  in 
industry.  Furthermore,  there  must  come  about  in  consequence  of 
such  efforts,  a  decided  improvement  in  physique  and  more  general 
conformity  to  a  normal  physical  type,  and  the  gradual  elimination 
of  the.  at  present,  disproportionately  large  number  of  persons  phys- 
ically defective  or  infirm,  and  by  inference,  or  obviously,  the  less 
efficient  for  the  economic  needs  of  society. 

E.    E.    RiTTENHOUSE 

We  should  also  make  an  especial  effort  to  teach  our  people  the 
wisdom  and  the  urgent  need  of  going  to  their  doctors  for  periodic 
health  examinations  for  the  purpose  of  heading  off  these  and  other 
affections. 

To  urge  upon  our  people  the  wisdom  of  this  course  and  of  using 
the  knowledge  and  skill  of  the  physician  to  prevent  sickness  and 
untimely  death  rather  than  to  continue  the  deadly  habit  of  waiting 
until  the  case  is  hopeless  before  sending  for  him,  is,  to  my  notion, 
a  thoroughly  practical   suggestion. 

Here  is  a  neglected  but  fruitful  field.  The  need  of  having  these 
inspections  should  be  firmly  fixed  in  the  minds  of  our  school  chil- 
dren and  of  our  people  generally.  Every  individual  and  journal 
interested  in  improving  the  vitality  of  our  race  and  every  health 


57()  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

department  sliould  adopt  the  policy  of  constantly  urftiiijj;'  this  inexpen- 
sive preventive  measure,  which  can  be  done  almost  in  a  sentence. 

It  Avonld  take  but  little  enconracement  for  those  who  are  lead- 
ing in  the  campaiern  for  race  betterment  to  set  in  motion  a  sentiment 
that  wonld  soon  establish  health  inspections  as  a  conmion  practice 
among  onr  people. 

Dr.  S.  a.  Knoi'f 

An  examination  for  tuberenlosis  prior  to  admitting  an  individual 
into  a  workroom  or  factory  where  he  comes  in  close  contact  with 
others  would  seem  to  be  the  best  safeguard  to  others. 

Our  municipal  and  federal  governments  should  take  the  lead 
in  this  matter.  Have  every  municipal  employee  and  every  employee 
in  post-offices  or  other  federal  departments  examined  for  tubercu- 
losis. Federal  offices  should  be  models  of  sanitation  and  proper  ven- 
tilation, so  that  the  dangers  of  contracting  a  predisposition  to 
tuberculosis  should  be  reduced  to  a  minimum. 

An  annual,  or  better  yet  semi-annual,  examination  of  every  in- 
dividual in  every  community  w^ould  lead  to  the  early  discovery  of 
tuberculosis  in  any  member  of  the  community ;  his  being  taken  care 
of  at  the  right  time  and  in  the  right  place  would  eliminate  him  as 
a  danger  to  the  family,  and  tuberculosis  would  no  longer  be  a  family 
disease. 

Dr.  H.  ^Y.  Austin 

The  medical  examinations  to  determine  Avhether  there  are  any 
mental  or  physical  defectives  among  the  one  million  arriving  immi- 
grants at  Ellis  Island.  N.  Y..  during  a  year  (occasionally  five  thou- 
sand during  one  day)  is,  from  the  race  betterment  standpoint,  in 
so  far  as  it  relates  to  this  country,  most  important 

Dr.  Eoswell  H.  Johnson 

Freedom  from  venereal  disease  before  marriage,  at  least  for  men^ 
must  be  attested  to  by  competent  physicians  by  competent  tests, 
the  state  assuming  a  share  of  the  financial  burden. 

Rev.  Newell  Davight  Hillls 

The  city  of  Dresden,  in  Germany,  spent  $350,000  in  accumulat- 
ing facts.  They  went  into  tenement-house  regions  and  studied  the 
factory-class  folk,  then  put  up  there  the  result  of  their  series  of 
experiments,  and  I  wish  you  would  notice  very  carefully — since  I 
am  condensing  a  volume  into  about  a  minute  and  a  half — the  result 
of  their  experiment.  First  of  all,  there  is  a  report  on  a  chart  of  the 
vital  experiment.  They  took  one  thousand  boys  on  Monday  morn- 
ing, tested  them  as  to  their  gripping  capacity,  their  lifting  capacity, 
tested  them  as  to  their  lung  capacity,  tested  them  as  to  their  heart 
action  and  as  to  their  memory. 

Monday  night  came  and  at  six  to  eight  they  were  put  through 
these  tests  as  rapidly  as  possible.  In  one  test  in  nine  to  ten  hours 
they  had  lost  ten  per  cent  of  their  gripping  power  and  of  their  lift- 
ing poAver  and  of  their  nerve  force — an  excellent  example  of  the 
law  of  diminishing  returns.     Monday  night,  of  course,  they  rested. 


CONSTRUCTIVE    SUGGESTIONS    SUMMARIZED  Oil 

"Wlien  Tuesday  morning  came,  they  had  only  returned  to  ninety- 
eight.  Tuesday  night  they  were  dowTi  to  eighty-eight.  When  Sat- 
urday came  they  were  down  to  ninety-three  in  the  morning.  They 
lost  two  per  cent  in  Monday 's  work ;  two  per  cent  Tuesday,  one  per 
cent  Wednesday,  half  of  one  per  cent  on  Thursday,  and  then  they 
found  it  was  absolutely  necessary — ^to  put  those  boys  back  in  the 
beginning — to  give  tliem  one  day  of  rest,  which  they  called  the  library 
day  or  a  hospital  day  or  a  picture  gallery  day  for  the  body  as  well 
as  for  the  soul.  Then  i\ronday  morning  they  were  back  again  to 
normal.  They  had  to  skip  one  day.  It  turned  out  to  be  a  physio- 
logical law,  or  a  hygienic  law,  a  nerve  law,  a  chemical  law  so  to 
speak,  or  a  mineral  law  if  you  want  to  speak  of  it  in  that  way. 

Then  came  the  other  tests.  There  were  probably  enough  tests 
on  the  influence  of  nicotine  on  a  working  boy's  body  to  fill  the  en- 
tire side  of  this  room.  First  of  all,  a  little  jar  with  a  growing  weed, 
then  here  there  was  a  little  jar  with  a  growing  shrub,  there  a  jar 
with  a  large  stalk  of  corn.  They  breathed  a  few  breaths  of  nico- 
tine into  the  glass  jar  that  they  put  down  over  the  weed  and  the 
corn,  so  that  the  little  plant  had  to  breathe  the  nicotine.  The  most 
revolting  ulcers  broke  out  on  the  vegetable  life.  The  plants  secreted 
a  vegetable  excretion  that  would  answer  to  the  saliva.  It  was  enough 
to  nauseate  a  body's  stomach  simply  to  look  at  the  result. 

Then  there  were  two  tests  as  to  the  influence  of  alcohol  upon 
children's  bodies  and  the  physique  of  the  working  men,  tests  in  re- 
gard to  the  collections  of  dust  in  the  lungs  of  a  boy  that  worked  in 
a  stone  quarry  and  a  girl  in  the  department  store  breathing  foul 
air  all  day  long — a  marvelous  city's  test.  There  were  photographic 
tests  exhibited  of  the  influence  of  various  things  on  the  heart.  Then 
there  were  great  physical  tests  in  regard  to  the  body. 

No  country  has  any  right  to  impose  burdens  and  responsibilities 
on  noble  physicians  and  on  clergymen.  The  state  owes  it  to  the 
physician  who  has  done  so  much  for  us  and  OAves  it  to  the  teacher 
and  the  preacher  and  the  justice  of  the  peace  to  make  it  absolutely 
obligatory  to  keep  a  fair  statement  open  to  inspection  of  everybody 
as  to  the  physical  history  of  every  boy  and  girl  that  lives  in  a  com- 
munity, so  that  whenever  they  have  any  disease,  the  law  shall  say 
it  is  the  duty  of  that  physician,  not  simply  to  put  a  red  card,  "scar- 
let fever,"  on  the  door,  but  to  write  out  a  full  story,  so  that  when 
the  boy  and  the  girl  come  to  their  wedding  time,  they  know  what 
lies  back  of  them. 

MISCELLANEOUS 

Dr.  H.  W.  Austin 

Opinions  differ  as  to  the  principal  factor  in  race  improvement,  and 
one  of  the  following  is  frequently  offered :  Education  ;  physical  train- 
ing ;  religious  instruction  ;  medical  instruction  :  temperance  ;  chastity; 
proper  mating ;  sanitary  environment  during  childhood :  hygienic 
diet ;  clothing  and  housing ;  social  reform,  especially  in  the  way  of 
amusements  for  all  ages:  proper  marriage  laws;  laws  to  prevent  the 
multiplication  of  the  weak-minded,  criminals,  and  those  who  have 
been  insane,  by  sterilization. 


'Olb  FIRST    NATlONWr.    CONFERENCP:    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

Dean  Wm.  W.  Hastings 

It  is  better  to  have  fillings  in  your  teeth  than  to  lose  them  en- 
tirelj',  but  better  still  to  choose  good  parents  and  use  a  good  tooth 
brush  freel^v  and  not  need  the  fillings. 

It  is  better  to  take  the  morning  cool  bath  daily,  cleanse  the  skin 
and  tone  up  the  arteries  than  to  put  all  the  work  of  elimination  on 
the  lungs  and  kidneys  and  contract  some  chronic  disease  at  fifty. 

It  is  better  to  take  time  and  take  it  regularly  for  proper 
elimination  than  to  suffer  fatigue  and  loss  of  the  power  of  mental 
concentration  from  the  reabsorption  of  poisons  into  the  system. 

It  is  better  to  stand  up  straight  like  a  man  than  to  approximate 
the  all-fours  habit  of  our  cousins,  the  apes,  and  contract  spinal  cur- 
vature, limit  vital  capacity,  and  suffer  ultimately  from  nervous  and 
lung  troubles. 

It  is  better  to  eat  lightly  and  simply  of  digestible  food  than  to 
consume  half  the  energy  produced  by  this  same  food  in  the  processes 
of  preparation  for  assimilation ;  better  also  to  abstain  from  head- 
aches and  other  symptoms  of  autointoxication  due  to  wrong  feed- 
ing. Better  to  leave  the  young  pig  in  the  mire  than  to  help  him  out 
by  being  compelled  to  expend  your  vital  energy  in  his  elimination. 

It  is  better  to  sleep  in  a  close  room  long  and  laboriously  than 
not  to  sleep  at  all,  but  best  to  sleep  with  windows  open  wide  or  out 
of  doors  and  save  an  hour  of  life  daily. 

It  is  better  to  allow  yourself  some  amusement  daily  for  a  few 
minutes  at  least,  but  not  preferably  for  several  hours  in  a  stuffy 
theatre  or  public  dance  hall  until  late  at  night.  We  Americans  are 
losing  our  mental  poise  partly  by  indulging  in  the  tfinse,  exciting 
things  rather  than  retaining  the  simple  home  amusements  of  our 
English  forebears. 

It  is  better  to  do  resistive  exercises  in  your  own  room  or  formal 
gj-mnasties  in  the  gymnasium  than  to  get  no  exercise  at  all 
and  no  neuro-muscular  tone,  but  best  of  all  get  out  of  doors  and 
work  or  play  where  God  meant  you  to  be.  Men  require  recreation, 
relaxation  for  strong  life  and  long  life. 

It  is  better  to  marry  than  to  burn,  Paul  says,  but  better  still  to 
remain  single  and  burn  out  your  life  in  the  service  of  humanity 
than  to  marry  ^(Without  health  and  without  perfect  mating.  Even 
the  birds  know  better  than  this.  If  wedded  life  is  the  most  natural 
and  most  important  matter  in  the  world,  individual  and  national, 
why  not  prepare  for  it  by  seeking  the  greatest  possible  physical 
perfection  and  mentality  and  real  character  and  by  a  study  of  the 
nature  and  function  of  true  love,  which  is  the  highest  force  in  all 
Nature. 

Dr.  Guilford  H.  Sumxer 

Curative  processes,  while  very  necessary,  are  not  the  most  essen- 
tial to  the  public  in  general.  We  must  not  only  study  the  clinic, 
but  the  street,  the  alley,  the  back  yard,  insanitary  privy,  the  pollu- 
tion of  streams  and  all  kindred  subjects  which  are  disease-producers. 
These  very  important  subjects  are  the  doctor's  domain.     Numerous 


CONSTRUCTIVE    SUGGESTIONS    SUMMARIZED  579 

new  topics  must  be  discussed,  which  deal  with  the  relationship  of 
medicine  to  society,  and  bear  on  the  economic  basis  of  disease. 

Dr.  S.  a.  Knopf 

Education,  wise  legislation,  rational  temperance  movements, 
better  food  and  better  cooking,  and  popular  healthful  engagements 
for  the  masses,  are,  to  my  mind,  the  most  rational  means  to  combat 
the  alcoholic  evil. 

The  predisposing  factors  to  tuberculosis,  such  as  child  labor, 
sweatshop  labor,  too  long  working  hours  for  men  and  women,  bad 
housing  in  tenements,  apartments,  lodgihg  houses  and  hotels  in  city 
and  country,  including  farm  houses,  boarding  schools,  orphan  asy- 
lums, and  other  institutions  housing  many  people,  must  be  com- 
bated by  rational  laws  and  their  strictest  enforcement. 

Municipal  Hotels 

Dr.  S.  a.  Knopf 

Cheap  lodging  houses  and  hotels  should  be  done  away  with,  sub- 
stituting for  them  sanitarily  constructed  municipal  hotels  and  lodg- 
ing houses. 

National  Control  of  Liquor  Traffic 

Dr.  Henry  Smith  Williams 

The  great  truth  is  that  the  real  solution  of  the  liquor  problem 
must  come  through  taking  the  control  of  the  traffic  out  of  individual 
hands,  making  it  so  that  no  individual  and  no  corporation  makes 
money  out  of  the  sale  of  liquor.  That  is  the  great  truth  which 
originated  and  was  promulgated  in  Sweden. 

National  Health  Department 

Dr.  Henry  Baird  Favill 

The  necessity  for  some  central  federal  health  organization  is 
agreed  upon  by  all  those  familiar  with  the  situation. 

Dr.  Carolyn  Geisel 

The  Government  has  paid  nineteen  millions  of  dollars  to  call  the 
boys  back  to  the  farm.  When  has  it  paid  ninety  cents  to  call  the 
woman  back  to  the  home  ?  And  until  you  call  her  back  to  the  honie, 
the  foundation  of  the  Government  is  gone.  Why  race  betterment 
if  you  have  no  home?  And  can  you  have  a  home  without  a  female 
person  around? 

Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg 

The  establishment  of  a  National  Department  of  Health  will  pro- 
vide a  central  bureau  by  which  to  unify  the  work  and  collate  its 
results  and  interpret  them  to  the  people. 

The  United  States  Government  has  supplied  every  farmer  in  the 
United  States  many  times  over  with  literature  telling  how  to  raise 
the  best  crops,  how  to  produce  the  fattest  pigs  and  the  finest  horses 
and  cattle.    How  much  more  important  that  not  only  every  farmer, 


580  KlUST    XATI()N.\[.    CON'FKRENCK    ON    liWK    BKTTKRMENT 

but  every  family,  slioukl  l)e  instructed  in  the  principles  of  right 
livin<r — hmv  to  jirodnee  strong,  sane,  healthy,  and  efficient  human 
beings. 

Rev.  Caroline  Bartlett  Crane 

To  the  wise  and  discriminating  person,  it  is  evident  that  each 
community  must  not  only  do  its  own  part,  but  it  must  maintain  a 
partnership  in  public  hygiene  with  other  communities,  under  super- 
vision of  the  state,  which  grants  to  municipal  corporations  all  the 
rights  and  privileges  they  possess,  and  which  may  naturally  be 
looked  to  to  maintain  substantial  justice  between  these  corpora- 
tions: also,  that  states,  and  communities  within  states,  may  justly 
expect  the  national  Government  to  exercise  strongly,  in  behalf  of 
the  general  welfare,  any  power  it  may  possess ;  as,  for  example,  the 
power  assumed  to  itself  by  what  is  known  as  the  "Inter-State  Com- 
merce clause"  of  the  Federal  Constitution. 

National  League  of  Employers 

Melvil  Dewey 

In  talking  with  Doctor  Kellogg,  he  suggested  that  an  outcome 
of  the  Conference  ought  to  be  a  national  league  of  employers  who 
Avould  refuse  to  take  into  their  offices,  as  I  have  for  many  years,  a 
boy  who  uses  tobacco  or  liquor  or  profanity  or  vulgarity.  If  we 
would  begin  Avith  a  league  of  employers  wdio  should  say  as  a  matter 
of  economics  and  of  practical  business  wisdom,  "We  will  not  em- 
ploy in  our  offices  or  in  certain  places  any  young  man  who  uses 
tobacco,  liquor,  profanity  or  vulgarity,  it  would  help  immensely." 
For  the  boy  who  wants  to  get.  on  in  the  w^orld.  if  he  knew  a  thou- 
sand employers  in  America  would  absolutely  refuse  to  have  him 
in  their  employ,  it  would  help  him  to  take  that  attitude,  and  as  a 
practical  example,  it  would  be  easier  to  combat  the  evil. 

The  employers  of  the  Employers'  League  will  pledge  themselves 
not  to  employ  users  of  alcohol  and  tobacco  if  you  go  as  far  as  that. 
We  could  get  a  thousand  employers  in  a  very  short  moment  who 
would  refuse  to  take  into  their  employ  any  man,  boy,  or  woman 
either,  addicted  to  this  vice  that  is  making  a  race  of  runts. 

Naturalization  upon  Qualification 

Prof.  Sidney  L.  Gulick 

For  the  real  and  full  assimilation  of  foreigners,  moreover,  nat- 
uralization upon  qualification  is  essential.  Provision  should  accord- 
ingly be  made  for  proper  education  of  aliens  in  American  history, 
ideals,  political  practices,  and  the  English  language.  Only  when 
aliens  qualify,  should  they  be  given  the  ballot. 

The  Negro  Race 

Booker  T.  Washington 

Those  of  you  who  would  keep  the  body  of  my  race  strong,  vig- 
orous, and  useful,  should  use  your  influence  to  keep  the  bar-room 
closed — to  keep  whiskey  away  from  the  negro  race. 


CONSTRUCTIVE    SUGGESTIONS    SUMMARIZED  581 

I  want  to  ask  you  to  use  your  influence  to  keep  the  patent  medi- 
cine nostrums  away  from  my  race. 

You  can  help  the  negro  in  two  ways,  by  being:  frank  with  him, 
telling  him  about  his  faults,  and  by  helping  him  to  improve  by  prais- 
ing just  a  little  more. 

It  is  immediately  important  for  the  sake  of  the  colored  woman — 
and  equally  important  for  the  sake  of  the  health,  happiness  and 
upbuilding  of  your  race — that  that  colored  woman  or  colored  girl 
who  plays  such  an  important  part  in  the  rearing  of  a  large  portion 
of  the  white  people  should  be  intelligent,  that  she  should  be  clean, 
that  she  should  be,  above  all  things,  virtuous. 

Dr.  S.  a.  Knopf 
Education  by  lectures,  distribution  of  literature,  and  tuberculosis 
exhibitions  in  the  districts  of  colored  people  will  doubtlessly  do  a 
great  deal  of  good. 

Open-Air  Schools  and  Outdoor  Sleeping 
Dr.  S.  a.  Knopf 

Open-air  schools,  and  as  much  open-air  instruction  as  possible  in 
kindergarten,  school,  and  college,  should  be  the  rule.  Indoor  in- 
struction should  be  the  exception.  There  should  be  no  home  les- 
sons for  the  younger  children.  Love  for  life  in  the  open  should  be 
inculcated  in  the  young  and  old  throughout  the  country.  There 
should  be  a  sufficient  number  of  public  parks  and  playgrounds  in 
our  great  cities  to  counteract  congestion  and  to  reduce  it  to  a  mini- 
mum. The  roofs  of  all  city  houses  should  be  utilized  to  give  more 
open-air  life  to  the  inhabitants  by  making  them  into  roof  gardens, 
recreation  centers  or  playgrounds. 

Outdoor  sleeping  should  be  encouraged,  whenever  feasible,  as  a 
preventive  of  tuberculosis. 

Personal  Hygiene 

Dr.  W.  a.  Evans 
The  individual  can  contribute  tow^ard  race  betterment  by  keep- 
ing his  body  in  better  condition,  by  maturing  and  by  caring  for  a 
"better  machine  than  is  the  present  average  machine. 

Police  Court  Records 

Dr.  Henry  Smith  Williams 
Let  the  records  of  our  police  court  be  given  to  the  saloon-keeper, 
and  let  him  be  restricted  from  selling  alcohol  to  a  person  who  has 
"been  arrested  for  intoxication,  for  a  period  of  one  year,  let  us  say, 
or  two  years,  and  take  away  his  license  if  he  violates  that.  Take 
away  his  license  at  once  if  he  ever  sells  to  a  minor. 

Procreation  of  Tuberculous 
Dr.  S.  a.  Knopf 
Procreation  of  the  tuberculous  should  be  prohibited  by  law  and 
the  prevention  of  it  taught  to  every  tuberculous  adult.    Violators  of 
this  law  should  be  punished. 


582  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

Prohibition 

George  B.   Peak 
I  believe  that  the  only  successful  fight  against  alcoholism  is  to 
stop  the  open  places  that  educate  the  young  man  to  drink. 

Public  Baths 
Judge  Ben  B.  Lindsey 
A  gang  of  bedraggled,  dripping  little  boys  that  a  policeman  had 
dragged  out  of  the  only  "swimming  pool"  in  town,  down  by  the 
railroad  track,  was  brought  into  court  because  some  prudish  ones 
could  not  bear  to  see  little  boys  in  that  unfortunate  state.  I  found 
on  investigation  that  it  cost  us  several  thousand  dollars  a  summer 
to  have  two  fountains  in  front  of  the  Court  House,  in  which  sported 
little  boys  of  brass  and  iron  clad  in  a  nice  smart  suit  of  paint.  I 
said  to  myself,  if  this  town  can  pay  several  thousand  dollars  a  sum- 
mer for  artificial  fountains  with  boys  of  brass  and  iron,  it  can  pay 
something  for  boys  of  flesh  and  blood. 

The  judgment  of  the  court,  in  that  case,  was  not  that  they  be  sent 
to  jail.  I  said,  "Kids,  you  better  go  swimming  in  the  fountain 
since  there  is  no  swimming  pool."  But  in  time — when  the  com- 
munity woke  up  to  the  fact  that  it  was  not  the  child  that  ought  to  be 
before  the  bar  of  justice,  but  the  community — we  had  seven  public 
baths  in  the  park  and  one  great,  splendid  public  bath  in  the  town,  and 
we  didn't  need  to  jail  any  more  boys  for  that  sort  of  thing. 

Public  Discussion 

Dr.  H.  W.  Austin 

Public  discussion  of  the  subject  in  which  men  and  women  of 
national  reputation  take  part,  which  may  appear  in  the  public  press, 
would  do  much  to  educate  the  public  and  advance  the  cause  of  race 
betterment. 

Publishers'  League 

Melvil  Dewey 
I  wish  someone  would  take  up  here  and  give  some  sidelight  on 
what  the  publisher  said  who  stated  he  was  very  ready  to  join  in  a 
league  of  publishers  that  would  refuse  to  break  into  their  columns 
the  advertising  of  alcohol,  tobacco,  and  patent  medicines,  get-rich- 
quick  schemes,  or  any  other  thing  distinctly  inimical  to  race  bet- 
terment. There  are  hundreds  of  publications  in  this  country.  This 
Conference  should  unify  them  to  form  a  league  of  that  kind.  What- 
ever you  may  say  on  drink  and  liquor,  we  will  all  agree  that  it  is  a 
bad  thing  for  the  race  to  have  it  advertised  and  thrown  before  them 
in  all  sorts  of  ways. 

Race  Betterment  League 

Dr.  Luther  H.  Gulick 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  there  is  at  present  no  source  from  which 
authoritative,  simple  information  can  be  secured  with  reference  to 
the  subject  of  better  mating  and  better  rearing,  I  ask  that  the  Execu- 


CONSTRUCTIVE    SUGGESTIONS    SUMMARIZED  583 

tive   Committee  be  requested  to  consider  the  matter  of  forming  a 
Eace  Betterment  League. 

How  Women  May  Suppress  the  Brothel 

Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg 

If  the  women  of  this  town  would  say  to  themselves.  "We  will 
not  have  a  brothel  in  this  town,"  there  would  be  none.  How  would 
you  get  rid  of  them  ?  Why,  if  you  could  not  induce  your  husbands, 
by  continual  clamor,  to  take  proper  action  in  this  matter,  you  would 
be  justified  in  going  out  en  masse  and  tearing  that  house  down. 

Registration  of  Venereal  Disease 
Dr.  J.  N.  HuRTY 
The  law  should  require  the  prompt  reporting  of  cases  of  the 
hereditary  plague.    They  are,  except  in  certain  instances,  acquired  in 
sin  and  self-disgrace. 

Safety  Appliances 

Judge  Ben  B.  Lindset 

Sixteen  thousand  children  were  made  orphans  in  a  few  years  in 
three  or  four  states  in  this  nation  from  explosions  in  coal  mines,  a  large 
part  of  which  could  have  been  avoided,  according  to  government 
reports,  if  they  had  used  the  right  kind  of  safety  appliances.  You 
can't  get  rid  of  delinquency  unless  you  put  the  child  in  the  bosom 
of  the  home  and  a  father  and  mother  there  to  look  after  him. 

Sanitary  Kitchens 

Hastings  H.  Hart 

I  was  perfectly  astonished  to  find  in  the  city  of  Jackson  last  year 
the  finest  kitchen  I  ever  expect  to  see  this  side  of  Heaven,  a  sanitary 
kitchen  in  the  school  for  the  deaf.  The  school  superintendent 
searched  the  world  over  for  ideas,  then  built  an  institution  that  may 
serve  as  a  model  for  at  least  the  whole  Southern  country.  Somebody 
gave  him  five  thousand  dollars  and  he  has  established  a  sanitary 
kitchen  which  is  beyond  our  conception. 

Seaside  Sanatoria 

Dr.  S.  a.  Knopf 

For  children  afflicted  with  glandular,  joint,  and  bone  tuberculo- 
sis we  should  have  seaside  sanatoria.  Some  of  our  discarded  battle- 
ships or  cruisers  may  be  utilized  for  this  purpose  instead  of  being 
sold  as  junk  or  made  to  serve  as  targets. 

Segregation  of  Tuberculous  aild  Alcoholic 

Dr.  S.  a.  Knopf 

In  prisons,  segregation  of  the  tuberculous  from  the  non-tubercu- 
lous and  healthful  indoor  occupation  under  sanitary  conditions  should 
be  provided.    Have  the  cells  well  aired  and  properly  heated  in  winter, 


584  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

and  remove  as  far  as  possible  all  dei)ressing-  psychical  influence.  Tu- 
berculous prisoners  should  be  treated  like  any  other  tuberculous 
patient,  and  the  more  agricultural  or  horticultural  work  that  all 
prisoners  can  do  under  proper  supervision,  the  few^er  will  develop 
tuberculosis. 

Dr.  Henry  Smith  Williams 

We  must  treat  the  dipsomaniac  rationally — segregating  him  for 
a  sufficient  period. 

State  Insurance 
Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg 

Through  state  life  insurance,  the  whole  population  might  be 
brought  under  government  medical  supervision.  By  periodical  ex- 
aminations the  early  beginnings  of  chronic  diseases  might  be  detected 
and  thus  arrested  by  timely  instruction  in  regard  to  necessary 
changes  in  habits  or  occupations,  and  every  such  case  would  be- 
come an  object-lesson  by  means  of  which  relatives  and  friends  should 
be  influenced  to  adopt  preventives  in  time  to  avoid  the  same  mala- 
dies. 

Frederick  L.  Hoffman 

It  is  well  known  that  annuitants  are  more  likely  to  attain  to  old 
age  than  persons  badly  provided  for  with  the  necessaries  of  life,  and 
it  therefore  follows  that  substantial  improvements  in  the  economic 
condition  of  the  population  must  necessarily  tend  towards  the  same 
result.  The  economic  importance  of  this  question  is  quite  consider- 
able, in  view  of  the  increasing  extent  to  which  the  pecuniary  needs 
of  the  aged  are  provided  for  now  by  the  state,  corporate,  or  private 
pensions,  best  indicated  in  the  case  of  England  and  Wales. 

Dr.  Lydia  Allen  DeVilbiss 

The  mother  who  risks  her  life  to  produce  a  child  surely  does  as 
great  a  service  for  the  state  as  the  man  who  kills  another  mother's 
son  in  defense  of  it,  and  she  ought  to  be  so  recognized,  and  pen- 
sioned, if  in  need. 

Dr.  S.  a.  Knopf 

There  should  be  state  insurance  against  tuberculosis,  so  that  the 
man  without  means  may  be  assured  that  even  if  he  is  found  to  be 
tuberculous,  he  or  his  family  will  not  be  in  want.  Until,  as  in  Ger- 
many, state  insurance  companies  have  their  own  sanatoria,  our  pri- 
vate insurance  companies  should  be  permitted  to  establish  and  main- 
tain sanatoria  and  special  hospitals  for  their  tuberculous  employees 
and  policy  holders. 

Social  Program 

Dr.  Luther  H.  Gulick 

What  provision  do  you  make  in  Battle  Creek  whereby  groups 
of  girls,  Camp  Fire  Girls  or  others,  or  groups  of  boys  or  groups  of 
boys  and  girls  together,  with  guardian  or  chaperone,  can  go  off  for 
a  tramp  of  five  miles  and  find  a  good  place  to  make  a  fire  and  a  place 


CONSTRUCTIVE    SUGGESTIONS    SUMMARIZED  585 

to  bake  some  potatoes  and  have  a  good  time  together  and  come  back 
home  again  normal,  good  ? 

Are  there  any  places  where  boys  can  do  things  who  are  motor 
minded,  who  love  tools  and  who  want  to  make  engines  and  automo- 
biles and  bicycles  and  steamboats  and  all  those  things?  Do  you 
have  a  sane  public  school  athletic  league  "1  If  you  have  not,  you  have 
not  one  of  the  most  important  social  inventions. 

What  chance  do  you  people  in  Battle  Creek  give  to  the  children 
under  ten  to  come  in  contact  with  real  Nature  at  first  hand  with 
somebody  that  loves  and  understands  it?  "What  chance  is  there 
for  them  to  get  it  down  in  their  souls  so  they  will  have  it  as  a  pur- 
chased possession  all  the  rest  of  their  lives? 

If  there  is  no  such  opportunity,  get  up  a  committee  and  get 
such  a  place  and  administer  it  and  see  that  Boy  Scouts,  Camp  Fire 
Girls,  or  anyone  else — ^that  these  young  people  in  their  proper 
places  and  at  proper  times  get  the  chance  to  establish  this  neuro- 
muscular habit  of  wholesomeness.  When  young  people  want  to 
have  birthday  parties,  can  you  get  the  use  of  a  room  in  a  school 
building  for  that  purpose?  If  not,  why  not?  There  is  no  reason 
w^hy  the  schools  should  not  be  used  by  the  citizens  for  their  social 
purposes. 

Is  there  anybody  here  who  realizes  that  all  of  this  conquering 
of  air  has  grown  out  of  our  knowledge  about  kites  and  that  boys 
love  kites  and  that  a  kite-fl^'ing  contest  in  Battle  Creek  or  the  model 
aeroplane  club  would  occupy  the  time  of  some  hundreds  of  boys 
probably?  Are  there  any  men  and  women  in  Battle  Creek  who 
realize  that  to  think  up  things  of  this  kind,  and  put  the  machinery 
back  of  them  to  make  them  happen,  is  the  kind  of  thing  that  will 
really  deliver  the  goods? 

State  Investigation  of  Degenerate  Communities 

Dr.  C.  B.  Davenport 

Our  studies  have  also  led  us  to  the  consideration  of  degenerate 
communities,  and  we  have  found  them  in  almost  every  county 
where  careful  studies  of  the  population  living  in  out  of  the  way 
places  have  been  made.  That  it  behooves  this  state  to  know  some- 
thing about  its  population,  is  our  conclusion,  because  from  such  de- 
generate communities,  so  far  removed  from  social  influences  that 
their  existence  even  is  not  known  to  most  of  the  people  in  the 
county,  certainly  in  the  state — from  such  localities  where  the  de- 
generates are  bred,  go  forth  a  stream  of  people  who  constitute  cer- 
tainly a  large  proportion  of  the  paupers,  beggars,  the  thieves,  burglars, 
and  prostitutes  who  flock  into  our  cities. 

Statistics  on  Comparative  Fecundity 

Prof.  Walter  F.  Wilcox 

In  my  judgment,  no  statistical  result  could  come  from  this  Con- 
ference more  valuable  than  a  concerted  efl'ort  to  increase  the  avail- 
able information  regarding  the  comparative  fecundity  of  the.  va- 


586  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

rioiis  strains  in  our  i)0[)ulation,  for  this  inforlnatiou  lying  unused 
in  the  government  iik's  is  of  more  value  and  importance  than  the 
entire  sum  of  information  on  differential  fecundity  now  possessed 
by  the  American  people. 

"Straight-on"  Program 

Dr.  Luther  H.  Gulick 

The  "Straight-on"  program  is  for  persons  eighteen  and  over. 
A  "straight-on"  is  a  person  who  keeps  his  body,  mind,  and  heart 
fit  for  their  most  splendid  work  by  living  straight-on. 

The  program  is  divided  into  three  parts:  Physical,  Mental,  and 
Spiritual. 

A  Straight-on  should  sleep  not  less  than  sixty  hours  a  week.  If 
you  must  sit  up  late,  or  are  out  late,  pay  up.  Try  to  average  at 
least  seven  hours  of  outdoor  exercise  each  week.  Keep  clean  inside 
and  outside.  Read,  own  and  reread  each  year  not  less  than  three 
strong  books  having  thought  new  to  you.  Carry  on  some  course  of 
study  by  mail  or  otherwise,  a  course  of  lectures  or  anything  that 
means  going  on. 

Be  alone  and  think  out  your  own  ideals  toward  progress  at 
least  for  four  fifteen-minute  periods  a  w^eek.  Get  acquainted  with 
some  great  poetical  message  each  year. 

Substitutes  for  Alcohol 

Dr.  Henry  Smith  Wh.liams 

The  best  that  I  can  hope,  from  my  study  of  history  and  my 
knowledge  of  human  psychology,  is  that  we  may  substitute  the 
milder  drink  for  the  stronger  one,  ultimately  a  still  milder  for  that, 
and  ultimately  an  altogether  non-alcoholic  one.  That,  it  seems  to 
me,  is  the  principle  we  must  attempt  to  apply. 

Tax  Liquor 

Dr.  Henry  Smith  Williams 

I  Avould  s^y,  tax  liquor — a  modification  of  Senator  Work's  idea 
to  put  a  very  high  tax  on  distilled  beverages,  double  the  present 
tax  at  least. 

Mrs.  Charles  Kimball  and  Elizabeth  Hewes  Tilton 

The  arrests  for  drunkenness  having  increased  in  Massachusetts 
160  per  cent  in  eleven  years,  we  had  a  Commission  to  look  into 
the  matter.  Doctor  Southard  invited  this  Commission  to  the 
Psychopathic  Hospital  and  showed  them  one  patient  after  an- 
other clear  out  of  their  minds  from  alcohol.  Doctor  Southard  said, 
"Gentlemen,  individual  liberty  is  a  doctrine  very  much  in  vogue. 
From  it  I  will  not  dissent.  But  I  wish  to  say  that  a  state  that 
licenses  shops  that  sell  insanity  should  pay  out  its  millions  liberally 
to  support  the  victims  of  its  hobby." 


CONSTRUCTI\^    SUGGESTIONS    SUMMARIZED  587 

Tobacco  Legislation 

Melvil  Dewey 

We  should  control  the  sale  of  tobacco  as  the  French  do,  and 
make  it  no  longer  an  object  for  the  small  dealer  to  induce  the  boy 
to  become  a  smoker. 

Town  Planning 

Frederick  L.  Hoffman 

There  is  the  utmost  urgency  in  the  earliest  possible  adoption  of 

rational    town    planning     and     cheap     interurban     transportation 

schemes,  such  as  have  become  typified  on  the  Continent  and  within 

very  recent  years  in  the  United  Kingdom. 

Rev.  Newell  Dwight  Hillis 

The  conclusion  is  that  the  factory  region  of  the  great  city  must 
be  rebuilt.  Down  come  hundreds  of  tenements,  therefore.  The 
new  plan  is  a  factory  out  in  the  center  of  an  open  field,  then  the 
houses  where  the  people  live  on  the  side  where  the  trade  winds  blow 
the  smoke  of  the  factory  away  from  them.  They  have  little  houses 
within  walking  distance  and  playgrounds  within  two  blocks  of 
every  child,  plenty  of  breathing  room  and  sunshine. 

Vice  Commissions 

Dean  Walter  Taylor  Sumner 

The  Vice  Commission  of  Chicago  was  the  first  vice  commission 
ever  established  by  a  municipality  and  supported  from  the  city 
treasury.  Nearly  thirty  others  have  been  appointed  since  that  time 
and  the  remarkable  thing  about  the  vice  commission  has  been  this, 
that  they  have  been  unanimous  in  their  decision.  Now  here  you 
have  groups  of  people,  men  and  women  all  over  the  country,  first  of 
all  a  moral  view-point,  second,  with  full  information.  And  what  do 
we  find  as  their  decision?  Briefly  it  is  this.  Any  municipal  officer 
of  any  municipality  which  recognizes  the  social  evil  is  thereby  com- 
mitting an  immoral  act.  Segregation  does  not  segregate,  never  has 
and  it  never  can.  Furthermore,  segregation  does  not  solve  even  the 
remotest  phase  of  the  problem.  Rather  it  aggravates  and  intensifies 
every  phase  of  it.  Regulation  does  not  regulate.  Rather  it  gives 
a  false  security  to  young  men  and  boys  and  the  only  method  to  pur- 
sue is  constant  and  persistent  repression  as  the  immediate  methods, 
absolute  annihilation  as  the  ideal. 

Vocations 

Melvil  Dewey 
An  appeal  to  the  women  of  America  with  faith,  hope,  and  cour- 
age, to  put  their  education,  their  power  of  detail  work,  and  any 
initiative  they  may  possess  at  the  service  of  the  state,  at  the  same 
time  warning  them  that  much  harm  has  been  done  by  indiscreet, 
pushing  women  with  only  a  glimmer  of  knowledge  who  too  often 
approach  civic  councils  with  some  whim  or  fad.  so  that  all  women's 
demands  are  classed  together. 


588  FIKST    NATIONAL    CON  FKHENCK    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

Pkok.  Kouert  Jahes  Spkague 

AVhen  we  get  free  work  in  the  open  air  for  both  men  and  women 
we  will  get  such  wholesome,  strong  bodies  that  many  of  these  great 
problems  we  have  been  discussing'  will  simply  disappear  because 
they  won't  exist.  It  seems  to  me  that  both  men  and  women  of  our 
race  have  got  to  get  to  work  in  the  open  air  and  the  extent  to 
which  we  can  do  that  will  help  to  solve  every  one  of  these  great 
jiroblems  we  have  before  us. 

In  the  United  States  the  most  of  our  criminals  come  from  the 
roving  bachelor  class  of  the  twenties.  In  this  country  we  have  an 
enormous  number  of  young  bachelors  who  come  out  from  all  parts  of 
the  country  who  have  had  no  opportunity  to  learn  a  trade,  with  all 
the  impulses  of  manhood.  They  struggle  through  those  twenties 
and  come  to  the  cities  before  they  get  settled  in  life.  Gentlemen,  an 
efficient  system  for  vocational  education  in  this  country  will  do  many 
of  those  things  that  the  German  system  of  education  is  doing.  It 
wall  land  our  boys  and  girls  both,  we  will  say  boys,  with' an  earning 
power  at  twenty-two  or  twenty-three  so  that  they  can  marry  at  twenty- 
three  or  twenty-four  or  twenty-five,  and  support  a  family,  and  will 
do  much  for  the  reduction  of  our  criminal  classes,  a  large  majority  of 
which  come  from  that  very  zone  of  life.  It  will  accomplish  much 
for  doing  away  with  the  prostitution  in  this  country,  because  every 
time  a  wage-earning  boy  marries  a  girl  and  establishes  a  home  under 
the  right  conditions,  he  removes  the  material  for  all  of  that  kind  of 
thing. 

Education  the  Watch-Tower  against  Disease 

E.    E.    RiTTENHOUSE 

Is  there  any  sound  reason  why  our  communities  should  not  have 
a  watch-tow^er  of  education  to  inform  people  of  their  danger  and 
to  teach  them  how  to  detect  their  approach  to  degenerative  diseases, 
which  are  on  the  increase? 

Woman  Suffrage 

Arthur  Hunter 

I  am  absolutely  sure  that  the  small  advantage  claimed  for  alco- 
hol is  upset  many,  many  times  by  the  evils  wdiich  come  from  the 
use  and  abuse  of  it,  and  I  am  sure  w^hen  the  women  get  to  vote,  we 
are  going  to  get  freedom  from  it  that  we  have  never  had  in  the 
past,  and  this  one  thing,  more  than  any  other,  has  made  me  an  ad- 
vocate of  suffrage  and  a  strong  one. 

Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg 

The  worst  thing  in  all  the  world,  the  most  dreadful  thing,  is 
the  slavery  of  women  to  men.  By  and  by  the  ballot  will  give 
women  freedom.  When  women  get  the  franchise,  I  believe  the 
white-slave  traffic,  and  all  other  kinds  of  slavery  of  women  to  men, 
will  be  abolished,  and  the  w^orld  will  be  freed  from  this  greatest 
evil. 


CONSTRUCTIVE    SUGGESTIONS    SUMMARIZED  589 

Dr.  Carolyn  Geisel 

[To  Women] 

There  will  be  thrust  into  your  hands  before  very  long  (you  can- 
not escape  it)  that  little  piece  of  paper  called  the  ballot.  It  is  as 
surely  coming"  as  tomorrow  is  coming,  wanted  or  not.  It  doesn't 
matter — it  is  coming.  "Will  you  use  it  for  the  liberty  of  your  sisters  ? 
Or  will  you  say,  "Leave  politics  to  men"?  If  you  must  go  into 
politics  to  liberate  helpless  little  girls  who  are  enslaved  now,  then 
do  it.     Do  it  as  quickly  as  ever  you  can. 

Dr.  Guilford  H.  Sumner 

If  the  manhood  of  this  country  will  not  respond  to  the  call  of 
this  great  reformation,  then  let  the  women  take  the  reins  of  govern- 
ment into  their  own  hands  and  rid  the  world  of  the  destructive 
agencies  that  are  destroying  the  motherhood,  womanhood,  and 
morals  of  the  home.  I  mean  by  this  that,  should  men  not  see  the 
necessit}^  of  taking  this  advanced  step,  then  it  is  time  for  women 
to  take  matters  into  their  own  hands  and  protect  that  which  men 
refuse  to  do. 

Women  Jurors 

Graham  Taylor 

We  must  humanize  our  courts,  and  we  will  have  to  have  women 
jurors.  We  will  have  to  do  what  Judge  Pickney,  of  the  Juvenile 
Court,  has  done :  see  to  it  that  a  woman  assistant  judge  hears  the 
cases  of  delinquent  girls  in  chambers  with  no  one  present  except 
the  children's  parents  and  the  witnesses.  We  will  have  to  enlist 
all  the  agencies  that  lie  back  of  the  family  life. 

Waverly  House 

Dr.  S.  a.  Knopf 

We  have  established  a  house  and  we  do  not  call  it  a  Magdalene 
Home,  but  simply  "Waverly  House."  There  any  poor  girl  tired 
of  that  life,  who  wishes  to  leave  it,  is  received  with  open  arms, 
given  instruction,  taught  some  kind  of  trade,  and,  if  pos.sible,  is 
returned  to  her  family  or  given  an  opportunity  to  earn  an  honest 
living.  I  believe  we  can  do  a  great  deal  for  them.  We  have  thirty- 
three  per  cent  of  cures,  and  that  is  a  good  per  cent.  Thirty-three 
per  cent  of  those  unfortunate  women  have  been  returned  to  their 
homes,  have  been  returned  as  useful  and  noble  women  and  mem- 
bers of  society.  We  have  also  looked  after  their  physical  welfare 
and  have  tried  to  make  them  healthy,  as  future  mothers;  for  they 
are  entitled  to  the  same  privileges  that  we  are.  Our  little  move- 
ment, which  we  call  the  '"Waverly  House,"  has  also  added  a  bit 
to  the  betterment  of  the  race.  I  ask  that  you,  going  out,  going  home, 
will  try  to  start  such  a  movement  and  give  your  sisters  another 
chance  to  be  mothers  also  and  thus  help  in  the  betterment  of  the 
race. 


RESOLUTIONS 

Resolutions  Offered  at  the  First  National  Conference  on  Race  Bet- 
terment and  Referred  to  the  Executive  Committee 

Prof.  Walter  F.  Willcox,  Cornell  University,  Ithaca,  N.  Y. 

Resolved,  That  the  "National  Conference  on  Race  Betterment  ap- 
point a  committee  with  power — 

1.  To  memorialize  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  in  the  name 
of  this  Conference,  urging  it  to  provide  the  funds  needed  for  com- 
piling the  returns  now  on  the  schedules  of  the  census  of  1910  and 
thereby  measuring  the  fecundity  of  the  races  and  national  elements 
within  the  Ignited  States ; 

2.  To  attempt  to  secure  the  presentation  of  similar  petitions 
from  other  organizations  or  from  individuals  interested  in  this  sub- 
ject. 

Whether  such  a  resolution  would  be  welcome  or  not,  I  sincerely 
hope  that  individuals  will  write  to  individual  Congressmen,  urging 
such  action  as  is  here  proposed. 

Melvil  Dewey,  Lake  Placid,  N,  Y. 

Resolved,  That  the  marked  success  of  this  first  Race  Betterment 
Conference,  and  its  great  promise  of  future  practical  usefulness, 
clearly  show  the  need  of  continuing  its  work  in  annual  or  biennial 
meetings. 

[How  many  think  they  ought  to  be  annual  or  biennial  meet- 
ings?]    [A  big  show  of  hands.] 

Resolved,  That  the  present  Executive  Committee  be  asked  to 
serve  as  a  permanent  Executive  Board  with  power  to  add  to  their 
number,  to  call  meetings,  appoint  committees  and  in  all  matters  act 
for  and  represent  this  Congress. 

[Certainly  the  five  men  who  have  organized  this  meeting  have 
our  confidence  in  carrying  on  future  work  and  in  representing  us. 
Those  of  you  who  favor  this  resolution,  please  show  your  hands.] 
[Many  hands  raised.] 

Resolved,  That  we  ask  the  Executive  Board  to  appoint  a  Race 
Betterment  Council  of  One  Hundred,  representing  various  sections 
and  agencies  interested  in  Race  Betterment,  and  also  to  provide 
for  affiliating  with  this  Congress  such  institutions  and  organizations 
as  will  cooperate  in  its  work, 

[So  many  have  said,  especially  the  women,  that  they  wanted  to 
be  identified  with  this  that  the  Women's  Club,  the  State  Federa- 


RESOLUTIONS 


591 


tion  of  Women's  Clubs,  are  ready  to  take  hold  and  to  carry  on  this 
work.  How  many  are  in  favor  of  this  resolution?]  [Many  hands 
raised.] 

Resolved,  That  all  resolutions  submitted  to  the  Congress  shall 
be  referred  to  the  Executive  Board,  which  shall  make  needed  revi- 
sion in  such  as  it  deems  wise  to  submit  to  vote  of  the  Congress  or 
Council ;  and  no  resolution  or  recommendation  shall  be  promul- 
gated as  the  action  of  Congress,  Council  or  Executive  Board  unless 
approved  by  a  four-fifths  vote. 

[If  four-fifths  are  agreed  on  the  recommendation  of  a  Committee, 
it  may  go  out  as  fairly  representing,  but  if  sixty  vote  for  it  and 
fifty  against  it,  it  is  not  fair  to  commit  the  rest  to  that.  This  is  pro- 
tection against  some  earnest  souls  who  mean  all  right,  but  are  al- 
ways trying  to  get  in  a  resolution.  After  an  eloquent  speech  you 
can  carry  almost  any  audience  before  they  have  had  time  to  give  the 
matter  careful  consideration.  Plow  many  approve  of  this  principle  ?] 
[Many  hands  shown.] 

[And  finally,  you  know  at  the  great  Panama  Exposition,  one 
year  from  now,  the  leading  congresses  of  the  world  interested 
in  all  kinds  of  work  and  welfare,  will  hold  meetings,  and  that 
the  questions  that  have  been  before  us  here  are  not  American 
questions,  but  they  are  race  questions.  It  would  be  most  unfor- 
tunate if  this  Congress  that  has  made  this  wonderful  start  should 
not  be  represented  at  San  Francisco ;  if  it  is  not,  the  interests  are 
surely  to  be  represented  in  some  other  way,  and  many  feel  that  this 
resolution  would  fairly  express  your  sentiment.  How  many  think 
this  is  desirable?]     [A  few  hands  raised.] 

Resolved,  That  we  recommend  the  Executive  Board  to  arrange 
for  a  meeting  of  the  National  Conference  on  Race  Betterment  in 
connection  with  the  international  meetings  during  the  San  Fran- 
cisco "World's  Fair  of  1915. 

Cressy  L.  Wilbur,  M.D.,  Chief  Statistician,  United  States  Census  Bureau, 
Washington,  D.  C. 

Whereas,  Accurate  statistics  of  births,  still  births,  deaths,  and 
the  causes  of  illness,  disability  and  deaths,  are  indispensable  for  in- 
telligent progress  in  race  improvement;  therefore, 

Resolved,  That  the  National  Conference  on  Race  Betterment 
earnestly  recommend  the  passage  of  adequate  laws  for  this  pur- 
pose and  the  thorough  enforcement,  by  the  regular  and  systematic 
application  of  the  penalties  therein  contained,  of  existing  laws,  so 
that  the  United  States  may  possess,  at  the  earliest  possible  moment, 
useful  vital  statistics  covering  its  entire  population. 


592  FIRST    XATIONAI;    CONKERKNCE    ON    RACK    BETTERMENT 

Mr.  H.   fi.  Laughlin,  Superintendont  Eugenics  Kecord  Office,  Cold  Spring 
Harbor,  Long   Tsland.  N.  Y. 

''I  should  like  to  see  this  Convention  yo  on  record,  if  it  chooses, 
as  favoi'ing:  the  sterilization  of  proved  degenerate  stoek  when  segre- 
gation ceases." 

Mr.    George   B.    Peak,   President    Central   Life   Assurance    Society   of   the 
United  States,  Des  Moines,  Iowa. 

Resolved,  That  since  it  is  an  established  and  indisputable  fact 
that  the  use  of  alcohol  as  a  beverage  is  injurious  to  the  mental, 
moral,  and  physical  condition  of  man,  and  that  its  injury  is  con- 
tinued to  the  children  of  those  v^^ho  are  polluted  by  its  use,  we  there- 
fore— 

Resolve,  That  the  saloon  business  is  the  great  foe  to  race  better- 
ment ;  it  is  a  burden  upon  civilization  and  there  are  no  good  results 
from  it ;  it  lives  by  the  destruction  of  the  most  valuable  asset  of  the 
world — man.    We,  therefore — 

Resolve,  That  all  lovers  of  the  race  should  unite  in  the  final 
closing  of  the  saloon  and  the  overthrow  of  the  liquor  power,  that 
conditions  may  be  more  favorable  for  race  improvement. 

Dr.  Luther  H.  Gulick,  New  York,  N.  Y, 

[Note. — Doctor  Gulick  was  delegated  to  s\im  up  the  expressions  of  the  Conference  in 
"six  or  seven  miniites."] 

To  sum  up  a  Conference  on  Eace  Betterment  in  six  or  seven 
minutes  in  the  terms  in  which  the  ideas  have  been  expressed  is  im- 
possible. What  I  have  attempted  to  do  is  to  put  together  the  con- 
structive part  of  this  Conference  as  expressed  in  the  program,  in  pri- 
vate conversation,  or  merely  in  the  atmosphere.  This  will  be  fol- 
lowed by  a  resolution  which  I  shall  move  be  referred  to  the  Exec- 
utive Committee. 

We  believe  that  the  core  of  Eace  Betterment  consists  in  promot- 
ing more  and  better  homes. 

1.    Domesticity. 

To  this  end  we  believe  that  the  love  of  home  and  domestic 
things  needs  to  be  given  opportimity  that  is  rarely  found  today. 
The  first  and  most  important  nascent  period  for  the  domestic  in- 
stinct comes  in  girls  before  they  are  twelve.  To  give  opportunity  and 
incentive  and  tradition  in  playing  house  and  playing  ^ith  and  lo%*ing 
dolls,  we  regard  as  basal  to  the  building  up  of  those  desires  that  lead 
people  to  prefer  home  and  children  to  other  careers.  No  subsequent 
training  in  domestic  science  or  art  can  take  the  place  of  the  love  of 
home  and  of  children. 


RESOLUTIONS  593 

2.  Inheritance  Social  Tradition. 

"We  believe  that  the  transmission  of  psychic  character  is  sacred 
in  the  same  sense  as  is  the  transmission  of  physical  life  and  that 
both  should  be  kept  inviolable.  We  think,  therefore,  that  children 
should  never  be  predominantly  entrusted  to  the  care  of  nurses. 
Much  of  home  work  may  be  done  by  others,  but  when  the  relation 
of  mothers  to  their  children  is  taken  by  nurses  or  other  women,  the 
essence  of  the  home  itself  has  disappeared. 

This  relation  of  parents  to  children  must  provide  for  them  en- 
thusiastic leadership  in  wholesome  adventure.  As  children  grow 
older,  parents  will  need  to  cooperate  in  groups  and  make  use  of 
the  specialist  and  genius.  The  mere  providing  of  space,  time,  and 
implements  is  no  more  adequate  for  the  induction  of  a  higher  child 
life  than  it  is  for  adult  life.  Tradition,  leadership  and  genius  is  as 
necessary  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other. 

3.  Inhentance  Germ-Plasm. 

The  splendor  of  love  is  to  be  achieved  most  readily  by  those  in 
whom  the  sex  feeling  is  long  circuited  into  noble  action  before  it 
acquires  any  habit  of  direct  expression.  Hence  our  informational 
work  must  be  accomplished  before  children  reach  the  teens. 

We  must  make  the  factors  of  personal  and  race  betterment  matters 
of  every  day,  as  are  breakfasts,  sunsets,  and  the  opening  of  flowers. 
All  of  the  children's  questions  should  be  answered  truthfully,  irre- 
spective of  age.  Children  will  remember  only  what  they  are  physi- 
ologically ripe  for.  We  must  make  the  dangers  to  the  personal 
and  race  stream  as  common  knowledge  as  are  the  dangers  of  fire 
and  accident.  The  sources  of  this  guidance  should  be  those  who 
are  in  daily  relations  of  affection  to  the  children.  These  subjects 
should  not  be  separated  from  the  rest  of  life.  The  time  for  in- 
formation about  mating  is  before  the  rapture  of  love  has  come 
with  its  transfiguration  of  form  and  revelation  of  color. 

In  the  foregoing  I  have  avoided  the  use  of  the  terms  sex  hygiene 
and  sex  instruction  because  many  of  us  object  to  these  terms;  for 
they  imply  a  divorce  between  these  matters  and  the  spiritual  and 
esthetic  world.  We  wish  our  children  to  have  all  the  information 
belonging  under  these  terms,  but  wish  to  have  it  given  with  the 
larger  significance  of  its  relation  to  the  whole  of  life. 

Inasmuch  as  there  is  at  present  no  source  from  which  authori- 
tative, simple  information  can  be  secured  with  reference  to  the 
subjects  of  better  mating  and  better  rearing,  therefore — 

Be  It  Resolved,  That  the  Executive  Committee  be  requested  to 
consider  the  advisabilitv  of  forming  a  Race  Betterment  League. 


REPORT  OF  THE  SECRETARY 

The  idea  of  calling  a  National  Conference  on  Race  Betterment 
was  initiated  by  the  Reverend  Newell  Dwight  Hillis,  Pastor  of  Plym- 
outh Church,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.  He  presented  it  to  Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg, 
Superintendent  of  the  Battle  Creek  Sanitarium,  who  in  turn  pre- 
sented it  to  Prof.  Irving  Fisher,  of  Yale  University,  and  to  Dr. 
C.  B.  Davenport,  Director  of  the  Carnegie  Station  for  Experimental 
Evolution,  and  to  others  interested  in  hygiene  and  eugenics.  As  a 
result  of  the  enthusiastic  approval  with  which  the  idea  was  met 
by  everyone,  a  central  committee  was  formed  and  a  secretary  ap- 
pointed. The  Battle  Creek  Sanitarium,  Battle  Creek,  Michigan,  ex- 
tended to  the  Conference  the  gratuitous  use  of  its  facilities  and 
entertainment.  Accordingly,  the  Sanitarium  was  chosen  as  the  meet- 
ing-place for  the  Conference,  and  the  date  was  set  for  Thursday, 
Friday,  Saturday,  Sunday  and  Monday,  Jan.  8th  to  12th.  IDl-t. 

Sessions  and  Speakers 

The  first  session  of  the  Conference  was  called  to  order  in  the 
Sanitarium  Chapel  at  10.30  A.  M.,  Thursday,  January  8th,  by  Dr. 
J.  H.  Kellogg,  the  official  representative  of  the  Battle  Creek  Sani- 
tarium, as  host  of  the  Conference.  There  were  with  him  on  the 
platform  Hon.  John  W.  Bailey,  Mayor  of  Battle  Creek :  Dr.  Stephen 
Smith,  of  New  York,  President  of  the  Conference :  Dr.  J.  N.  Hurty, 
of  Indianapolis ;  Hon.  Jacob  A.  Riis,  of  New  York ;  Dr.  S.  Adolphus 
Knopf,  of  New  York;  and  the  Rev.  Charles  C.  Creegan,  of  Fargo, 
N.  Dak.  The  attendance  of  the  meeting  so  far  exceeded  the  ex- 
pectations of  the  organizers  that  some  two  hundred  people  were 
unable  to  enter  the  auditorium. 

Prayer  was  offered  by  Reverend  Dr.  Creegan.  Doctor  Kellogg 
then  extended  a  cordial  welcome  to  the  Conference,  in  a  short  ad- 
dress, and  introduced  the  Mayor,  who  extended  a  welcome  to  Battle 
Creek  of  the  First  National  Conference  on  Race  Betterment. 

The  aged  President  (ninety-two  years  old),  personally  typify- 
ing the  aim  for  which  the  Conference  was  called — a  long,  efficient, 
and  happy  life  for  every  citizen — was  then  formally  introduced  to 
the  delegates,  amidst  enthusiastic  applause. 

President  Smith  then  called  upon  Reverend  Dr.  Creegan  to  pre- 
side as  Acting  Chairman,  and  to  conduct  the  proceedings  of  the 
Conference  in  behalf  of  the  President. 

The  Conference  then  proceeded  as  nearly  in  the  order  of  the 


REPORT  OF   SECRETARY  595 

printed  program  as  oue  or  two  late  necessary  changes  in  engage- 
ments of  speakers,  and  a  number  of  additions  to  the  list,  wonld 
permit. 

The  Thursday  evening  session  and  all  sessions  thereafter,  ex- 
cept those  for  Monday,  were  held  in  the  spacious  gymnasium  of  the 
Sanitarium,  with  audiences  at  each  session  of  from  fifteen  hun- 
dred to  two  thousand  people.  The  Monday  morning  session  was 
held  in  the  Sanitarium  chapel,  and  the  afternoon  and  evening  ses- 
sions of  that  day  were  held  in  the  Post  Theatre.  There  the  entire 
stage  area  was  filled  with  seats  and  the  auditorium  itself  was  packed 
to  overflowing. 

The  officially  registered  delegates  from  different  parts  of  the 
country  numbered  406. 

Each  session  was  opened  by  prayer.  Those  who  led  these  de- 
votions were  Rev.  C.  C.  Creegan,  Rev.  J.  W.  Beardsley,  of  the  Theo- 
logical Seminary  of  Holland,  Mich.,  Reverend  Dr.  Bishop,  of  Grand 
Rapids,  and  Dr.  E.  G.  Lancaster,  of  Olivet  College,  Mich. 

The  Battle  Creek  Ministers'  Association  voted  to  make  the  Sun- 
day during  the  Conference  as  "Race  Betterment  Day"  in  the  churches, 
and  selected  their  topics  accordingly.  The  pulpit  of  the  Inde- 
pendent Congregational  Church  was  supplied  on  Sunday  morning 
by  one  of  the  speakers  on  the  Conference  program,  Dr.  Guilford 
H.  Sumner,  and  the  pulpit  of  the  First  Congregational  Church  was 
supplied  Sunday  evening  by  another  Conference  speaker,  Mr.  F.  0. 
Clements. 

The  names  of  the  following  speakers  did  not  appear  on  the 
original  program,  as  the  final  engagements  with  them  were  closed 
after  the  program  went  to  press: 

Prof.  Sidney  L.  Gulick,  Kyoto,  Japan. 

Mr.  F.  0.  Clements,  Dayton,  Ohio. 

Dr.  James  T.  Searcy,  Superintendent  Alabama  Hospitals  for  In- 
sane. 

Dr.  Anna  Louise  Strong,  National  Child  Welfare  Committee, 
New  York,  N.  Y. 

Mr.  S.  S.  McClure,  President  S.  S.  McClure  Co.,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

Dr.  Lydia  Allen  DeVilbiss,  of  the  Woman's  Home  Companion, 
New  York  City,  spoke  in  place  of  Mrs.  Anna  Steese  Richardson. 

Besides  the  addresses  scheduled  for  them,  the  following  made 
additional  addresses : 

President  Stephen  Smith. 

Dr.  Carolyn  Geisel. 

Dean  Walter  Taylor  Sumner. 


596  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERiVIENT 

Mr.  F.  0.  Clements. 

-Dr.  William  W.  Hastings. 

Mayor  John  W.  Bailey. 

On  account  of  a  strike  among  the  miners  in  the  northern  part 
of  the  state  of  Michigan,  Gov.  Woodbridge  N.  Ferris  was  unable  to 
attend  and  address  the  Conference,  and  no  paper  by  him,  therefore, 
appears  in  the  printed  records.  The  Governor  sent  his  cordial 
greetings  to  the  Conference,  and  expressed  keen  regret  at  his  in- 
ability to  attend. 

Doctor  Warthin's  paper  does  not  appear  in  the  Proceedings,  al- 
though it  was  considered  one  of  the  most  absorbing  addresses  de- 
livered at  the  Conference.  Mrs.  Ella  Flagg  Young,  Dr.  Thomas 
Darlington,  and  Dr.  C.  A.  L.  Reed  sent  late  regrets  for  their  inability 
to  attend  and  give  the  papers  scheduled  for  them. 

Besides  the  regular  formal  sessions,  five  additional  sessions  were 
held  for  open  discussion.  These  were  presided  over  by  Mr.  Frederick 
L.  Hoffman,  by  Dr.  Melvil  Dewey,  and  by  Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg  for 
different  sessions.  These  meetings  were  largely  attended,  and  the 
discussions  were  lively.  A  report  of  them  appears  in  the  printed 
transactions,  in  addition  to  a  full  report  of  the  formal  addresses. 

On  Sunday  evening  of  the  Conference,  three  sessions  were  held 
simultaneously — one  in  the  Sanitarium  gymnasium  with  an  audience 
of  about  seventeen  hundred  ''women  only;"  another  in  the  Sani- 
tarium chapel,  with  an  audience  of  nearly  one  thousand  "men 
only;"  and  a  third  in  the  Independent  Congregational  Church  of 
^Battle  Creek,  presided  over  by  Rev.  Thornton  Anthony  Mills. 

Usefulness  of  the  Conference 

The  Conference  served  as  a  forum  for  the  presentation  of  all 
sides  of  Race  Betterment  questions.  One  of  its  notable  features, 
which  proved  its  need,  and  the  possibilities  of  its  ^^sefulness,  was 
the  large  number  of  practical  suggestions  which  were  brought  out, 
and  upon  which  definite  action  is  possible.  The  suggestions  are 
abstracted  and  listed  in  these  transactions. 

All  business  matters  of  the  Conference,  and  all  plans  for  future 
action,  were  left  in  the  hands  of  the  Executive  Committee.  A  date 
was  set  for  its  meeting  soon  after  the  close  of  the  Conference  to 
discuss  the  sub.ject  of  its  fields  of  usefulness,  and  to  make  plans  for 
promoting  its  aims. 

A  number  of  expressions  of  gratitude  were  voted  to  different 
members  of  the  Conference  during  the  various  sessions. 


REPORT   OP   SECRETARY  597 

Mental  and  Physical  Perfection  Contests 

Mental  and  Physical  Perfection  Contests  were  held  in  connection 
with  the  Conference,  and  attracted  wide  attention,  not  only  in 
Battle  Creek,  but  throughout  the  state  and  the  nation.  Several  thou- 
sand school  children  and  about  six  hundred  babies  were  tested  as  to 
their  mental  and  physical  efficiency,  from  which  tests  vahiable  data 
were  obtained  for  Race  Betterment  purposes.  The  score  card  by 
which  the  school  children  were  recorded  was  furnished  by  Dr.  Frank  E. 
Bruner,  of  the  Chicago  Board  of  Education  and  by  Dean  William  W. 
Hastings  of  the  Normal  School  of  Physical  Education.  Battle  Creek. 
The  tests  were  made  under  the  direct  supervision  of  Dean  Hastings. 
The  score  card  by  which  the  babies  were  recorded  Avas  furnished 
by  the  Better  Babies  Bureau  of  the  Woman's  Home  Companion,  of 
.New  York  City.  The  women 's  clubs  of  Battle  Creek  assisted  in  this 
contest,  as  also  the  Sanitarium  Hospital  Training  School  and  the 
Nurses'  Alumni  Association  and  doctors  from  the  city  and  from 
the  Sanitarium.  Special  assistance  was  rendered  by  Drs.  B.  N.  Colver 
and  W.  F.  Martin  who  devoted  much  of  their  time  to  the  Avork.  Drs. 
Roth,  Allen,  Kimball,  Holes,  Powers,  Eaton,  Putman,  Hoyt,  Mosher, 
Stoner,  Hubly,  Dryden  and  Vandervoort-Stegman  also  rendered  in- 
valuable assistance  in  the  critical  examination  of  the  many  hundreds 
of  children  of  all  ages  who  entered  into  the  contest. 

At  the  last  session  of  the  Conference,  prizes  Avere  aAvarded  to  the 
children  scoring  highest  in  each  year's  group  from  six  months  to 
nineteen  years.  The  prizes  were  in  the  form  of  gold  medals 
stamped  Adth  the  official  insignia  of  the  First  National  Confer- 
ence on  Race  Betterment.  In  connection  with  the  bahy  contest, 
educational  literature  Avas  distributed  on  the  subjects  of  "Sug- 
gestions to  Mothers  about  the  Care  of  Babies  and  Young  Children,'* 
and  "Feeding  of  School  Children."  The  dentists  of  Battle  Creek 
made  special  examinations  of  the  teeth  of  the  school  children,  and 
rendered  a  report,  Avhich  appears  in  the  Proceedings.  Educational 
literature  on  this  subject  Avas  distributed. 

These  contests  resulted  in  numerous  hygienic  reforms  in  the 
city  of  Battle  Creek.  Through  the  cooperation  of  the  Superin- 
tendent of  Schools,  an  open-air  classroom  Avas  established;  as  was 
also  dental  inspection,  better  ventilation,  and  the  elimination  of 
basement  classrooms. 

One  interesting  outcome  of  the  baby  contest  was  the  adoption, 
because  of  the  good  record  it  made,  of  a  baby  that  had  been  de- 
serted by  its  father. 


C98  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

Exhibits 

A  large  exhibit  was  shown  in  the  Sanitarium  Annex.  Nine- 
teen organizations  working  for  Race  Betterment  participated. 
These  exhibits  attracted  wide  interest,  and  were  visited  by  one 
thousand  parents  of  Battle  Creek,  in  addition  to  every  school  child 
in  the  city,  the  Conference  delegates,  and  Sanitarium  patients. 
Twelve  experienced  guides  piloted  the  people  through  the  various 
exhibits,  where  fifteen  explainers  Avere  stationed. 


Moving  Pictures 

Moving  pictures  were  shown  at  every  session  of  the  Conference, 
and  additional  pictures  were  shown  at  special  hours  in  connection  with 
the  exhibits. 

Entertainment 

The  delegates  to  the  Conference  were  housed  in  the  huge  Sani- 
tarium Annex,  which  was  given  over  entirely  to  their  use.  The 
large,  cheerful  lobby,  with  its  inviting  wood  fire,  offered  an  at- 
tractive informal  gathering-place. 

On  Friday  afternoon  the  members  of  the  Conference  were  en- 
tertained by  the  Battle  Creek  Chamber  of  Commerce.  Special  cars 
took  the  Conference  members  through  the  city  of  Battle  Creek, 
through  one  or  two  of  its  larger  manufactories,  where  refreshments 
were  served,  and  to  the  Athelstan  Club,  which  furnished  a  musical 
entertainment.  On  Saturday  afternoon  a  male  quartette  entertained 
the  delegates  in  the  Sanitarium  gymnasium. 

The  Social  Secretaries  of  the  Sanitarium  were  put  at  the  service 
of  the  delegates,  and  their  offices  were  devoted  to  making  the  Con- 
ference a  social  success.  On  Saturday  a  reception  was  held  for  the 
purpose  of  formally  introducing  those  delegates  who  had  not  already 
met  one  another. 

The  Sanitarium  gymnasium  facilities  were  thrown  open  to  the 
Conference  delegates,  where  they  participated  in  the  athletic  exer- 
cises, the  marches  and  drills. 

The  Sanitarium  lent  to  the  delegates'  dining  room,  in  the 
Annex,  a  number  of  its  dietitians,  to  promote  the  dietary  comforts 
of  the  guests.  The  Sanitarium  orchestra  was  also  furnished  to  the 
Annex  throughout  the  sessions. 

On  Saturday  evening  a  "Doctors'  Banquet"  was  held,  with  Dr. 
Victor  C.  Vaughan,  of  Ann  Arbor,  Mich.,  President-Elect  of  the 
American  Medical  x\ssociation.  and  Dr.  Lillian  H.  South,  one  of  the 


REPORT   OF   SECRETARY  599 

Vice-Presidents  of  the  same  Association,  the  only  woman  who  ever 
enjoyed  this  distinction,  as  guests  of  honor.  The  banqueters  were 
entertained  by  witty  and  enthusiastic  speeches. 

After  the  Conference  sessions  were  terminated,  a  banquet  was 
tendered  to  the  thirty-four  prize  winners  in  the  Mental  and  Physical 
Perfection  Contests  and  their  parents.  On  following  days  banquets 
were  tendered  the  teachers  of  the  city  schools,  and  to  everj^  employee 
who  participated  in  the  Conference,  and  to  every  local  associate  of  it, 
to  the  number  of  1,000. 

The  President's  Departure 

An  affecting  incident  during  the  twelfth  session  (]Monday  morn- 
ing) of  the  Conference  was  the  farewell  of  the  venerable  President, 
Dr.  Stephen  Smith,  when  he  was  obliged  to  leave  for  New  York  before 
the  session  was  over.  As  he  finished  his  farew^ell  remarks  and 
passed  down  the  aisle,  the  audience  arose,  and  a  voice  started,  "God 
be  with  You  till  We  Meet  Again."  Immediately  the  song  was 
taken  up  by  every  voice  in  the  room. 

The  Press 

The  press  showed  a  remarkable  interest  in  the  Conference.  Ad- 
vance notices  of  the  meetings  Avere  sent  out  by  the  Associated  Press, 
the  United  Press,  the  Western  Newspaper  Union,  and  other 
agencies.  In  all,  the  publicity  before  and  during  the  Conference 
totaled  probably  a  million  lines.  During  the  Conference  the  follow- 
ing news  associations  and  new^spapers  were  represented :  the  Asso- 
ciated Press,  the  United  Press,  the  Scripps-McRae  League,  the  Asso- 
ciated Newspapers,  The  Detroit  Free  Press,  the  Chicago  Tribune,  the 
Detroit  News-Tribune,  the  Cincinnati  Enquirer  and  Chicago  Becord- 
Herald,  New  York  World,  New  York  Herald,  Philadelphia  Becord, 
and  the  Pathe  Weekly  moving  picture  firm,  whose  films  are  showm 
to  20,000,000  people.  Cable  despatches  by  news  agencies  to  London 
and  Paris  papers  carried  the  news  of  the  Conference  abroad.  Post- 
Conference  publicity  includes  articles  in  medical,  scientific,  eco- 
nomic, and  other  journals  throughout  the  country.  The  Journal  of 
the  Atnerican  Medical  Association  sent  a  special  writer,  and  de- 
voted a  generous  space  to  reporting  the  Conference.  The  Michigan 
State  Board  of  Health  devoted  a  monthly  bulletin  to  a  summary  of 
the  papers  of  the  Conference. 

Emily  F.  Robbins,  Secretary. 


EXHIBITS 

Exhibits  were  shown  by  the  National  Child  Welfare  Exhibition 
Committee,  the  American  Association  for  Study -and  Prevention  of 
Infant  Mortality,  the  Michigan  State  Board  of  Health,  the  Michi- 
gan State  Tuberculosis  Society,  the  Committee  of  One  Hundred 
on  National  Health,  the  Battle  Creek  Health  Department,  and 
several  other  Battle  Creek  organizations.  These  exhibits  included 
moving  pictures  and  living  demonstrations,  and  covered  the  subjects 
of— 

HEALTH  PLAY 

National  Department  of  Health  Home  Playroom 

Infant  Mortality  Backyard  Gymnasium 

Care  of  Babies  Boy  Scouts 

Children's  Diseases  Camp  Fire  Girls 

Milk  Records  Public  Recreation 

Food  Buying  SCHOOLS 

Food  Inspection  Social  Centers 

Dental  Clinic  The  School  Building 

Open-Air  Sleeping  Medical  Inspection 

Open-Air  Schools 
Educational  Training 

The  exhibition  was  made  under  the  supervision  of  Dr.  Anna 
Louise  Strong,  representative  of  the  National  Child  Welfare  Exhibi- 
tion Committee,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

THBOUGH    A    CHILD'S    EYES 

Anna  Louise  Strong,  Ph.D.,  National  Child  Welfare  Exhibition  Committee, 
New  York,  N.  Y. 

When  I  left  the  Annex  to  come  down  this  afternoon,  crowding 
through  the  halls  and  in  through  the  various  rooms  and  in  front 
of  the  charts,  and  near  the  exhibit  of  foods  were,  I  presume,  at  least 
two  hundred  children.  That  is  probably  a  conservative  estimate. 
It  is  not  counting  the  adults  and  it  is  not  counting  the  nearly  three 
thousand  children  who  have  gone  through  that  exhibit  during  the 
past  five  days.  But  the  interesting  part  of  it  was,  that  those  chil- 
dren, many  of  them,  were  taking  notes.  Some  of  them  had  long 
pieces  of  paper  and  note-books  pretty  well  filled  with  information 
about  the  welfare  of  the  child — about  the  kind  of  food  they  ought 
to  eat,  about  the  kind  of  toys  the  children  ought  to  have  and  the 
way  the  baby  ought  to  be  looked  after.  Those  children  were  taking 
notes  to  use  in  compo.sitions  in  the  school.     I  went  up  to  one  child 

600 


EXHIBITS  601 

and  said,  ' '  It  looks  to  me  as  if  there  were  going  to  be  a  great  deal  of 
competition  here."  She  smiled  and  said,  "I  am  afraid  there  will 
be  so  many  there  w411  hardly  be  any  prizes,  but,"  she  added,  "I 
am  not  trying  to  get  a  prize.  I  am  just  writing  my  composition." 
And  I  thought  that  was  probably  the  attitude  of  perhaps  many  of 
the  mothers  who  came  to  the  better  babies  contest,  that  they  were 
not  trying  for  the  prize,  but  it  Avas  to  find  out  how  their  bab}^  stood. 
If  they  got  the  prize  they  were  very  much  pleased,  but  they  wanted 
first  of  all  to  find  out  what  they  could  do  for  their  babj^,  just  as  the 
children  are  up  there  now  trying  to  find  out  these  various  facts  for 
their  composition. 

This  child  welfare  exhibit  is  part  of  a  rather  large  movement  that 
has  spread  over  the  country  in  the  last  three  years,  beginning  with 
a  large  exposition  in  New  York  three  years  ago  this  month,  then 
one  in  Chicago,  then  spreading  to  Kansas  City,  St.  Louis.  Louisville, 
Montreal,  Providence,  Rochester,  and  other  places,  with  a  total 
attendance  of  more  than  a  million  and  a  half  people  in  the  past  few 
years.  I  have  just  heard  that  as  a  result  of  the  Exhibit  which  I 
managed  in  Rochester  last  spring,  they  have  secured  a  recreation 
commission.  The  Mayor  of  the  city  was  so  impressed  with  the  play- 
ground part  of  the  exhibit  that  he  sent  to  New  York  to  get  a 
playground  expert  to  survey  the  situation  and  make  recommenda- 
■  tions.  Another  result  was  the  introduction  into  the  public  schools 
of  courses  for  mothers.  They  hope  to  be  able  to  manage  courses 
for  mothers  in  questions  of  personal  hygiene  and  the  care 
of  babies.  Another  result  of  that  same  Rochester  exhibit  is  the 
formation  of  a  society  that  is  going  to  put  up  inexpensive  work- 
men's homes. 

I  think  the  thing  that  will  be  of  most  interest  today  will  be  to 
tell  you  what  I  have  learned  from  the  child  welfare  exhibits  of  the 
sort  of  things  that  children  notice,  the  kind  of  things  that  affect 
children.  I  have  been  tremendously  impressed,  in  collecting  com- 
positions relating  to  child  welfare  in  some  of  these  past  exhibits, 
to  find  out  how  very  detailed  the  knowledge  of  children  is,  how 
much  more  they  see  about  their  own  home  than  the  parents  realize, 
how  much  more  they  see  of  the  turmoil  in  the  home  than  the  parents 
know,  and  of  the  various  conditions  in  the  home  which  the  parents 
themselves  are  perhaps  insensitive  to.  I  am  going  to  read  one  ex- 
tract from  a  composition.  These  compositions  w^hich  I  have  today 
were  not  written  after  taking  notes,  but  without  any  warning,  in 
school,  a  week  after  seeing  the  exhibit.  They  were  asked  to  write 
about  the  exhibit  off-hand.  If  any  adult  goes  into  a  room,  he 
notices  in  that  room  the  immediate  things  that  are  to  serve  an  ira- 


602  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

mediate  purpose.  Yon  have  gotten  into  the  habit  of  dropping  out 
of  your  notice  a  great  many  things  that  yon  are  not  especially  in- 
terested in,  and  for  that  reason  I  think  you  will  be  very  interested 
in  seeing  the  number  of  things  the  child  notices  in  one  of  these  ex- 
hibits. This  Avas  a  girl  of  ten  describing  a  tidy  and  an  untidy 
room : 

"Then  in  a  corner  opposite  that  it  showed  how  dirty  people  keep 
their  houses.  The  room  was  dirty,  old  clothes  on  the  bed  that  was 
half  made.  The  kitchen  was  dirty  and  dusty  and  a  can  of  tomatoes 
emptied  out  into  the  dishpan  with  greasy  rags  dripping  above  them 
and  dripping  into  them ;  and  the  table  cloth  was  all  dirty  and  mussed 
up,  and  there  was  some  sauerkraut  and  cabbage  mixed  together 
and  cooked  an  hour  or  two  too  long.  The  coffee  was  the  strongest 
I  have  ever  seen  in  my  life  and  I  don't  believe  I  shall  ever  see  any 
more  as  strong  as  that  as  long  as  I  live,  and  there  was  not  any  milk 
for  it,  and  the  pickles  were  mouldy  enough  to  kill  any  child,  and  the 
sausage  was  terrible." 

Do  you  think  you  would  remember  that  much  about  the  exhibit 
a  week  after  it  was  over?  But  these  are  the  things  the  children 
notice  and  these  things  have  a  very  distinct  bearing  upon  the  in- 
fluence in  the  home. 

One  other  story:  A  small  boy  in  Providence  was  seen  by  a  man 
going  up  to  this  same  exhibit,  of  good  and  bad  homes,  and  looking 
into  the  bad  bedroom.  After  a  while  two  more  small  boys  came 
and  remarked,  "Huh,  to  our  house  ain't  any  of  them  like  that," 
and  they  went  on.  The  boy  went  away,  came  back  after  a  little 
while  with  a  rather  slatternly  looking  woman,  and  a  little  while 
the  discussion  went  on  in  low  tones,  then  his  voice  rose  and  he  said, 
"Mother,  those  boys  said  their  house  wasn't  like  that.  Why  is 
ours  1 ' ' 

Another  thing  I  want  to  mention,  first,  the  extent  to  which  chil- 
dren notice  things,  then  the  extent  to  which  they  are  ready  to  go 
ahead  and  act  on  what  they  have  noticed.  In  that  connection  I  want 
to  read  another  very  short  and  rather  pathetic  composition  of  a 
boy  after  the  Rochester  exhibit : 

"The  good  food  and  bad  are  almost  what  I  take,  but  I  don't 
drink  coffee  any  more  and  will  not  take  it.  My  brother  used  to 
have  coffee  every  meal,  but  since  my  mother  was  there,  he  drinks 
no  coffee  but  all  milk  and  bread.  Bread  is  about  the  only  good 
food  there  is,  and  I  have  had  lately  a  good  appetite  for  it. ' ' 

There  is  one  more  story.  That  is  to  illustrate  this  same  point, 
the  extent  to  which  children  act  upon  the  things  they  notice;  the 
extent  to  which  children  who  have  noticed  what  harm  the  pacifier 


EXHIBITS  603 

does  the  babj',  will  go  to  take  it  away  when  we  adults  who  know 
more  about  it  would  not  do  so.  This  boy  was  a  Chicago  boy  and 
he  wrote  to  his  teacher  after  coming  back  from  his  summer  vaca- 
tion and  after  he  had  seen  the  child  welfare  exhibit,  and  the  com- 
position was  sent  on  up  to  Mrs.  Ella  Flagg  Young.  He  said,  ' '  I  went 
out  to  the  country  to  spend  the  summer  with  my  aunt,  who  had  a  baby 
that  was  crying  all  the  time.  She  said  she  thought  the  baby  was  very 
cross.  The  next  day  it  cried,  and  I  said  I  thought  perhaps  it  was  be- 
cause she  gave  the  baby  too  much  solid  food,  because  it  said  in  the 
Child  Welfare  Exhibit  that  babies  should  not  have  solid  food.  My 
aunt  said,  'All  right.'  So  she  took  it  off  solid  food  and  gave  it  only 
milk  for  a  while  and  the  baby  wasn  't  crying  nearly  so  much.  Then  I 
said  to  my  aunt  I  thought  the  baby  needed  more  fresh  air  because  it 
was  very  hot  to  keep  the  baby  indoors  and  under  the  heavy  covers  and 
mosquito  netting,  and  it  ought  to  go  out  doors.  She  told  me  to  take 
the  baby  out  in  the  yard  and  I  did  and  looked  after  it.  And  when 
I  came  back  home  in  the  fall,  the  baby  was  not  crying  at  all." 

MOVING    PICTURES 

The  Following  Series  of  Moving  Pictures  and  Lantern  Slides  were  Shown 
During  the  Conference: 

Industrial  Welfare  Work 

The  Fly  Pest 

Boil  Your  Water 

The  Battle  Creek  Chautauqua 

The  Man  Who  Learned 

Paragon  Chestnuts 

The  Walking  Party 

Bread  the  Staff  of  Life 

The  Normal  School  of  Physical  Education 

Battle  Creek  Plomecoming  Week 

Eochester  Playground  Film 

The  Visiting  Nurse 

The  Price  of  Human  Lives 

Care  of  Blind  Babies 

Dissolving  Stereopticon  Views 

Lakewood  Farm 

The  X-Ray — Its  Revelations 

Brain  and  Nerves 

Eugenics  and  Venereal  Diseases  . 


PHYSICAL  AND  MENTAL  PERFECTION  CONTESTS 

I.    SCHOOL  CHILDREN 

AVm.   W.   Hastings,  Ph.D.,   Dean   Noi-mal   School   of  Phy.sieal   Education, 
Battle  Creek,  Michigan. 

The  object  of  this  contest  is  to  call  attention  to  the  practical  side 
of  Race  Betterment.  Little  can  be  done  for  the  improvement  of 
adults;  the  hope  of  the  race  lies  with  the  children.  Any  scheme  is 
worth  while,  then,  which  will  interest  the  children  in  themselves,  and 
interest  the  parents  of  the  children  in  their  development. 

No  plan  is  likely  to  emphasize  so  fully  in  the  mind  of  the  child 
the  value  of  health,  vigor  and  efficiency  as  the  giving  of  medals  to  those 
possessing  physical  and  mental  perfection.  Such  a  contest  holds  up  to 
the  child 's  mind  as  most  desirable  many  qualities  which  had  previously 
seemed  to  him  common  and  ordinary.  His  mind  is  led,  by  practical 
■observation,  to  disting-uish  some  of  the  most  essential  factors  in  the 
building  of  his  own  life.  Teachers  and  parents  are  led  to  observe 
physical  defects  and  mental  deficiencies,  and  to  remove  the  cause. 

One  of  the  most  important  results  which  must  accrue  from  such 
general  examinations — one  which  has  always  been  observable  in  everj' 
campaign  of  the  kind — is  the  surprising  prevalence  of  race  de- 
generacy, as  indicated  by  poor  teeth,  defective  eyesight,  spinal  curva- 
ture and  other  postural  defects. 

AYhen  it  is  the  children  of  our  own  community  who  are  found  on 
the  decline,  we  begin  to  think  it  is  time  to  act,  and  cannot  content 
ourselves  with  hearing  sober  warnings  in  scientific  conventions  and 
with  reading  them  in  the  leading  magazines. 

The  task  of  selecting  from  tlie  public  schools  the  children  whose 
development  entitles  them  to  gold  medals  is  completed.  With  the 
best  possible  organization  of  forces,  it  took  thirty  observers  seven  days 
to  complete  the  physical  tests  of  the  children  of  Battle  Creek.  The 
separate  testing  rooms  provided  for  boys  and  girls  of  each  school 
presented  the  appearance  of  an  almost  continuous  stream  of  young 
humanity  passing  the  various  pieces  of  apparatus  at  the  rate  of  be- 
tween one  or  two  per  minute. 

The  students  of  the  Normal  School  of  Physical  Education  are  to 
be  congratulated  on  having  such  a  fine  opportunity  of  testing  and 
estimating  the  development  of  the  type  of  children  whom  they  are 
planning  to  serve  in  the  near  future.  The  city  is  to  be  congratulated 
upon  ha\ing  such  an  effective  school  as  this  in  its  midst.     We  trust 


PHYSICAL  AND  :MENTAL  PERFECTION  CONTESTS  605 

that  these  physical  tests  will  be  repeated,  if  possible,  twice  a  year  in  a 
more  leisurely  fashion  and  that  the  children  Avill  be  given  copies  of 
their  measurements  in  a  form  which  will  indicate  to  them  how  well 
they  are  developed  and  in  what  they  fail  to  conform  to  the  normal. 
If  such  measurements  could  be  taken  twice  a  year,  in  the  fall  and 
in  the  spring,  the  interesting  and  instructive  observation  of  the 
parallel  of  the  growth  of  plant  and  human  life  would  be  apparent. 
"We  know  from  Malling-Hansen's  researches  in  Copenhagen,  and  those 
of  Mr.  George  Pinneo  and  myself  in  Springfield,  i\Iass.,  that  children, 
like  plants,  stretch  up  in  height  in  the  spring  and  fill  out  in  weight 
thru  the  increase  of  storage  matter  in  the  tissues  during  the  fall  and 
winter.  We  know  that  they  grow  in  waves  and  have  periods  of  ac- 
celeration, but  we  should  like  to  know  how  our  own  children  grow, 
why  they  do  not  grow  more  consistently ;  we  should  like  to  have  some- 
one point  out  their  defects  and  help  us  to  remove  them.  Wlien  half  the 
children  in  the  United  States  are  hindered  in  their  growth  by  various 
defects,  when  ninety-seven  per  cent  of  them  have  defective  teeth,  it  is 
surely  time  to  look  into  the  underlying  causes  and  attempt  to  remedy 
them. 

TABLE   I.   METHOD   OF   SELECTION,    SHOWING   PROGRESSIVE    ELIMINATION 

Boys 

I.      Total    Number    of   Children    Examined 1724 

II.      Total  of  Normal  Children 281 

III.      Total   qualifying   as   Best  Representative   of   Age   in    Grade 
Schools  and  of  grades  in  High  School  and  Departmental 

School    93                97             190 

IV.      Tot.al    of    Group    III    passing    Teachers    Grade    Standard, 

Classes  A  and  B   (over  85  per  cent) 9.^.                81             174 

Y.      Total  of  Group  IV  passing  as  Normal  in  Mental  Test 45               44               89 

A'l.      Total  of  Group  V  passing  Dental  Test 7                 9               16 

VII.      Total  of  Group  VI  passing  Eye,  Ear,  Nose  and  Throat  Test  6                 8               14 

V^III.      Real  Medal  Winners — Best  of  Age 6                 5               11 

METHOD  OF  SELECTION 

I.  The  whole  number  of  children  examined  in  Battle  Creek  schools 
was  3.537  :   1,724  boys  and  1,813  girls. 

II.  All  children  found  to  be  within  the  limits  of  normal  variability 
and  above  were  selected. 

1.  Children  who  were  under  the  twenty-five-per-cent  grade  of 
those  of  the  same  age  and  sex  in  height  were  dropped.  The  standards 
nsed  were  Hastings'  Age  Tables.  (See  Hastings'  Manual  for  Physical 
Measurements.) 

2.  Out  of  the  group  so  selected,  the  children  were  chosen  who  did 
not  deviate  in  any  of  their  measurements  below  the  twenty-five-per- 
cent grade  of  those  of  the  same  height,  age  and  sex.  The  standards 
nsed  were  Hastings'  Age-Height  Tables.    By  this  method  281  boys  and 


Girls 

Total 

1813 

3537 

265 

546 

606  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

265  girls  were  classed  as  iiornial  children,  546  children  in  all  out  of 
3,537. 

TIL  The  best-developed  child  of  each  age  in  the  grade  schools  and 
the  best  child  of  each  age  of  each  grade  in  the  departmental  school, 
and  the  best  of  each  age  of  each  grade  in  the  High  School,  were  se- 
lected from  the  foregoing  group  of  normal  children.  The  method 
employed  did  not  take  into  account  absolute  symmetry,  but  rather  size, 
strength  and  vitality. 

The  table  of  per  cents  by  which  these  children  were  graded  follows. 
As  will  be  noted,  a  certain  percentage  for  each  measurement  is  allotted 
for  conformity  to  the  standard  for  the  sex,  age  and  height.  One  ad- 
ditional point  is  scored  for  added  development  to  the  amount  of  the 
probable  deviation  above  the  normal,  that  is  to  say,  normal  Lung  Ca- 
pacity for  age  twelve,  height  140  centimetres  (55  inches),  for  boys  is 
1.9  litres  (116  cubic  inches).  The  boy  who  has  this  development  re- 
ceives twelve  per  cent  credit  for  the  same. 

A  boy  who  is  at  the  seventy-five-per-cent  grade  in  development, 
2.1  litres  (128  cubic  inches),  receives  one  point  more,  or  thirteen  per 
cent ;  one  who  deviates  above  the  mean  value  or  normal  by  double  the 
amount  of  the  deviation  of  the  seventy-five-per-cent  line  from  the 
mean,  twice  .2  litres  or  .4  litres  (28  cubic  inches),  is  said  to  have 
2  d  or  t^vice  the  probable  deviation  and  receives  two  per  cent,  making 
his  total  fourteen  per  cent ;  3  d  or  more  gives  him  fifteen  per  cent, 
the  utmost  credit  which  can  be  given  for  Lung  Capacity  in  reckoning 
the  nine  qualities  measured  on  the  basis  of  a  total  of  one  hundred 
per  cent  credit. 

The  folloM'ing  table  illustrates  the  method  of  physical  estimation : 

RELATIVE    PER   CENTS   FOR   GRADING   THE    DEVELOPMENT    OF   NORMAL 
CHILDREN    ACCORDING    TO    THEIR    MEASUREMENTS 

Maximum  Minimum 

Vital  Function  f  Chest.   Expansion    15  12 

Max.  Min.       -^   Lung  Capacity   15  12 

45  36  Respiratory  Pleight  Coefficient    ., 15  12 


Vital  Size  Breadth  of  Chest   15  12 

Max.  Min.       <^    Depth   of  Chest    8  6 

31  24  I    Height    Sitting    8  6 

W'eight  and  Strength             f  Weight     14  12 

Max.          Min.      <.    Strength  R.  Forearm 5  3 

24               18         [  Strength  L.  Forearm 5  3 

Total  100  78 

In  getting  the  percentage  standing  of  a  given  child,  reference  is 
made  to  the  Age-Height  table  and  section  to  which  his  height  entitles 
him  to  be  compared.  The  amount  of  his  deviation  from  the  type 
presented  in  this  height  section  is  calculated  for  each  quality  in  which 
he  has  been  measured,  and  divided  by  the  probable  deviation  +  to  se- 


PHYSICAL  AND  MENTAL  PERFECTION  CONTESTS  607 

cure  the  ratio  to  the  probable  deviation  and  thus  determine  how  many 
units  and  tenths  of  units  up  to  the  allotted  number  of  the  table  are 
to  be  added  to  the  minimum  per  cent  allowed.  Only  two  per  cent  to 
three  per  cent  above  the  minimum  is  allowed. 

OBSERVATIONS 

1.  In  the  interests  of  symmetry,  bone-lengths  and  girths  could  not 
be  treated  like  the  foregoing  measurements.  No  variation  of  more 
than  d,  the  probable  deviation,  could  logically  be  allowed  for  them, 

2 .  From  the  point  of  view  of  growth,  health  and  vigor,  no  maxi- 
mum limit  of  deviation  above  the  normal  should  be  assigned,  for  the 
greater  the  chest  expansion,  breadth  of  chest,  etc.,  the  more  vigorous 
the  individual.  In  recognition  of  the  claims  of  symmetry,  however,  not 
more  than  three  per  cent  excess  was  given  for  any  quality,  even  the 
most  favorable.  Excess  of  weight  above  2d,  twice  the  probable 
deviation,  was  estimated  to  be  excess  in  fat  as  a  rule  and  not  of  value 
to  physical  efficiency. 

Dept  of  chest,  height  sitting  and  strength  were  not  accorded  so 
large  a  place  as  other  measurements  in  reckoning  the  physical  standing 
of  the  child.  Growth  of  breadth  of  chest  is  one  of  the  signs  of  ma- 
turity ;  excessive  depth,  a  barrel-shaped  chest,  at  least,  is  the  typical 
phthisical  chest,  the  characteristic  chest  of  immaturity.  The  w^hole 
effect  of  this  mode  of  selection  was  to  count  vital  strength  and  health 
more  than  sjanmetry  and  graceful  lines  in  the  selection. 

3.  As  the  result  of  the  use  of  this  mode  of  selection,  out  of  281 
normal  boys  and  265  girls,  ninety-three  boys  and  ninety-seven  girls 
were  selected  as  the  best  representatives  of  their  age  in  those  schools. 

Numl>er  of  children  qualifying  as  the  best  of  each  age  from  each  of  nine  grade  schools, 
from  each  grade  (7th  and  8th)  of  the  departmental  school  and  each  class  (9th,  10th,  11th, 
and    12th   grades)    of   the   High    School. 

Aae  Boys  Girls 

5 2                         1 

6 7                         6 

7 5                         7 

8 7                         6 

9 7                         9 

10 X 8                         8 

11 9  10 

12 8                         8 

13 10  10 

14 9  11 

15 7                         7 

16 5                         5 

17 4                         4 

18 3                         3 

19 2                         2 

93  97       Total,   190 

IV.  Group  III  were  then  submitted  to  the  test  of  the  teacher's 
average  grades  and  all  eliminated  who  were  below  eighty-five  per  cent. 


608 


FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 


No  one  was  accepted  who  was  not  of  the  B,  a  or  A  class  standing. 
Ninety-three  boys  and  eighty-one  gii-ls.  a  total  of  174  students, 
survived  this  test. 

V.  Of  this  174  students,  forty-five  boys  and  forty-four  girls  quali- 
fied by  the  conditions  of  the  Mental  Test.  It  was  not  intended  that 
any  but  the  most  exceptional  student  should  make  one  hundred  per 
cent.  The  time  allotted  for  the  tests  prevented  this  and  made  com- 
parative statement  of  ability  possible. 


TABLE  OF  NORMAL  STANDARDS  FOR  MENTAL  TESTS  BY  GRADES 


Grade  I   

....75% 

50.38 

Deviation  6.62     .  .  . 

....50% 

43.75% 

25% 

37.12 

Grade    II     

.  .  .  .75% 

57.25 

Deviation   7.50     .  .  . 

50% 

49.75% 

25% 

42.25 

Grade  III    

75% 

57.45 

Deviation  6.17    .  .  . 

50% 

51.28% 

25% 

45.11 

Grade    lY 

75% 

52  57 

Deviation   3.64    .  .  . 

.  .  .  .50% 

48.93% 

25% 

45.29 

Grade  V    

75% 

55.56 

Deviation   5.06     .  .  . 

50% 

50.50% 

25% 

45.44 

Grade  VI 

75% 

56.96 

Deviation   4.29    .  . 

50% 

52.67% 

Type 


Grade    VII    

Deviation    3.90    . 


,75%  61.15 

.50%  57.25%  Type 

25%  53.35 

Grade  VIII 75%  68.49 

Deviation   5.12     50%  63.37% 

25%  58.25 

Grade  IX 75%  72.25 

Deviation   5.25     50%  67.00% 

25%  61.75 

Grade    X    75%  57.00 

Deviation    4.00     50%  53.00% 

25%  49.00 

Grade   XI    75%  71.00 

Deviation   2.00     50%  69.00% 

25%  67.00 

Grade  XII 75%  68.75 

Deviation    6.25     50%  62.50% 

25%  56.25 


Any  student  whose  deviation  from  the  typical  ability  of  the  grade 
made  him  fall  below  the  twenty-five-per-eent  line,  was  cast  out  of  the 
competition. 

VI.  Out  of  those  who  passed  the  mental  test  the  Battle  Creek 
Dental  Association  found  only  seven  boys  and  nine  girls  who  qualified 
as  having  practically  perfect  teeth.  They  discovered  enough  children 
of  each  age  to  be  deemed  worthy  of  the  gold  medals  for  their  teeth  but 
lack  of  other  qualities  caused  them  to  fail  to  appear  in  the  competi- 
tion. 

The  following  is  a  statement  of  the  condition  of  the  teeth  in  561 
of  the  most  normal  children  in  Battle  Creek : 


Number   Children    Examined 

Bovs     229 

Girls     332 


.561         With  Dirty  Teeth    

Bovs     142 

Girls     170 


PHYSICAL  AND  MENTAL  PERFECTION  CONTESTS  609 


Practically   Perfect    88  With  Filthy  Teeth   .  .  . 

Bovs     43  Boys     .    . 

Girls     45  Girls     .  .  . 

With  Decayed  Teeth 316  With  Irregular  Teeth 

■  Bovs     137  Boys     .  .  . 

Girls     179  Girls     ... 


With  Clean  Teeth 14.5 

Bovs     36 

Girls     109 

VII.  Of  those  who  passed  the  dental  test,  six  (6)  boys  and  eight 
(8)  girls  passed  the  eye,  ear,  nose  and  throat  test — fourteen  in  all. 

VIII.  And  of  these  there  were  six  boys  and  five  girls  who  by  the 
strict  interpretation  of  the  rules  of  the  contest  won    heir  medals. 

The  following  are  the  names  of  those  who  won  ly  the  method  of 
selection  as  originally  planned.  Had  there  been  time,  however,  the 
original  plan  contemplated  submitting  this  group  to  an  all-round 
strength,  endurance  and  physical  efficiency  test,  and  to  thorough  medi- 
cal examination. 

Girls  Age  Boys  Age 

Margaret  Beck    6        Lum  Kee 5 

Vera    Crowell    8       William  Gage 6 

Chris  Klemos 9 


Opal  Miller    12 


Niles  Vedder 14 


Rachel  Neale 17        y^m.  Hawley 17 

Alice  Bekins    18        Trevor  Adams 18 

To  satisfy  the  public  expectation  aroused  by  newspaper  announce- 
ments, it  was  found  necessary  to  select  the  best  child  of  each  age  and 
sex  from  those  who  had  passed  all  the  tests  and  could  be  classed  as 
normal  in  development,  whether  he  approximated  physical  and  mental 
perfection  very  closely  or  not.  This  was  done  hurriedly  by  a  special 
committee  of  physicians  cooperating  with  the  statistical  department. 
The  following  were  adjudged  medal  winners  by  this  committee  at  this 
time.  Those  children  who  won  by  the  original  plan  of  estimation  are 
starred  (*). 

MEDAL  WINNERS 
Boys 

Name 

— aabb*   Lum   Lee    

xaaaa*   Billy    Gage    

xcaxx     Edw.    Lawrence    

xbacc     Donald    Potter    

xaacx*   Chris    Klemos    

cbxxa     Cecil    Charles    

xxxxx     Daniel  Ilolton 

bbxxx     LaVerne   Coates    

caaxx     Donald    Lauer     

xcxca*   Niles    Vedder    

xbaxc     Wm.    Hastings    

aaaab*  Wm.    Hawley    

bxbbx     Trever  .Adams    

baaba*   Frederick  Woodard    .  . 

— aaaa      Bernadine    Stine    .... 

xaaba*   Margaret   Beck    

xbaxx      Frances   Shonp    

bcxcx*   Vera    Crowell    

xxxxc      Myrtle    Nutter     

xacca     Carol    Spencer    

(21) 


Age 

School 

Grade          Phvs 

Mental 

School 

Denial 

5 

4 

Beginners 

a 

a 

)) 

6 

11    , 

First 

X 

a 

a 

a 

7 

6 

Beginners 

c 

a 

X 

8 

6 

X 

b 

9 

2 

2 

X 

a 

10 

2 

5 

c 

b 

X 

11 

5 

4 

X 

X 

X 

jj 

12 

6 

b 

b 

X 

X 

13 

5-2 

a 

14 

6 

X 

^■ 

15 

High 

11 

X 

b 

a 

17 

12 

a 

a 

a 

b 

18 

10 

h 

b 

b 

19 

Girls 

12 

b 

b 

5 

5 

Beginners 

a 

a 

a 

6 

5 

X 

a 

a 

b 

7 

8 

X 

b 

a 

s 

(ilO 


\\i*.\'    N'Al'lONAI-    ClONKEKKNCli;    ON     KACIO    BETTERMENT 


liacco 

xcxbx* 

naaxn 

cbnxx 

cbaxx 

caxxx 

.laaab* 

a II  en  a* 

Coiitps 


Name 
Gladys    Berger 
Opal    Miller 
Rxith    Holder 
Theda  Jones    . 
Lucile  Parish 
Tacy    Coon    .  . 
Rachel    Neale 
Alice  Bekins    . 


Aoe 

11 

12 
13 
14 
15 
16 
17 
18 


Dept. 
High 
No.  1 
Dept. 
High 


Grnde 

5 

7-1 
101 

0-2 

8-2 
12 
10-2 


Mental      School    Denial    Senaorv 


ix   boys    and    five    girls    won    (he    prizes    by    llip    method    of    judging   under    which    the 
t    was    originally    planned. 


Places    Won    by    Contestants 


-First. 

-Second. 

-Third. 

-Not    am 


the    first    three    of    the 


Total  Scoring    by  Contests 

h4                al4              al6  a4  a9 

b:^                 a7                 bl  ■  b6  b3 

c,.5                 c4                c3  cb  c4 

xl2               x3                 x8  xl2  xl2 


28 


28 


28 


After  the  presentation  of  the  medals,  time  was  found  for  a  more 
systematic  estimation  of  the  comparative  development  of  the  children 
deemed  to  be  normal.  With  the  assistance  of  Dr.  Benton  N.  Colver, 
of  the  Sanitarium,  and  a  committee  of  the  Battle  Creek  Dental  Asso- 
ciation, the  Statistical  Department  prepared  the  following  statement 
as  to  those  who  won  first,  second  and  third  places  for  each  age  and  sex 
in  each  test. 

These  tables  follow:  "a"  denotes  first  place,  "b"  second  place, 
"c"  third  place,  "x"  means  some  lower  rank.  Children's  names  are 
^■iven  in  the  order  of  their  rank  or  place  (a,  b,  c,  or  first,  second, 
third). 

PHYSICAL    TEST 


Boys 


Per   Gent        A 


Dewitt  Brice    94 

Clifford  Lazarus    92 

Cowell  Closet 92 

*Billy  Gage 

•Tames  Corwin    90 

Norman  McDonald    87 

Gerald    Sharpsteen    86 

*Edward    La'viTence    

Leslie   Acker    96 

Elgin    Johnson     96 

Lawrence  Walker    95.5 

Charles   Casper    94 

Donald  Potter 

Norman  Haiighey    92.5 

Frederick  Kent    92 

Edwin   Vary    89 

Chris   Klemos    

Milford    Boyce    96 

Maxwell   Knight    94 

*Cecil  Charles 90.5 

Edwin   Ricketson    93 

Lavern  Potter 92.5 

Lawrence   Rogers    92 

*Daniel  Holton   

Dean   Wells    93 

*LaVerne  Coates 92 

Lisle  Bucklin 91 

Lyle   Sharpisteen    90.5 

Woodbridge   Johnson    87.5 

*Donald  Lauer    84.5 

Gerald  Dough    84.5 

John  Barker    98 

Alan    Hastings    97.5 

Merill  Read 96 

-Niles  Vedder    


Girls 

Dorothy  Mead    .  . 

Helen    Mitchell 

Doris    McCrumb 

'Margaret  Beck   .  . 


Per  Cent 
91 


Affp. 
6 


.94.5 


.Tuanita   Ziegler 

Janey  Crillev 91 

Lillian  Madison 85.5 

*Frances   Shoup    

Minnie    Richmond     95.5  8 

Vera    Crowell    91 

Kathryn    June   Armstrong    .  .89.5 

Frances   Poole    97.5  9 

Martha  Gwendolin  Case  ....  95 
Pauline  Wagner    93 

*Myrtle  Nutter    

Lucile    Campbell     94.5  10 

Rhea  Sullivan   92 

Marian  T.   Bruce    90.5 

Thelma    Boyd    90.5 

*Carol  Spencer    

Marian  Ginter 98    plus  11 

Shirley   E.   Hale    98 

*Gladys    Berger    94 

Lenna  Mae  Canright    .....  .93 

Emilv   J.   Marsh    97.5plus  12 

Lucy   Clark    97.5 

Marguerite  Dodder   96 

Thelma  I.  Perry    95.5 

Opal  Miller    

*Ruth   Holder    98.5plus  13 

Mary  Seage 95 

Gertrude  Zanger 94 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  BATTLE  GREEK  BOYS 

From  SIX  TO  NINETEEN  YEARS  OF  AGE 

Compiled  by  Wm.  W.  Hastings,  Ph.  D.,  Dean  of  Normal  School  of  Physical  Education,  Battle  Creek,  Mich. 


20.96 
J  24.96 

22.96 


48.98 
43.31 
37.64 


68.06 
61.75 
55.44 

68.50 
63.00 

57.50 


127.48 
124.07 
120.66 


152.58 
146.77 
140.96 


172.87 
168.75 
164.63 


G3.78 
61.55 

59  .  32 

65.71 
60,15 

58.18 


70.01 
67.95 

67.89 


87.08 
82.35 

77  .  62 


90.00 
86.40 

82.80 


15.02 
14.68 

14.34 


15.55 
15.21 
14.87 


19.29 
18.77 
18.25 


19.56 
19.05 

18.54 


23.92 
22.75 


24.44 
23.37 
22.30 


21.28 


22.67 
21.76 
20.85 


23.51 
22.77 
22.03 


24.24 
23.30 
22.36 


25.19 
24.10 
23.01 


26.80 
25.59 
24.38 


28.72 
27.08 

25  .  44 


29.44 
28.35 
27.26 


29.95 
28.48 
27.01 


30.50 
29.00 

27.. 'iO 


22 

85 

23 

91 

24 

48 

25 

87 

14.76 
13.75 
12.74 


16.76 
15.55 
14.34 


17.87 
16.65 
15.43 


17.93 
17.07 
16.21 


17.69 
17.02 
16.35 


20.23 
19.32 
18.41 


63.97 
62.01 
60.05 


67.64 
65.42 
63.20 


70.26 
67.80 
65.34 


72 .  24 
!69.20 
'66.16 


79.27 
74.65 
70.03 


82.42 
78.50 
74.58 


18.81 

83.25 
80.10 
76.95 

19.21 

83.86 
80.10 
76.34 

This  table   is   m   the   Metric   S.vstem;     Centimetres,   kilogrammes,   litres. 

To  traiispo.se  centimetres  to  inches,  multiply  by  .393;    kilogrammes  to  pounds,   multiply  bv  2  2: 

M  stands  for  the  mean  value,  which  is  the  50%  line  and  is  taken  for  the  tvpe  of  the  a^e   ' 


65.45 
63.30 
61.15 


68.55 
66.52 
64.49 


77.01 
74.30 
71.59 


80.38 
77.14 
73.90 


83.39 
80.30 
77.21 


92.56 
88.10 
83.64 


1.10 
.96 
.82 

1.30 
1.15 

1.00 

1.47 
1.31 

1.15 


1.79 
1.57 


2.02 
1.80 
1.58 


2.40 
2.11 

3.13 


3.57 
3.12 
2.67 


19.53 
17.10 
14.67 


24.79 
21.35 
17.91 


29.70 
26.20 

22.70 


48.79 
42.25 
35.71 


S^ 


15.25 
12.72 
10.19 


17.54 
15.24 
12.94 

19.71 
17.05 
14.39 

23.04 
20.08 

17.12 


49.68 
45. 

40.74 


68.00 
43.00 
18.00 


ches,    multiply   by   61 


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PHYSICAL  AND  MENTAL  PERFECTION  CONTESTS 


611 


Boi,.«                                  Per  Cent       Age 
1       James  Reducr 97.5  15 

2.  Harold   Hoyt 94 

3.  Robert  Dowsett 89.5 

*Wm.  Hastings 

1.  Robert    Lord    93  16 

2.  Bovd  Redner 88 

3.  Paul    Clark    »7.5 

1     *William   Hawley    84.5  17 

2."      Franz    Toeller    84 

3.      Harold  King    79.5 

1.  *Smith  J.  DeFrancc 91  18 

2.  *Trevor  Adams 85 

3.  Willard   Baiigh    74.5 

1.  Burton    Clark    89  19 

2.  *Frederick  Woodard 83.5 

3.  Cyril  Canright 92  20 


Girls 


Per  Cent 

93 

91 


Helen    Armstrong    .  .  . 

Elaine  Collins    

Irma   Keagle    

"Theda  Jones    90.5 

Elsa  Kapp   94 

Martba    Rose     91 

Lucile  Parrish 85.5 


Norma  Peters  .  .  . 
Laurell  Clevenger 
Tacy    Coon     


,88.5 

,88 

.83 


Rachel  Neale 92 

Irma  Moore 86 

Venice  Barker 84 

Alice  Bekins    87 

Hilda  DeBarr   84 

Florence    Collier    79.5 


Age 
14 


MENTAL  TEST 


Boys 
Lum  Kee   . 
Glen   Case 


Age 
5 


Wm.  Gage  .  .  . 
Boyce  Roberts 
DeWitt  Price  . 


Laverne    Spooner    64.66 

Gerald    Sharpsteen    54.83 

Edward   Lawrence    P 

Chauncev  Kyser    57.83 

Donald  Potter    P 

John  Clarke  Riggs 50.65 

Chris  G.  Klemos 81.75 

Arthur  Vanguilder    46.5 

John  Bush 41.3 

52.5 

50.78 


Daniel    Holton 
Cecil  Charles    . 


Glen  Wood 65.33 

Edwin    Ricketson    54.72 

Chas.   Winzer    49.9 

Lyle  Bucklin   55.3 

Laverne  Coats 54.25 

Louis  Burgess 53.83 

Donald  Lauer    63.3 

Gerald  Dough    51.5 

Arthur  Carleen    50.25 

John  Baker 64.05 

Alan  Hastings 62.65 

Niles  A^edder   53.6 

Wm.  Hastings 59.63 

James  Walker   54.12 


Girls 
Bernadino   Stine 


Marguerite  Beck 
Gertrude  Fisher  . 

(Helen  Mitchell   . 

(Dorothy  Meade 


Age 
5 


Oneita  Ziegler 54.8 

Frances    Shoup    P 

Janey    Crilly     P 

Myrtle  Craze    61.06 

Frances    Holmes    60.83 

Vera  Crowell 53.16 

Martha  Case    59.5 

Mildred  Morso 55.9 

Lucile    BUeltzingslowen     35.3.i 


Carol  Spencer  .  . 
Hazel  Spaulding 
Sarah  Norris   .  .  . 


.58.46 
.53.05 
.49.89 


Gladys  Berch 52.87 

Margaret   Clayman    52.45 

Mazie  Butler 51.05 

Lucv   Clark    58.75 

Thelma   Perry    53.95 

Opal  Miller    52.55 

Ruth  Holder    64.13 

Iva  Wright 48.58 

Irma  Keagle    76.96 

Theda   Jones    59.43 

Helen   Armstrong    59.16 

Martha  Rose    66.26 

Lucile    Parrish    61 

Lois  Messenger    60.45 

Tacy  Coone    71.5 

Vavah  Tobey 57.2 


1.     Wm.  Hawley   67. 


Rachel  Neale 


70.72      17 


Willard  Baugh 72.6 

S.  G.  DeFrance 67.31 


Cyril  Canright 


1.      Alice   Bekins 

3."      * 

1. 

3". 
1. 
2. 


.69  18 

19 
20 


612 


KIRST    NATIONAT;    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BKTTERMENT 


SCHOOL  RECORD 


Boi/s  Per  Cent        Age 

1.  Lum  Kee 85  5 

2.  Glen  Case 70 

3.  * 

1.  Will.  Gage 98  6 

2.  Bovce  Roberts 95 

3.  (D"ewitt  Price 85 

(Leland  Richard  Keagle 85 

1.  Edward  Lawrence 98  7 

2.  George  Judd 93 

3.  Laverne  Spooner    85 

1.  Donald   Potter    97  8 

2.  (Elgin   Johnson    95 

(John  Clark  Riggs 95 

3.  Leslie  Acker 92 

1.  Chris  G.  Klemos 92  9 

2.  Edwin  Vary 90 

3.  (Frederick   Clyde  Kent    85 

(John    Storm    85 

1.      Paul   Lawrence    96  10 

'  2.      Leroy   Hart    95 

3.      Maxwell  Knight 85 

1.  Chas.  Winger 95  H 

2.  (Edwin   RicV:etson    94 

(Donald   Williamson    94 

3.  Donald    Sherman    86 

1.  Gordon   Schhihatis    9»  12 

2.  Robert  AVilkins 95 

3.  Dean  Wells 93 

1.  (Donald    Lauer    90  13 

(Woodridge  Johnson    90 

2.  Lvle  Sharpsteen   88 

Harry   King    88 

John    Landig    88 

Arthur   Carleen    88 

Floyd   Gross .88 

1.  Alan   Hastings    92  14 

2.  Robert   McConnell    89 

S.     Merrill    Read    88 

1.  Wm.    Hastings    96  15 

2.  James   Walker    85 

3.  Arthur  Redner 84 

1.  Herbert  Davy 98  16 

2.  (Boyd   Redner    91 

(Paul   Clarke    91 

3.      Robert  Lord    83 

1.  Wm.    Hawley    96  17 

2.  (Harold  King 90 

(Edward  Ferguson    90 

3.  Franz  Toeller   87 

1.  Harold   H.    Bauer    89  18 

2.  (Trevor    Adams    88 

(Willard    Baugh     88 

3.  L.  B.  Williams 72 

1.  Frederick  Woodard    100  19 

2.  Burton   Clarke    85 

3.  * 

1.  Claude  French    88  20 

2.  Cyril   Canright    80 


Girls                                    Per  Cent 
llornadine  Stino 80 

Margaret  Beck 98 

Gertrude  Fisher O.'i 

(Helen    Mitchel    90 

(Dorothy    Meade    90 

(Frances  Shoup 93 

(Janey   Crilley    93 

Juanita    Ziegler    92 

Harriet  Rothenberg 87 

(Irene  Norwood 95 

(Myrtle  Craze 95 

Winifred  Kirshman    93 

Katherine  Armstrong 92 

Mary    Bryant    97 

Lueile   Bueltzingslowen    96 

Pauline  Wagner 95 

(Emma   Ostrander    95 

(Thelma   Boyd    95 

(Hazel    Spaulding    95 

Marian  Bruce 92 

Carol    Spencer    90 

Marguerite    Clayam    97 

(Georgia  Bibbings    87 

(Thelma  McCabe    87 

( Alvida    Farrah    86 

(Gladys  Berger    86 

(Marian   Sauter    95 

(Laura  Price    95 

Emilv   Marsh    94 

LaMoine    French    90 

(Ruth    Holder     90 

(Eva    Wright    90 

Mildred   Stine 89 

Mary    Seage    85 

Theda  Jones 96 

Julia    Rumohr    95 

Ada  Whitmore    94 

Lueile   Parrish    98 

Elsa   Kanp    94 

Martha    Rose    92 

Dorothy  Williamson 91 

Ruth  Hickman    90 

Naomi  Peters    88 

Rachel    Neale    98 

Irma   Moore    92 

( Vavah   Tobey    90 

(Venice   Barker    90 

Florence   Collier    97 

Hilda  DeBarr 95 

Alice    Bekins    91 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  BATTLE  CREEK  GIRLS 

From  SIX  TO  EIGHTEEN  YEARS  OF  AGE 

Compiled  by  Wm.  W.  Hastings,  Ph.  D.,  Dean  of  the  Normal  School  of  Physical  Education,  Battle  Creek,  Mich. 


1 

7 

9 
10 
11 
12 

14 
15 

17 
18 

i 

123 
158 
192 
194 
188 
231 
194 
180 
160 
112 
55 
25 
18 

1 

75 
M 
25 

75 
M 

2.1 

75 
M 
25 

M 
25 

75 
M 

25 

75 
M 

25 

75 
M 

25 

75 
M 

25 

75 
M 
25 

75 
M 
25 

75 
M 
25 

75 
M 
25 

75 
M 
25 

1 

1 

if 

1! 

a 

14.45 
14.07 
13.69 

■a 

19.09 
18.49 

17.89 

lit 

ffl  °^ 

iij 

.1 

1- 

1 

iJ 

ill 

III 

.96 
.83 

.70 

:98 

.54 

P 

21.52 
19.86 

18.15 

116.25 
112.70 
109.15 

63.60 
61.85 
60   10 

18.19 
17.75 

21.11 

20   32 

19.53 

19.40 
19.89 
20.39 

21.17 


22.36 
22   94 

12.92 
12.77 
12.62 

15.30 
14.79 

13.78 

i7^ 

14.25 

60.52 
58.51 

56.50 

65.10 
62.90 

60.70 

4.39 
4.55 

7.49 
5.50 

7.53 
5.11 

2.69 

22.95 
21.75 

20 .  53 

121.06 
117.10 
113.14 

65.37 
63.50 
61.63 

14.56 
14.19 
13.82 

18.13 
17.65 
17.17 

19.55 
18.88 

18.21 

21.60 
20.90 
20.20 

22.28 
21.46 
20.64 

13.39 
12.98 

12.57 

15.84 
15.21 
14.58 

61.56 
59.90 

58.24 

70.18 
66.45 
62.62 

10.70 
9.16 
7.62 

10.58 
9.00 
7.43 

11.38 
9.81 
8.24 

24.68 
23.12 
21.  5G 

125.06 
122.18 

118.70 

67.19 
65.41 
63.63 

14.64 
14.30 
13.96 

18.22 
17.78 

17.34 

20.08 
19.32 

18.56 

13.58 
13.06 
12.54 

13.91 
13.29 

16.11 
15.45 

14.79 

63.27 
61.11 

58.95 

67.95 
65.95 
63.95 

69.94 
67.93 
65.92 

4.84 

1.26 
1.12 

.98 

13.83 
11.70 
9.57 

25:90 

23.68 

132.18 
128.62 

125.06 

69.87 
67.92 
65.97 

14.65 
14.33 
14.01 

18.47 
18.03 

17.59 

18.49 
18.06 
17.63 

20.74 
20.02 
19.30 

23.21 
22.35 
21.49 

16.48 
15.88 

15.28 

14,58 

64.89 
62.87 
60.85 

5.06 

1.43 
1.28 
I.IS 

15.83 
13.79 
11.75 

14.44 
12.34 

10.24 

30.86 
28.13 

25.40 

135.38 
132.15 
128.92 

71.55 
69.48 

67.41 

14.80 
14.41 
14.08 

21.01 
20.22 
19.43 

23.57 
22.73 
21.89 

13.74 
13.13 

17.39 
16.52 
15.65 

15   13 

66.45 
64.00 
61.55 

71.60 
69.42 
67.24 

5.42 

1.50 
1.35 
1.20 

16.58 
14.45 
12.32 

16.09 
13.67 
11.25 

35.31 
31.98 

28.05 

142.80 
137.70 
132.. 'li 

75.62 
72.90 

14.92 
14.53 
14.14 

18.55 
18.08 

17.61 

21.94 
21.07 

20.20 

24.71 
23.66 
22.61 

14.97 
14.04 

17.78 
16.89 

16.00 

15.46 

69.35 
66.41 
63.47 

75.86 
73.08 
70.30 

6.67 

1.73 
1.65 
1.37 

21.35 
18.07 

14.79 

18.85 
16.14 
13.43 

40.47 
36.72 
30.97 

149.67 
144.33 
138.99 

78.55 
75.80 
73.05 

15.13 
14.68 
14.23 

18.82 
18.31 

17.80 

22.68 
21.55 

20.42 

25.56 
24.34 

16.01 
15.00 
13.99 

17:50 

16.58 

16.25 

72.77 
69.19 
65.61 

78.54 
75.09 
71.64 

5.90 

1.96 
1.73 

1.50 

25.46 
22.02 

18.58 

22.72 
20.00 

17.28 

46.85 
41.75 
36.65 

156.80 
151.30 

145.80 

82.26 
79.14 
76.02 

15.46 
15.00 
14.54 

18.99 
18.52 

18.05 

23.81 
22.67 
21.53 

26.67 
25.67 

24.67 

24.17 

16.50 
15.54 

14.58 

19.24 
18.37 

17.50 

■16.95 

76.42 
73.43 

70.44 

83.00 
79.13 

75.26 

5.70 

2.14 
1.89 
1.64 

26.14 
22.74 
19.34 

25.81 
22.40 
18.99 

48.75 
44.10 
39.45 

158.35 
154.40 
150.45 

83.45 
81.20 

78.95 

15.47 
15.00 
14.53 

19.03 
18.59 
18.11 

24.12 
23.09 
22.06 

27.42 
26.30 

24.69 

16.94 
16.04 
15.14 

20.22 
19.10 

17.98 

17.57 

78.00 
74.70 
71.40 

85.03 
81.12 

77.21 

6.42 

2.38 
2.09 

1.83 

27.67 
24.94 
22.21 

25.69 
22.77 
19.85 

51.99 
47.50 
43  .  01 

54.0V, 
49.83 
45.60 

57.16 
52.25 
47.34 

161.87 
156.70 
151.53 

85.34 
82.95 
80.56 

15.55 
.15.07 
14.59 

19.34 
18.81 

18.28 

25  .  03 
24.03 
23  .  03 

27.81 
26.88 

25.95 

25.95 
25.62 
26.18 
26.03 

17.14 
16.35 

15.56 

20.06 
19.11 
18.16 

16.86 

18.30 

79.92 
76.44 

72.96 

85.84 
82.55 
79.26 

6.11 

2.45 
2.20 
1.95 

30.00 
27.44 

24.88 

29.41 
26.30 
23.19 

162.65 
159.07 
155.49 

86.34 
84.30 

82.26 

15.57 
15.13 

19.43 
18.95 

18.47 

24.93 
24.07 
23.21 

28.11 
27.17 

26.23 

17.39 
16.38 
15.37 

20.13 
19.12 
18.11 

20.13 
19.15 

18.17 

86.63 
78.14 

75.65 

83:50 

80.74 

5.36 

2.45 
;     2.14 

1.83 

30.77 
27.38 
23.99 

28.45 
25.10 
21.75 

162.03 
159.16 
156.29 

85.86 
83.70 
81.54 

15.49 
15.08 

14.67 

19.13 
18.55 

17.97 

25.25 
24.52 
23.79 

28.60 
27.85 

27.10 

17.39 
16.45 

15.51 

16:25 

15.23 

82.20 
79.56 
76.92 

87.98 
85.25 
82 .  52 

5.69 

1    2.62 
2.38 
2.14 

33.20 
30.87 

28 .  54 

60.37 
50.50 

40.63 

30.18 
27.72 
25.26 

56.25 
51.50 
46.75 

164.12 
160.25 
156.38 

84:70 
83.39 

15.47 
15.25 
15.03 

19.40 
18.85 
18.30 

25.53 
24.55 
23.57 

28.15 
27.52 
26.89 

20.20 
19.07 
17.94 

17.66 

78.96 
77.08 
75.20 

85.68 
82.75 
79.82 

5.67 

2.49 
2.22 
1.95 

59.25 
50.50 

41.75 

1 

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PHYSICAL  AND  MENTAL  PERFECTION  CONTESTS 


613 


DENTAL  EXAMINATION 


Clii¥ord  McGriflRn 
Lum  Kee 
Glen    Case 

Wm.   Gage 

Ernest  Van   Strain 

Clifford   Lazonis 

Earl   McMahan 
Harry  Ellis 
Robert   Baker 

Emerson    Brigham 
Frederick   Hunt 
Donald    Potter 

Paul  Lawrence 
Gilbert  Adams 
Chris    Klemos 

Ernest  Fall 
Douglas  Dunsmore 
Donald  W.  Winans 

Lawrence  Rogers 
Newton  Gould 
Glen  Winger 

Robert   Wilkins 
Howard   Pomeroy 
Markham  Fitzgerald 

Gregory    Robinson 
.John    Jacob 
Nelson  Wickham 

Albert    Gould 

Robt.  Russel  Mcintosh 

Niles  Tedder 

Ralph  Tabor 
Lawrence   Young 
Earl   Burgett 

Chas.    Jones 
Edw.  Ferguson 
Alliston   Barker 

Harold  King 
Wm.  Hawley 
Herman  A¥oodard 

L.    B.   Williams 
Trevor  Adams 
Willard    Baugh 
Burton    Clark 
Frederick  Woodard 

Claude  French 


Age 

Girls 

5 

1. 
2. 
3. 

Bernadine   Stine 

6 

1. 

2. 
3. 

Tilda   Parsons 
Margaret    Beck 
Helen    Mitchell 

7 

3! 

Ruth   Adaline   Garrard 
Dorothy   Fenn 
Harriet   Rothenberg 

8 

1. 
3! 

Winifred  Kirshman 
Clara    Carter 
Yera  Crowell 

9 

L 
3. 

Enid   McAllister 
Frances  Gorsline 
Alta  Hanson 

10 

1. 
3. 

Prudence  Parson 
Bessie    Brandt 
Carol   Spencer 

11 

1. 
3' 

Ruby  Hart 
Marian  "Zanger 
Gladys  Berger 

12 

1. 

3. 

Ruth  Leach 
Opal  Miller 
Hazel  Johnson 

13 

1. 

Carlotta    Squier 
Mary   Seage 
Georgia  Faith 

14 

1. 

3. 

Rita   Love 
Gladys  Coon 
Beatrice   Guildford 

15 

1. 

3; 

Beatrice  Lapham 
Zelma   Tyner 
Elsa   Kapp 

16 

1. 

2. 

Iva  Fisher 
Agnes  Heffley 
Nellie   Clapper 

17 

1. 

2. 
3. 

Rachel  Neale 
Rachel   Leo 
Irma   Moore 

18 

1. 
3. 

Alice   Bekins 
Hilda   DeBnrr 
Leona    Ford 

19 

1. 
3'. 

: 

20 

1. 

* 

EYE,  EAR,  NOSE  AND  THROAT  EXAMINATION 


1. 

Boys 
Glen    Case    

.  .  .    95 

C 

c 

Age 
5 

1. 
2. 
3. 

Girls 
Bernadine    Stine     

95 

C 

Age 
5 

s. 

1. 
3: 

Wm.    Gage    

Leland    Keagel    

Clifford  Lazarus    

.  ..    90 
.  .  .    88 
.  .  .    84 

R 
R 

R 

0 

1. 
2. 
3. 

Margaret  Beck    

Gertrude  Fisher    

Dorothy  Meade    

88 

...    87 
86 

R 
R 
R 

6 

1. 

■2. 
3. 

Lang    Davis    

Gerald   Sharpsteen    .... 
Norman    McDonald    .  .  . 

.  .  .100 
.  ..    90 
.  .  .    88 

R 
R 
R 

7 

1. 
3.' 

Juanita  Zeigler 

Gertrude   Roberts    

Harriet    Rothenberg    .  . 

100 

...    88 
87 

R 
R 
R 

7 

1. 

Leslie  Acker    

John    Clark   Riggs    .... 
Donald    Potter     . 

.  .  .    90 

.  .  .    89 

89 

R 
R 

■p 

8 

1. 
2. 
0 

M\Ttle    Craze     

Winifred  Kirschman   .  .  . 
Minnie    Richmond     .  .  .  . 

Martha     Case     

Mildred    Morse    

Mvrtle  Nutter    

. . .100 
...    93 
...    84 

.  .  .  .100 
...    98 
..  .    90 

R 
R 
R 

Ca 
Ca 
Ca 

8 

2'. 
3. 

Norman    Haughev     .... 
Frederick    Clyde   Kent    . 
Edwin   Yary    

. . .100 
.  .  .    90 
..    S3 

R 
R 
R 

9 

1. 
3. 

9 

614  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 


I. 

Boys 
Cecil    Charles    

....    90  Ca 
89  Ca 

Age 
10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16 

17 

18 

19 

■^o 

3! 
1. 
3'. 
1. 
3! 
1. 
3. 
1. 
3'. 
1. 
3. 
1. 
3. 
1. 

S. 
1. 

3. 
1. 
2. 

1, 

OirlH 

Carol    Spencor     

Fmma    Ostrander    .  .  .  . 

90  Ca 

89  Ca 

Age 
10 

3. 

Milford    Boyce    

Kenneth   Brownell    .  .  . 
Lnvern    A.    Potter    .  .  . 
Donald    Sherman    

Laverne  "Wright    

Bean  Wells   

85  Ca 

98   Ca 

98   Ca 

97  Ca 

. . . .    95   H 
90   H 

1. 

Ida    Kecne     

95   H 

u 

'J. 

3. 
1. 

Gladys  Bugcr    

Thelma    Perry     

. . . .    88   H 
95   H 

12 

3 

Robert    Wilkins     

85  H 

Marian   Fauter    

Ruth    Holder     

. . . .    85  H 
.    95    H 

1. 

Lyie    Sharpsteen     .... 

John     Laudig     

Arthur  Carteen 

Xiles    A'edder    .  . 

95  H 

93   H 

. . . .    85   H 

100  c 

13 

3.' 

Shirley   E.   Hale    

Thelma    McCabe    

94   H 

. . . .    85   H 

1 

Helen  Armstrong   .... 

Ruby    Oxley    

Julia    Rumohr    

Martha    Rose    

Mildred  Stevens 

Cecil    Hager    

Dorothy    Williams     .  .  . 
Norma    Peters     

91  C 

90  C 

. . . .    89  C 

98  C 

. . . .    90  C 
. ...    88   C 

98   C 

90  C 

14 

Alan    Hastings    

98  C 

3. 
1. 

Lee  Coller   

James    Walker    

Arthur  Redner    . 

95   C 

95    C 

90   C 

15 

3. 
1. 

Wm.    Hastings    

Herbert    Davy     

Boyd    Redner    

Paul   Clark    

85   C 

100  C 

90   C 

. . . .    85   C 

16 

3. 

90  C 

1 

Irma    Moore    

Rachel    Neale    

Vavah   Tobey    

Alice    Bekins 

95   C 

. . . .    90   C 

. . . .    88  C 

95    C 

IT 

3' 

Wm.  Hawley 

95   C 

90   C 

1. 

Harold    Bauer     

S.    J.   DeFranee    

L.   B.  Williams    

Frederick  Woodard    .  . 
Burton   Clark    

Claude    French    

90   C 

88   C 

80   C 

98   C 

. ...    95   C 

. . . .     70 

18 

2 

Florence   Collier    ...    . 

85   C 

3. 
1. 

3'. 

1. 

Hilda  DeBarr 

*    (No  Contestants) 

.  . .  .    75   C 

19 
30 

"^-      *  3.      *    (No  Contestants) 

By  reference  to  the  foregoing  table  on  "Medal  Winners,"  the  places 
won  by  each  medal  winner  are  to  be  observed.  As  will  be  noted,  some 
of  the  medal  winners  won  no  place  in  anything,  were  mediocre  in 
everything,  but  won  because  they  qualified  in  everything.  Others,  not 
medal  winners,  very  nearly  perfect  by  the  physical  tests  and  mental 
tests,  lost  the  medal  by  irregular  teeth  or  enlarged  tonsils.  Others 
lost  by  the  omission  of  some  physical  or  mental  test. 

Another  year  would  witness  a  very  much  more  satisfactory  contest. 
Nearly  all  of  the  five  thousand  Battle  Creek  children  would  enter  and 
be  careful  to  miss  nothing.  A  month's  time  for  examination  and  three 
months  for  statistical  work  would  give  more  accurate  and  satisfactory 
results. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  many  children  of  excellent  mentality 
have  been  eliminated  by  the  physical  test,  some  of  those  making  the 
highest  grades.  There  are  not  many  of  these  children  Avho  are  very 
precocious  who  have  inferior  bodies.  Generally  speaking,  muscle  and 
mind  are  good  yoke-fellows  and  are  found  associated.  Exceptions  al- 
ways look  more  prominent  and  seem  more  frequent  because  of  the 
contradiction  which  one  finds  in  their  occurrence. 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  some  children  well-groMTi  and  well-de- 
veloped were  not  symmetrical.  Some  were  below  normal  height  or  below 
normal  in  chest  depth,  strength,  sitting  height,  chest  expansion  or  some 


PHYSICiVL  AND  MENTAL  PERFECTION  CONTESTS  615 

other  particular.  They  were  very  much  superior  in  certain  qualities 
but  not  all-round  in  development,  and  were  therefore  excluded  from 
the  contest.  It  must  be  remembered  also  that  in  selecting  from  the 
grades  in  the  Departmental  and  High  Schools,  the  youngest  boys  and 
girls  have  the  advantage  from  the  fact  that  there  are  few  of  the  same 
age  to  compete  with  them,  but  in  the  final  tests  of  health  and  physical 
perfection  by  dentists  and  physicians,  they  compete  with  the  most 
perfect  children  from  all  grades  and  justice  is  finally  done  in  the 
matter  of  selection. 

Important  lessons  have  accrued  to  teachers,  parents  and  children 
thru  these  tests ;  lessons  of  the  reality  of  race  degeneracy,  of  the  possi- 
bilities of  race  betterment,  lessons  of  toothbrushes  and  clean  mouths, 
regular  baths,  plain,  simple  foods,  plenty  of  sleep  and  outdoor  exer- 
cise ;   lessons  that  children  will  never  forget. 

We  want  to  acknowledge  our  indebtedness  in  this  contest  to  a  few 
of  the  people  who  assisted  us.  We  want  especially  to  acknowledge  our 
indebtedness  to  Superintendent  Coburn  and  the  Board  of  Education 
for  the  opportunity  of  taking  these  tests,  and  for  everj^  form  of  co- 
operation which  they  could  lend  us ;  also  to  the  principals  and  teachers 
of  the  schools  who  have  assisted  us  in  every  way  possible.  We  want 
to  acknowledge  our  indebtedness  to  the  eye,  ear,  nose  and  throat 
specialists  of  the  city,  four  of  whom  gave  their  time  freely  to  the  ex- 
amination of  the  children — Dr.  W.  M.  Carling,  Dr.  Chas.  W.  Ryan, 
Dr.  AVilfred  Haughey  and  Dr.  B.  N.  Colver,  and  to  the  members  of  the 
Battle  Creek  Dental  Association :  Dr.  B,  R.  Parrish,  Dr.  C.  F.  Larned, 
Dr.  S.  i\I.  Fowler,  Dr.  B.  F.  Johanson,  Dr.  J.  H.  Rockwell,  Dr.  D.  C. 
Nichols,  Doctor  Trestain,  for  without  the  hearty  cooperation  of  all 
these  people,  the  contests  would  have  been  absolutely  impossible. 

We  also  acknowledge  our  indebtedness  to  the  Normal  School 
students  Avho  have  stayed  with  it  loyally  from  the  start  to  the  finish, 
who  began  this  work  the  second  week  in  December  and  have  spent 
about  one  month  on  it. 

The  mental  tests  recently  taken  in  Battle  Creek  occupied  the  time 
of  over  thirty  instructors  and  students  in  the  Normal  School  of 
Physical  Education  for  five  days.  Three  or  four  rooms  were  taken 
at  a  time  in  the  grade  schools  so  that  the  whole  school  was  completed 
during  a  morning  or  an  afternoon. 

Heavy  as  has  been  the  labor  of  taking  the  physical  and  mental 
tests,  and  important  as  it  was  to  employ  the  verj^  best  available  assis- 
tance for  the  purpose,  the  task  of  scrutinizing  carefully  and  compiling 
results  from  these  tests  has  been  infinitely  more  laborious  than  all  that 
has  gone  before.     In  this  work,  the  head  clerks.  Mr.  A.  L.  Ralicoek 


CA6  FIRS'l'    N.VI'KtNAI,    CONKKHENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

;iml  Mr.  (Mias.  P.i'adsluiw,  Seniors  in  llic  Xoi'iual  Sdiool  of  IMiysical 
Hdiicatioii.  lia\H'  i-cccivcd  iinaluahic  assistaiuu'  i'l-oiii  tlu'  students  of 
tlu>  seliool. 

Report  of  Physical  Development  of  Children  in  the  Public  Schools  of 
Battle  Creek 

The  following  conclusions  were  secured  by  the  use  of  data  secured 
thru  the  Physical  and  ]\lental  Perfection  Contests. 

The  method  of  measurement  was  tliat  employed  for  the  children  in 
Nebraska  schools.  Shoes,  coats  and  sweaters  were  removed  during  the 
measurements.  Five  of  the  measurements  are  not  affected  at  all  by  re- 
tention of  clothing;  six  are  affected  on  an  average  of  from  one  to  two 
millimetres  or  not  more  than  the  average  error  of  observation ;  girth 
is  affected  on  an  average  of  three  or  four  millimetres :  weight  in- 
creased on  an  average  of  eight  per  cent.  (See  Bowditch's  conclusions 
as  to  Boston  children  in  "Growth  of  Children,"  "Papers  on  Anthro- 
pometry.") 

The  measurements  were  taken  under  the  direction  of  Wm.  AV. 
Hastings,  Ph.D..  Dean  of  the  Normal  School  of  Physical  Education, 
Battle  Creek,  by  a  corps  of  the  faculty  and  students  from  this  institu- 
tion; eight  observers  and  eight  recorders  for  each  room,  an  observer 
and  a  recorder  for  each  piece  of  apparatus  being  used. 

TIIE  TOTALS  OF  CHILDREN  MEASURED  AT  DIFFERENT  AGES  ARE  AS  FOLLOWS  : 


i.(/e 

Boys 

Girls 

Age 

Boys                Girls 

6 

122 

123 

15 

107                   112 

7 

133 

134 

16 

79                       55 

8 

182 

192 

17 

37                       25 

9 

167 

194 

18 

20                       18 

10 

207 

188 

19 

13                         3 

11 

201 

231 

20 

4                         4 

12 

173 

194 

13 

138 

180 

Boy 

s       1,724     Girls   1,813 

14 

141 

160 

Total  Xu 

mber  of  Children,  3,537 

The  development  of  Battle  Creek  children  compares  very  favor- 
ably with  that  of  children  from  Boston,  St.  Louis.  Toronto  and 
Nebraska.  They  are  in  the  main  superior  in  all  qualities  except  chest 
expansion.  A  comparison  of  Battle  Creek  standards  with  those  of 
Nebraska  in  the  following  table  indicates  a  marked  superiority  over 
Nebraska  children  in  everything  but  chest  expansion.  (Ages  six  and 
seven  girls,  and  age  six  boys,  are  an  exception  to  this  statement.) 
No  importance  should  be  attached  to  differences  observable  in  ages  16 
to  20  for  the  reason  that  the  data  is  not  sufficient  to  warrant  the  ac- 
curacy of  the  Battle  Creek  types  for  these  ages. 

The  table  on  the  following  page  presents  the  type  (50^  grade)  of 
each  measurement  for  each  age  and  sex  from  six  to  eighteen  years  for 
girls,  and  six  to  nineteen  years  for  boys,  together  with  corresponding- 
types  from  Nebraska  calculated  in  the  same  Avay  for  the  respective  ages. 


I  br  hli  nurol 


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PHYSICAL  AND  MENTAL  PERFECTION  CONTESTS 


617 


If  called  upon  to  account  for  the  deficiency  of  Battle  Creek  chil- 
dren in  chest  expansion,  we  would  first  call  attention  to  the  fact  that 
Battle  Creek  children  are  invariably  larger  in  breadth  of  chest  and 
depth  of  chest  and  prevailingly  larger  in  height  sitting.  Battle  Creek 
children  are  also  larger  in  lung  capacity  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  they 
are  deficient  in  chest  expansion.  This  indicates  a  great  lack  of  flexi- 
bility of  the  thorax. 

This  difference  may  be  attributed  to  lack  of  muscular  exercise  and 
to  climatic  conditions.  It  is  already  known  thru  investigations  by  life 
insurance  companies  and  thru  Hastings'  data  on  phenomenal  develop- 
ment in  flexibility  of  thorax  by  boys  (see  pp.  4  and  5  of  ]\Ianual  for 
Physical  Measurements,  Hastings)  that  the  climate  of  Nebraska  tends 
to  develop  a  more  rapid  heart  rate  and  deeper  and  more  rapid  respira- 
tions. The  dry,  electric  condition  of  the  Nebraska  atmosphere  is  to 
be  contrasted  with  the  humidity  of  the  Ijower  Peninsula,  lying  be- 
tween the  lakes. 

The  recent  introduction  of  systematic  physical  education  into 
Battle  Creek  schools  will  doubtless  tend  to  correct  this  lack  of  flexi- 
bility. 

BATTLE  CREEK  SCHOOL  CHILDREN — DEFICIENT  IN  HEIGHT 
OR  RESPIRATORY  MEASUREMENTS 


Age 

e 

7 

^ 

9 

10 

Sex 

B 

G 

B 

G 

B 

G 

B 

G 

B 

G 

Deviation 
*No.  Def. 

-D  -2D 

-I)  -2D 

-D  -2D 

-D  -2D 

-D  .2D 

-I)  2D 

-D  -2D 

-D  -21 > 

-D  -2D 

-D  -2D 
18 

Height 

0 

6 

13 

6 

15 

12 

10 

20 

10 

18 

fL.  C. 

4   5 

4   2 

11   2 

10   2 

11 

18   3 

7  10 

14   5 

13   7 

7 

Ch.  Exp. 

15 

4   2 

15 

15 

27  11 

30   4 

42  56 

53  34 

23  30 

18  15 

Bd.  Ch. 

6 

2 

2 

1 

6 

1 

2 

2 

2 

Dp.  Ch. 

1 

2 

2   2 

Def.  for  Age 

20 

11 

20 

24 

46 

45 

130 

128 

64 

45 

Normal 

65 

51 

97 

39 

129 

154 

139 

148 

152 

139 

Age 

Sex 

Deviation 

*No.     Def. 
Height 

fL.   C. 

Ch.  Exp. 

Bd.  Ch. 

Dp.  Ch. 

Def.  for  Age 

Normal 


1 

B 

-D  -2D 

6 

11 

36  37 

1   1 

1 

75 

136 

G 
-D  -2D 

11 

11      4 
37   47 
1 

93 
135 


11    23 
52    33 

2      1 

1 

140 

113 


G 
-D  -2D 


3 

97 
118 


4  9 

36  32 

2  1 
6 


G 
-D  -2D 


10 
8      4 


1      2 

1 


G 

■D  -2D 


1 
20    10 

1 
22    10 

48 
62 


G 
D  -2D 


14      2 

5 


61; 


FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTEKMENT 


Age 

Hi 

17 

18 

19 

Total 

Sex 

B 

G 

B 

G 

B 

(t 

B 

G 

B            G 

Devintion 

-D  -2D 

-I)  -2D 

-D  -21) 

II  -21) 

.1.  -21> 

-1)    21) 

-I)  -2It 

-D  -211 

-D  -21 »    -D  -2D 

*No.     Pef. 

Height 

1 

7 

3 

2 

tL.   C. 

.S      4 

3 

2      1 

1 

1 

1       1 

2 

Ch.  Exp. 

8      3 

3 

2 

1 

3 

1 

Bd.  Ch. 

1 

1 

1 

2 

1 

Dp.  Oh. 

3      1 

1 

1 

Def.  for  Age 

19 

14 

10 

10 

2 

6 

7 

1401 

Normal 

37 

32 

18 

13 

8 

11 

6 

2240 

*Xumlier  Deficient,  Classified  according  to  individual  measurements.     No.  Def.,  above. 

fAbbreviations  for  Lung  Capacity  (L.  C),  Chest  Expansion  (Ch.  Exp.),  Breadth  of 
Chest  (Bd.  Ch.),  Depth  of  Chest  (Dp.  Ch.),  Total  Deficients  for  age  in  one  or  more  partic- 
ulars   (Def.   for  Age).      "Normal, "   do  not  fall  below  25%    in   any  particular. 

The  foregoing  table  presents  some  of  the  notable  deficiencies  in 
measurements  which  show  development  in  respiratory  functions.  -D 
indicates  below  the  twenty-five  per  cent  for  the  age,  height  and  sex. 
-2D  indicates  a  deviation  two  or  more  times  that  of  the  twenty-five 
per  cent  below  the  mean  value.  "Deficient  for  the  age"  indicates  the 
number  who  are  deficient  (below  the  25%  grade)  in  any  respiratory 
measurement.  Especially  significant  are  the  large  number  deficient  in 
chest  expansion. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  the  degree  of  conformity  of  Battle  Creek 
children  to  "Bowditch's  law"  of  comparative  acceleration  of  growth 
in  boys  and  girls.  As  in  Nebraska,  the  girls  begin  to  excel  boys  in 
height  and  weight  at  an  earlier  date  than  in  Boston. 


Lge  Height 

Q  S  124.07   Boys 

°  1  122.18   Girls 

„  f  128.00   B 

^  1  128.62   G 

in  S  131.80   B 

^"  1  132.1.5    G 

n  f  136.06   B 

^^  \  137.70  'G 

.„  f  142.10   V. 

^■^  I  144.33    G 

f  146,77   R 

■^^  (  151.30   G 

,  .  f  153.14   B 

^*  I  155.40    G 

,^  f  158.70   B 

^°  I  156.70    G 


Age  Weight 

„   J  28.40   B 

^"   I  28.13   G 

f  30.77    B 

^^   1  31.98   G 


34.20   B 
35.72   G 


3,S.25    B 
41.75    G 


.83    B 
.50    G 


Until  the  age  of  nine,  boys  are  above  girls  in  height  and  weight : 
at  nine  and  ten  are  slightly  under  in  height;    at  ten  slightlv  under 


resarded^M  U 


be  reg^&d  as  ihe  10  per  cent  line. 


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PHYSICAL  AND  MENTAL  PERFECTION  CONTESTS  619 

in  weight ;  at  eleven  materially  lower  in  height  and  weight ;  at  four- 
teen boys  are  slightly  heavier  than  girls ;  at  fifteen  taller  than  girls. 
In  other  words,  the  pubertal  acceleration  of  growth  occurs  about  three 
years  earlier  in  girls  than  in  boys. 

Further  study  of  Battle  Creek  children  will  doubtless  reveal  even 
more  valuable  information.  It  is  planned  by  Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg  to 
give  prizes  this  coming  year  for  the  greatest  improvement  attained  dur- 
ing the  past  year.  This  is  Race  Betterment  in  a  practical  form  and 
worthy  of  imitation  in  other  cities. 


AWARD    OF    PRIZES 

Hox.  John  W.  BahjEY,  LL.B.,  Mayor  of  Battle  Creek,  IVIichig-an. 

I  have  the  extreme  honor,  for  the  second  time  today,  to  come  before 
you  for  the  purpose  of  presenting,  or  rather  being  the  mere  instrument 
of  the  presentation,  to  these  young  ladies  and  gentlemen,  the  medals 
which  have  been  awarded  to  them  by  this  Conference  because  of  the 
fact  that  they  are  more  perfect  physically  and  have  stood  a  higher 
test  mentally  than  any  of  their  fellow-students  and  fellow-boys  and 
girls.  It  is  indeed  a  great  pleasure  to  me  to  do  this  and  I  congratulate 
these  young  boys  and  girls  upon  the  fact  not  only  that  they  are  well 
bom,  but  upon  the  further  fact  that  they  have  had  the  energy  to 
do  their  work  well  and  according  to  directions  in  school.  It  is  an 
inspiration  to  them  which  will  follow  them,  I  am  certain,  during  all  of 
their  lives.  They  have  been  able  out  of  the  many  hundreds  who  have 
been  tested  to  stand  both  the  best  physical  and  the  best  mental  tests, 
and  if  I  speak  not  incorrectly,  that  is  also  an  indication  of  the  fact 
that  their  moral  test  is  quite  as  high. 

Before  giving  the  medals  to  these  young  boys  and  girls,  I  wish  for 
just  one  moment  to  diverge  from  the  task  which  has  been  allotted  to  me, 
because  I  think  it  is  entirely  fitting  at  this  time,  on  behalf  of  the 
citizens  of  Battle  Creek  who  for  the  last  week  have  been  treated  to  this 
great  Conference  and  to  the  best  thought  and  the  best  opinion  and 
knowledge  of  these  great  men  and  women  who  have  been  giving  these 
special  studies  their  particular  attention,  to  express  gratitude.  It  has 
been  a  treat  to  our  people  and  we  shall  receive  more  and  more  benefit 
from  it  in  the  future.  We  are  also  under  many  obligations  to  our  great 
Sanitarium,  of  which  we  are  all  proud,  and  to  its  great  leader.  Doctor 
Kellogg,  to  whom  more  than  any  other  and  perhaps  all  others  is  due 
the  fact  that  the  eyes  of  the  world  have  been  upon  Battle  Creek  during 
the  past  Aveek  Avatehiug  the  proceedings  of  this  Conference,  hearino- 


620  FIRST    N.VTU)N.VL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

what  thesi'  men  ami  women  have  given  you  personally.  We  have,  I 
hope,  been  beneHting  thereby.  As  one  of  the  citizens  of  Battle  Creek, 
and  I  am  sure  that  I  speak  for  all  of  you,  I  hope  that  Doctor  Kellogg 's 
desire  that  this  may  be  the  beginning  of  a  series  of  Conferences  in 
which  all  matters  which  tend  to  Race  Betterment  shall  be  considered 
will  be  fulfilled,  and  that  these  Conferences  may  be  held  yearly  or 
oftener  and  that  Battle  Creek  maj^  continue  always  to  be  the  place 
where  they  shall  be  held.  It  has  been  a  great  treat  to  our  citizens  and 
we  are  deeply  indebted  to  all  of  these  ladies  and  gentlemen  who  have 
come  here,  leaving  their  homes  and  their  occupations  in  order  to  give 
of  their  experience  and  their  life's  work  that  we  may  be  better.  I  am 
sure  that  all  of  us  who  have  had  the  opportunity  and  have  spent  the 
time  to  listen  to  these  valuable  papers  are  benefited  and  will  be  in  the 
future. 

I  understand  that  through  the  generosity  of  this  Conference  and  of 
Doctor  Kellogg  these  young  ladies  and  gentlemen  [prize  winners] 
are  to  be  given  some  medals,  something  which  they  may  keep  through 
their  lives  as  an  indication  that,  in  this,  possibly  their  first,  contest, 
they  have  come  out  with  colors  flying.  I  sincerely  hope  that  in  all 
your  future  contests  you  will  do  as  well,  that  you  will  always,  as  I  am 
sure  you  will,  give  a  splendid  account  of  yourself  and,  in  doing  that, 
give  a  splendid  account  of  your  fathers,  mothers  and  grandfathers  and 
those  who  have  gone  before  you.  Their  names  will  be  printed  and 
announced  so  you  will  know  who  they  are. 


II.     BETTER   BABIES    CONTEST 

Dr.  Walter  F.  Martin,  Battle  Creek  Sanitarium,  Battle  Creek,  Miehigan. 

It  is  with  pleasure  that  we  bring  before  you  the  report  of  the  com- 
mittee of  judges.  The  duties  of  this  committee  have  been  both  pleas- 
ant and  trying.  If  you  can  imagine  five  hundred  babies,  every  one 
the  ''best  baby  in  the  land;"  some  cooing,  some  laughing,  some  wig- 
gling, others  crying  and  resenting  every  attempt  of  the  physician  to 
make  the  necessary  examination,  then  you  can  have  some  idea  of  our 
task. 

Some  of  these  babies  were  very  diplomatic  and  would  look  up  at 
the  .judges  with  a  twinkle  in  their  eyes  and  a  smile  on  their  face, 
attempting,  as  it  were,  to  influence  or  impress  the  .judges  favorably. 
Others  appeared  to  express  their  feelings  of  having  their  personal 
liberties  interfered  with,  and  were  not  inclined  to  use  any  winsome 


5-5 


§  3 
s-  o 


PHYSICAL  AND  IMENTAI,  PERFECTION  CONTESTS  621 

ways  to  attract  favors — no  doubt  they  felt  their  physical  scoring  was 
able  to  stand  on  their  own  merits. 

The  members  of  this  committee  have  worked  faithfull5^  Every 
baby  has  been  examined  from  head  to  foot.  A  score  card  indicating 
the  different  measurements  and  examinations  to  be  made  has  been 
followed  in  each  case.  By  referring  to  your  score  card  you  will  note 
that  a  certain  per  cent  is  deducted  for  each  deviation  from  the  normal, 
and  that  the  child's  final  score  is  the  result  of  the  sum  of  these  taken 
from  one  hundred  per  cent.  All  babies  scoring  ninety-five  per  cent 
or  above  at  the  first  ^examination  were  called  back  for  a  re-examina- 
tion and  a  more  careful  search  was  made.  By  this  means  the  most 
perfect  babies  were  found,  the  final  selection  being  made  from  the 
score  card  by  choosing  the  baby  with  the  highest  per  cent  of  develop- 
ment. You  will  note  that  the  most  perfect  baby  and  not  the  most, 
beautiful  baby  is  selected.  The  possession  or  lack  of  beauty  does  not 
score  either  for  or  against  the  child.  Your  baby  may  be  more 
beautiful  and  have  a  better  disposition  than  the  prize  winner,  but  it 
may  be  behind  in  its  teething,  delayed  in  closure  of  fontanels  or  have 
some  other  deviation  from  normal  development  which  would  score  it 
down. 

The  committee  cannot  feel  sure  that  the  babies  presented  here  to- 
night are  the  very  best  in  the  city,  but  we  have  the  self-consciousness 
of  having  done  our  work  as  faithfully  as  Ave  could  and  that  those  which 
have  been  selected  were  chosen  on  their  merits  alone  without  any  feel- 
ing of  partiality  toward  any.  We  fear  that  some  may  feel  disappointed 
that  their  babies  did  not  get  the  prize,  and  Avish  to  offer  for  your  con- 
solation this  thought,  that  "he  who  wins  the  first  round  does  not  al- 
ways come  out  ahead  on  the  home  run."  Did  you  ever  notice  that  the 
semi-invalid  usually  lives  to  an  old  age,  and  that  often  the  strong  and 
rugged  is  stricken  off  early  in  life?  The  reason  for  that  is  this:  The 
semi-invalid  recognizes  his  Aveakness  and  is  continually  on  the  lookout 
to  spare  himself,  to  avoid  exposure,  and  dangerous  environments,  and 
thus  saA'cs  himself  serious  illnesses,  whereas  the  strong  man.  proud  of 
his  strength,  spends  it  in  a  reckless  way.  All  is  at  peace  Avith  him  and 
he  does  not  feel  the  need  of  conserving  his  forces  for  a  physical  conflict 
in  which  he  may  soon  be  invoh^ed. 

In  my  opinion  those  Avho  feel  that  they  have  lost  in  this  contest 
can  be  the  Avinners  in  the  final  contest  of  life.  By  studying  the  score 
card  which  Avill  be  sent  you  you  can  learn  Avherein  your  child  is  de- 
ficient, and  thus  by  applying  suitable  measures  for  relief  increase  the 
child's  dcA'elopment  and  Avelfare.  This  Avill  be  a  decided  benefit 
to  the  child;   Avhereas  those  Avho  Avnn  in  this  contest  will  be  quite  apt 


622  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

to  rest  on  their  laurels,  and  such  a  policy  always  leads  downward.  We 
hope  this  will  not  be  so  in  either  case.  We  hope  that  this  contest 
has  stirred  in  the  hearts  of  every  participating  parent  a  desire  to 
strive  to  make  his  child  better  by  learning  the  simple  rules  and  sug- 
gestions for  the  child 's  betterment  which  will  be  mailed  you  v^^ith  your 
baby's  score  card,  and  seeing  to  it  that  they  are  applied  to  your  child's 
welfare.  Strive  to  improve  your  child's  physical  condition  so  that  it 
may  be  the  Avinner  next  year. 

It  has  been  a  pleasing  experience  to  the  members  of  this  committee 
to  note  this  desire  manifest  in  the  mothers  in  this  city.  Many  of  them 
said,  "I  did  not  bring  my  baby  because  I  expected  him  to  win  a  prize, 
but  to  learn  if  there  is  anything  wrong  and  what  I  can  do  to  aid  his 
development."  This  is  the  true  spirit  of  Motherhood  and  if  every 
mother  can  see  this  phase,  then  there  need  be  no  disappointment. 

Another  pleasing  experience  of  this  committee  has  been  to  notice 
the  high  class  of  babies  presented  in  this  contest.  W"e  cannot  imagine 
where  a  better  lot  of  babies  could  be  found.  Battle  Creek  will  cer- 
tainh^  be  bettered  in  the  next  generation  by  the  painstaking  work  of 
the  mothers  here  today  in  their  efforts  to  raise  these  fine  babies. 

In  behalf  of  the  following  members  of  this  committee,  who  gave 
liberally  of  their  time  and  worked  faithfully  at  this  task,  Doctor  Allen, 
Doctor  Kimball,  Doctor  Holes,  Doctor  Powers,  Doctor  Eaton,  Doctor 
Putman,  Doctor  Hoyt,  Doctor  Moshier,  Doctor  Stoner,  Doctor  Hubly, 
Doctor  Dryden,  Doctor  Vandervoort-Stegman,  Doctor  Roth  and  Doctor 
Colver,  I  take  great  pleasure  in  presenting  to  you  the  six  first  prize 
winners : 

Virginia  June  Nay  Phillip  0  'Toole 

Alvin  Kingsley  Charlotte  Sherwin 

Florence  Judd  George  Wentworth 

In  addition  to  these  six  prize  winners  there  are  certain  ones  who 
received  special  mention.  The  Woman's  Home  Compmiion  issues 
certificates  for  names  in  this  Special  Mention  class. 

Six   vinnths    old    are, —  TifO  years  old  are — 
Lora   Mae    Smith.  Benlah   Edgell. 

Georgft   Andrew   Robertson.  Katherine   Schram. 

Wendell  Frederickson.  Robert  Staid. 

One  year  old  are —  Three  years  old  are — 

Freda   Freeman.  Margaret  .Tacobsen. 

Robert   Mortensen.  John  Bailey  Breece. 

Donald  Hayes.  Patience  Sutton. 

Virginia  Belle  Todd.  Frederick  William  Wildenbevg. 

Deward   Clark.  William    Edward   Marsh. 
Four  years  old  are — 

Marion  McConnell. 


Phillip   OToole 


PHYSICAL  AND  MENTAL  PERFECTION  CONTESTS 


623 


PRIZE   WINNERS 
Six   Months   to   Three   Years    Old 


Girl 
6  mo.    Virginia   June  Nay, 
108  Ann   Ave., 
Battle   Creek,    Mich. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  S.  R.  Nay. 


Bov 

35  mo.     Alvin    Kingsley, 

261  Champion  St., 
Battle  Creek,  Mich. 
Mr.   and  Mrs.  Albert  Kingsley. 


Three   Years  to    Five   Years    Old 
Girl  Boy 

43  mo.    Florence   .Tudd,  44  mo.    Phillip   O'Toole, 

179  Oak  Lawn  Ave.,  84  Wefit  St., 

Battle   Creek,   Mich.  Battle   Creek,    Mich. 

Mr.   and  Mrs.   Geo.   Edward  Judd.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Robert  O'Toole. 


Girl 

48  mo.    Charlotte    Sherwin, 
Battle   Creek,    Mich. 
Mr.   and  Mrs.   Frank   Sherwin. 


Four  Years   Old 


Bou 

45  mo.    George   Wentworth, 
Oaklawn   Ave., 
Battle   Creek,    Mich. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  M.  W 


CERTIFICATE    WINNERS 
Si.x  Months  Old 


Girl 
11  mo.    Lora   Mae  Smith. 

N.  Washington  Ave., 
Battle  Creek,  Mich. 
Mr.   and  Mrs.  Jessa   Smith. 


George   Andrew   Robertson, 
247  E.  Van  Buren  St., 
Battle   Creek,    Mich. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  William  Robertson. 


Boy 

.Tohn    Bailev  Breeee, 
251  Grove  St., 
Battle   Creek,    Mich. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Wm.  Breeee. 

Boy 

Wendell  Frederickson, 

Battle   Creek,    Mich. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Tom  Frederick.son. 


Girl 

Katherine    Schram, 
188  Manchester   St., 
Battle   Creek,   Mich. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ed.  Schram. 

Three  Years  Old 
Girl 
Patience  Sutton, 
33  Broad  St., 
Battle   Creek,   Mich. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  V.  D.   Sutton. 


Girl 

Marion   McConnell, 
20  Rowland  St.. 
Battle  Creek,    Mich. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  McConnell. 


Four  Years  Old 


Boy 

Robert  Mortenson, 
Manchester   St., 
Battle  Creek,  Mich. 


Boy 

William  Edward  Marsh, 

71  N.  Wood  St., 

Battle  Creek,    Mich. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  William  E.  Marsh. 


One  Year  Old 


Girl 
12  mo.    Freda   Freeman, 
100  Bennett  St.. 
Battle   Creek,    Mich. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Fred  Freeman. 


Boy 

Frederick   William    Wildenherg, 
Battle   Creek,    Mich. 


Boy 
Donald    Hayes, 
84  Rumely  Ave., 
Battle   Creek,    Mich. 
Mr.   and  Mrs.  Willis  Hayes. 


Girl 
19  mo.    Virginia  Belle  Todd, 
26  Greenwood  Ave., 
Battle  Creek,   Mich. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Henrv  Todd. 


Eighteen  Months  Old 


Boy 
Deward  Clark, 
124    Bennett    St., 
Battle  Creek,   Mich. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  D.  L.  Clark. 


624  FIRST    NATIONAL    CONFERENCE    ON    RACE    BETTERMENT 

Two  Years  Old 
Girl  Hoy 

30  mo.     Beulnh    Edgell,  ;!2  mo.     Robert    Stiiid, 

167  Nelson   St.,  90  Nichols  St., 

Battle  Creek.    Mich.  Buttle   Creek,    Mich. 

Mr.    nnd    Mr.s.    Donnld    Edgell.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Alfred  F.  Staid. 

Three  Years  Old 
Girl 
38  mo.    Margarete  Jaeobsen, 
210   Hubbard    St., 
Battle   Creek,    Mich. 
Mr.   and  Mrs.   Fred.  Jaeobsen. 


AWARD  OF  PRIZES 

Hon.  John  W.  Bailey. 

It  is  indeed  a  pleasure  for  me  to  have  the  honor  and  opportunity  of 
handing  to  these  infants  the  prizes  which  indicate  that  they,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  judges,  are  the  best  baby  boys  and  baby  girls  of  the 
six  hundred  who  went  to  the  Sanitarium  Annex  to  be  examined. 
There  is  nothing  which  has  occurred  during  this  Conference 
which  has  attracted  more  attention  and  in  which  more  interest 
has  been  taken,  "especially  by  fathers  and  mothers,  brothers  and 
sisters,  than  in  this  baby  contest.  Every  mother  and  father 
here  and  in  the  city  have  felt  in  their  own  hearts  that  they 
really  had  the  best  little  girl  and  the  best  little  b  in  the  whole  city. 
All  of  those  Avho  went  up  to  the  Sanitarium  t ,  oe  examined  felt  that 
they  were  going  there  with  really  the  best  boy  or  the  best  girl,  even 
if  it  didn't  stand  the  best  physical  examination.  I  have  myself  ex- 
pressed some  interest  in  that  contest.  I  really  felt  sorry  for  five  or 
six  hundred  mothers  and  fathers  who  were  bringing  their  little  boys  to 
the  Sanitarium  to  be  examined,  because  I  did  not  think  any  of  them 
had  a  ghost  of  a  show.  I  thought  there  was  one  boy  going  up  there 
that  was  especially  ahead  of  all  the  others,  and  there  wouldn  't  be  any 
use  of  going  through  the  performance  of  an  examination.  I  cannot  yet 
understand  how  the  judges  arrived  at  the  conclusion  they  did,  unless 
they  took  into  account  disposition.  My  little  boy  has  the  best  dispo- 
sition of  any  boy  in  town — he  takes  after  his  mother.  As  Doctor 
Martin  has  well  said,  it  is  not  these  six  beautiful  boys  and 
girls  who  are  so  much  benefited,  as  perhaps  these  oth»r  five  or  six 
hundred,  who  have  been  measured  and  in  a  measure  found  wanting. 
Their  parents  will  certainly  take  advantage  of  the  information  which 
their  score  cards  will  contain.  They  will  spend  some  time  in  the 
future  in  attempting  to  correct  those  defective  matters  which  are  in- 
dicated on  those  cards.  I  feel  certain  that  the  great  good  which  mil 
come  to  the  fathers  and  mothers  and  the  citizens  of  Battle  Creek  from 
this  Conference  will  be  the  fact  that  manv  of  them  learned  that  their 


PPIYSICAL  AND  MENTAL  PERFECTION  CONTESTS  625 

little  boys  and  their  little  girls  need  some  special  attention  along  some 
special  line  in  order  that  in  the  future  they  may  grow  up  to  be  prize- 
winning  boys  and  girls.  There  is  nothing  which  any  community  can 
well  be  so  proud  of  as  its  boys  and  its  girls.  There  is  nothing  which 
any  community  should  spend  willingly  so  much  time  in  looking  after  as 
the  physical,  moral  and  mental  welfare  of  its  boys  and  girls,  for 
we  cannot  very  well  determine  who  our  grandfathers  should  have  been. 
We  cannot  very  well,  most  of  us,  change  our  present  conditions,  either 
physically  or  mentally,  although  we  may  somewhat,  in  a  measure, 
morally.  But  this  much  is  true,  that  each  father  and  mother  in  Battle 
Creek  can  do  very  much  to  improve  the  condition  of  their  children, 
so  that  when  a  child  grows  to  be  a  3"oung  man  or  a  young  woman,  it 
will  have,  as  near  as  may  be,  a  perfect  body,  a  well-trained  mind,  and 
morals  of  the  highest.  I  think  these  mothers  can  very  well  be  proud 
indeed,  that  out  of  six  hundred  of  the  best  babies  in  Battle  Creek, 
which  means  six  hundred  of  the  best  babies  on  earth,  their  babies' 
should  have  come  out  Avith  the  highest  score,  indicating  that,  physi- 
cally, they  are  the  best.  It  is  indeed  a  proud  moment  for  these  mothers, 
for  they  appreciate  it  very  much  more  than  do  the  little  boys  and 
girls,  that  they  can  come  here  to  this  splendid  audience  and  receive 
this  signal  token  o^  success.  It  means  not  only  that  the  little  boy  and 
girl  is  a  good,  stro^*^'^  healthy  boy  and  girl,  but  it  means  something  to 
themselves,  something  'to  their  fathers  and  mothers,  their  grandfathers 
and  their  grandmothers,  in  order  that  they  may  be  able  to  bring  here 
today  these  perfect  specimens  of  mankind,  boyhood  and  girlhood. 

The  Woman's  Home  Companion  has  very  fittingly  donated  prizes 
for  these  little  ones  from  six  months  to  three  years  of  age,  and  this 
Conference  on  Eace  Betterment  has  also  furnished  prizes  for  the 
same  ages,  and  in  addition  for  three  years  to  five  years  of 
age.  I  take  great  pleasure  now,  as  those  little  tokens  of  success,  of 
what  can  be  done,  are  handed  to  these  little  boys  and  girls.  I  hope, 
and  sincerely  believe,  that  it  will  not  be  your  last  prize,  but  that  you 
will  continue  in  the  future  to  be  leaders  among  boys  and  girls,  and 
later,  to  be  leaders  among  men  and  women. 


^DO 


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